12 ppb nitrate Acceptable?

[musel101]

Is 12 ppb nitrate too low or too high for a reef tank? And yes parts per billion

 

[DaJMasta]

Too low. Normal levels are a few ppm (1000x), even ULN systems probably think 0.01ppm is too low, but most modern recommendations for normal tanks and normal applications want it to be detectable on the ppm scale but not much more than 10ppm. That doesn't mean you can't run a tank with much more or much less, but if you're asking if a few ppb is a problem, you are certainly not actively trying to run your tank on one of those less standard ways.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How did you measure 12 ppb?

 

[musel101]

How did you measure 12 ppb?

The Hanna ultra low Nitrite
I tested my phosphates with a Hanna it was 0.04

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Hanna ultra low Nitrite
I tested my phosphates with a Hanna it was 0.04

Nitrite or nitrate?

 

[musel101]

Nitrite or nitrate?

Sorry nitrite

 

[musel101]

Nitrite or nitrate?

I don’t run Any kind Of mechanical filtration I have 4 clams doing The filtration for me

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sorry nitrite

It doesn’t much matter what nitrite is. 10 ppb and 10 ppm are both fine, although the latter is never going to happen in an established tank.