nitrates around 20ppm is this bad or exceptable?

[Jonathan G.]

i test for nitrates about everyday and usually get a reading of around 20ppm i am about due for a water change but i only have 2 baby o clowns that are picky eaters a LMB and a newly added 6 line wrasse that isnt doing to good also have a feather duster and a handful of hermits and snails oh and a red mythrax and emerald mythrax crab. i feed the fish prime reef frozen food and only about a 1/4 of a cube a day and sometimes give them brine shrimp, use to give them about 1/2 a cube but noticed how picky of eaters the clowns where and they always left a lot of food floating. so should i feed them once every other day or keep feeding them what i am now but get more hermits?

 

[fishfreek]

20ppm of nitrate isnt that big of a deal for a fish only tank. For a tank with corals and other inverts I would try to keep it lower than that.

 

[electrikat]

I just looked at the compatibility chart on the home page. It says that clowns and wrasses are both carnivores and not herbivores. The food that you are feeding them, is it one of the ones that has both meaty and greeny foods? Like for the whole reef? They are probably picky eaters because half of their food supply is not to their liking. In fact I don't see anything in your list that is an herbivore except the snails and they eat the algae from your tank not from the food. I don't know what a LMB is and this may be your herbivore, but if not, maybe you need to switch to a meaty food only. It will cut back on waste and your clowns and wrasse will love you for it.

 

[malkore]

I see where you are coming from Kat...but my clowns LOVE Formula 2, which is their herbivore formula. But I've found fish are as picky about food as humans, so your point is quite valid.

What I will say is that brine shrimp is a poor choice of food. It has very little nutritional value. I'd suggest going with mysis shrimp...or ocean krill. Mysis would be better, and will fatten all your fish up. Krill I simply use for a chance of pace.

 

[Phyl]

I'm pretty sure that Prime Reef isn't an herbivore formula, specifically. It is more red not green (Formula 2 is the herbivore formula and is very green). My tank devours an entire cube of Prime Reef in the blink of an eye with my maroon clown heading up the pack! Of course these fish also do a number on the F2. Make sure that you're smushing the food up good for the tiny mouths. I try to make sure that I leave a variety of sizes in the food when I mush it but I have some big fish and some smaller ones.

If your fish are being fussy about what they eat try adding garlic to the food before feeding it to them. They might respond better to that.

My corals were definitely affected by the high nitrates in my tank. One of my Xenia melted down and my Kenya tree didn't like it either. It wouldn't come out but recovered nicely once I got the trates down. My 2 skunk cleaners have disappeared too. I think it was the trates that did them in. The fish didn't miss a beat.

 

[Jonathan G.]

so what should i strive for as far as nitrates? what is an acceptable amount of ppm?

 

[Jonathan G.]

for inverts like cleaner shrimp, mushrooms, zoos, and like clams? also a LMB is short for lawn mower blenny.

 

[Jonathan G.]

also acclimating a rainford goby right now

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

I would try to keep it as close to 0PPM as possible, but not higher than 10PPM.

 

[GuamSalt]

Amount of Nitrates.

The F&S catalog shows a product called Nitrex. It's supposed to help reduce nitrates. It also comes with a "nitrex box." Has anyone tried using the product? Does it substantively reduce nitrates?

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

No it the biggest piece of crap. Either you add more live rock in your tank or purchase a Nitrate filter and the only Nitrate filter that works is from a company called Natureef.com. I am selling a used one if you are interested.

 

[Jonathan G.]

im just gonna beef up my tank to 100# of live rock and put LRubble wherever i can like in my penguin 330, take out the baskets, and put as much LRubble underneath the grate that suspends my bio-balls.

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

YEAH, BUT HOW MUCH MORE ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND ON THAT WHEN YOU CAN GET A NITRATE FILTER LIKE I HAVE AN YOU WILL NEVER EVER HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR WATER EVER, EXCEPT REPLACE TRACE ELEMENTS. THE FILTER COST 900 AND I AM SELLING IT FOR 500. I AM SURE 100POUNDS OF LIVE ROCKS COST MORE THAN 500

 

[jeff8183]

I used Nitrex as a media in my secondary filter and it lowered them from about 30 to 10 in about a week or so, i would recommend it

 

[neilster1]

YEAH, BUT HOW MUCH MORE ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND ON THAT WHEN YOU CAN GET A NITRATE FILTER LIKE I HAVE AN YOU WILL NEVER EVER HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR WATER EVER, EXCEPT REPLACE TRACE ELEMENTS. THE FILTER COST 900 AND I AM SELLING IT FOR 500. I AM SURE 100POUNDS OF LIVE ROCKS COST MORE THAN 500

1. Stop yelling, please.
2. PWC's are necessary no matter what kind of filter you are running.. not changing your water is just plain poor husbandry.
3. There's a buy/sell/trade forum here.. find it and don't spam the main forums. Thanks.

 

[jasno999]

I agree