Nitrates

[Madmilkman]

How do I lower nitrates? I do water changes and recheck but they keep reading 60 to 80 ppm. I am 0 on ammonia and nitrates just cant get nitrates to go down. I have a 20 gallon tank with approximately 30 pounds of live rock and 20 pounds of live sand. I run a penguin 350 and a skimmer also.

 

[msumpter87]

Check the nitrates of the water your adding to the tank. Also idk which test your using but I always got false readings on the api saltwater kit.

 

[Madmilkman]

Thats what I used. The api test. I am at lfs and had water tested and its reading about 5 here

 

[tonedogz]

Try Red Sea or salifert their both pretty accurate.Also I don't think I'd trust the lfs's reading either since there is such a vast difference from 80 to 5

 

[VinnyLLU]

How much are you feeding?? I remember when I first started I cut down on feeding to every other day and it solved my nitrate problem.

 

[Madmilkman]

I was feeding a little everyday. I am going to cut back though.

 

[tanker99]

Yeah I had nitrate problems before. I now feed once every other day or so, I got some poly filter and got some Chaeto algae and change my water weekly that dropped in from 80 to about 5. Also what tonedogz said that Red Sea NO3 PO4x work really good for nitrate problems.

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[KeithFrancis]

How do you feed fish that need 3 feedings a day?but also reduce bio load with every other day feedings?