Nitrate Levels & Water Changes

I know its time for a WC because its been 2 or 3 weeks. Instead of asking how often you do a WC, I'd like to know what your Nitrate ppm threshold is, prompting you to perform a WC.

Current tank stats:
pH 8.0
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate ~20 ppm

Thank you

 

Well do you mean like the amount of nitrate i have? I do WC's weekly to keep them at a good level, so there really is no prompt; it's just basically a schedule i follow. if the nitrates are like 30-40 then i do a few small changes over a few days

 

I pretty much stick to a schedule of every 3 weeks, or if my nitrates are above 30ppm, I will perform a small wc.

Sticking to a schedule, I never really have any issue in keeping my tank at a good level though

 

Your nitrate threshold is determined by the animals you have in your tank. FOWLR can bare higher levels <30 whereas SPS tanks have to be <0.5. Keep in mind however the lower your nitrates are the happier your tank inhabitants will be. You'll have fewer losses, less algae and you'll be able to step up to more challenging tank inhabitants. JMHO

 

less then .5 nitrates for SPS? thats insane; they should be able to have at least 2-3 ppm for nitrates, or si I've heard and read.

 

You want to keep nitrates below 5ppm for SPS, although some acros like it less than 2ppm.

I do a water change on a schedule and my nitrates are immeasurable with the test kit I have. I have a large fuge and use GFO.

 

My bad I did mean less than 5ppm.;D

 

Wow you're dedicated when it comes to frequent partial WC's.

My API test kit was reading around What appeared to be 50-60ppm after the alotted mix/wait time, but a few minutes later it was reading more like 20ppm. The darkness on the color scale had me a little scared at first.

 

<2ppm for Acros? LOL, good thing I don't have any...just softies: Button Polyps, Snowflake Polyps, 4 Rics, and a double headed Duncan.

The increments on my, seemingly amateur, "API Saltwater Master Test Kit" are:

0ppm
5ppm
10ppm
20ppm
40ppm
80ppm
160ppm

What are you using to test?

 

What they can stay alive in and what they will thrive in are two different things. Nitrates should and can easily be zero in a SPS dominate tank. Few people that strive for SPS tanks have measurable nitrates.


As was mentioned nitrates depend on what you are keeping. But there are plenty methods for controlling nitrates. Water changes just being one of them. I would not say there is a thresh hold only that you do regular water changes and see how much a change lowers them. If you can't get them down then it is time to look at why they are elevated and what you can do about it. Water changes for nitrate control alone gets to be a real pain.