40ppm nitrate BAD?!?!?

[Aeb1419]

I have a reefer 250 with sump and refugium with a total of 75 gallons. Chaeto is growing like crazy and I cant seem to get my nitrates in control. Phosphate is at 0.0 but I assume coral and chaeto is sucking up all the phosphate. Keep in mind I dont have a skimmer. Should I be worried?

Corals look like they are thriving. I do have a skimmer to start running but was trying to avoid it. Tank is 3 months old now. Could it just be the fact its still trying to get stable?

 

[Pickle_soup]

It's not good. But, we got to see what the problem is first. What do you have in the tank? How much do you feed, and what are your water change routines? Also, do you have any dead spots in the tank where detritus accumulates? Can you post a pic?

 

[Garf]

I have a reefer 250 with sump and refugium with a total of 75 gallons. Chaeto is growing like crazy and I cant seem to get my nitrates in control. Phosphate is at 0.0 but I assume coral and chaeto is sucking up all the phosphate. Keep in mind I dont have a skimmer. Should I be worried?

Corals look like they are thriving. I do have a skimmer to start running but was trying to avoid it. Tank is 3 months old now. Could it just be the fact its still trying to get stable?

40 nitrates doesn’t bother me, zero phosphates is a bit shaky though.

 

[Spare time]

Not ideal. Maybe not bad. I would consider feeding something phosphate heavy or dosing phosphates to let the chaeto drop the nitrate if you want it to continue dropping.

 

[Aeb1419]

I do have some dead spots and my new pumps just came in so will do a water change tomorrow and install pumps. that may help.

Please keep in mind after my tank finished cycling it was at 35ppm nitrate and 0.05 phosphate consistently. With 4 fish total and feeding im assuming it caused it to get to 40ppm. Phostphate went to 0.0. Again everything has been fine. Im gonna keep good watch but Im not sure about dosing phsophate just yet. I feel like the tank is still maturinng and dont want to start adding in chemicals.

 

[Aeb1419]

Pic

 

[Aeb1419]

Forgot to mention I do biweekly water changes, 20%

 

[gbroadbridge]

I have a reefer 250 with sump and refugium with a total of 75 gallons. Chaeto is growing like crazy and I cant seem to get my nitrates in control. Phosphate is at 0.0 but I assume coral and chaeto is sucking up all the phosphate. Keep in mind I dont have a skimmer. Should I be worried?

Corals look like they are thriving. I do have a skimmer to start running but was trying to avoid it. Tank is 3 months old now. Could it just be the fact its still trying to get stable?

If the tank looks fine, than I wouldn't worry about 40 Nitrates.

It's getting a little high for Urchins and Anemones, so if you have those you should bring them down with a couple of water changes.

 

[sheel be right]

i would not worry too much about 40 ppm nitrates, im keeping acros at about 30ish ppm nitrate rn, just dont bottom out and dont do drastic water changes.

your tanks still new so just wait for it to stabilize

might aswell add your skimmer too man, i always feed heavy and skim heavy and often my nutrients tend to almost get too low.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I have a reefer 250 with sump and refugium with a total of 75 gallons. Chaeto is growing like crazy and I cant seem to get my nitrates in control. Phosphate is at 0.0 but I assume coral and chaeto is sucking up all the phosphate. Keep in mind I dont have a skimmer. Should I be worried?

Corals look like they are thriving. I do have a skimmer to start running but was trying to avoid it. Tank is 3 months old now. Could it just be the fact its still trying to get stable?

Not bad at all. A 3 month old tank is often very unstable. Once you get through the algae cycle (aka the uglies), your nitrate and phosphate tests should more accurately represent what's going on in in your tank.

Fwiw, I'd run the skimmer regardless... If you are worried about over skimming, you can remove the cup.

 

[wculver]

I have a reefer 250 with sump and refugium with a total of 75 gallons. Chaeto is growing like crazy and I cant seem to get my nitrates in control. Phosphate is at 0.0 but I assume coral and chaeto is sucking up all the phosphate. Keep in mind I dont have a skimmer. Should I be worried?

Corals look like they are thriving. I do have a skimmer to start running but was trying to avoid it. Tank is 3 months old now. Could it just be the fact its still trying to get stable?

The nitrates being that high is not great and needs to come down. Even the coral that currently seems okay will have issues with that level eventually.

On the subject of phosphate it will adhere to the substrate and rockwork till saturated. Being a young tank you will not have much in the way of phosphate....but you will.

The chaeto is also a good thing to have growing so keep that up. The challenge now is nitrates are so high even larger water changes will be challenged to lower it.

Ultimately you'll need to run a skimmer at a minimum. It'll help your nitrates when your stock is low. As this grows you may well need a bio pellet reactor but probably not right now. Keep measuring phosphate because it will creep up eventually and get out of hand rapidly. The skimmer and chaeto helps phosphate some but isn't 100%. For me I have to run provisional GFO at three month intervals to knock down the phosphate.

If you are interested in more guidance let me know.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

The challenge now is nitrates are so high even larger water changes will be challenged to lower it.

Water changes are extremely effective at reducing nitrate... Not really a challenge.

 

[wculver]

Water changes are extremely effective at reducing nitrate... Not really a challenge.

I have been in this situation with tanks this size or larger and that turned out to not be true. Why you ask?

Well...if I do a 40 gallon water change on a 200 gallon tank that's 20%. So that one large change brings me to 32 ppm which is just as bad as 40. Then 25.6....then 20.48....then 16.38...so.we can change the full 200 gallons out 20% at a time and steady state not get in the zone. Meanwhile they are still adding nutrients.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I have been in this situation with tanks this size or larger and that turned out to not be true. Why you ask?

Well...if I do a 40 gallon water change on a 200 gallon tank that's 20%. So that one large change brings me to 32 ppm which is just as bad as 40. Then 25.6....then 20.48....then 16.38...so.we can change the full 200 gallons out 20% at a time and steady state not get in the zone. Meanwhile they are still adding nutrients.

So you successfully demonstrated that water changes DO effectively remove nitrates. Thank you for proving my point

 

[wculver]

So you successfully demonstrated that water changes DO effectively remove nitrates. Thank you for proving my point

My goal is to be helpful.

If you want to waste your time and struggle...by all means change out water.

If you'd like to overcome the trolls and find success I am willing to help further.

 

[gbroadbridge]

My goal is to be helpful.

If you want to waste your time and struggle...by all means change out water.

If you'd like to overcome the trolls and find success I am willing to help further.

Water changes are the simplest and most effective way of quickly reducing nitrates.

Once reduced there are many methods of maintaining waste products in the tank at the whatever level is desired usually by carbon dosing or other methods of export.

However 40ppm is not particularly high, and provided the level is not rapidly increasing I'd be starting a regimen of carbon dosing together with water changes with the aim of around 10ppm in a month or two.

 

[Garf]

My tank is around 40. My old tank was around 60 for years. Didn’t notice a problem.

 

[mtraylor]

First off. Your tank looks great and I really like the stack. Great job.

My guess here is that you started off with dry rock. From my experience with dry rock the phosphates will barely register for a long time and really nothing to worry about. I chased (phosephate) numbers on my first rodeo with dry rock and it was a total waste of time and money. Not to mention, I may have created a new issue here and there....but it was a learning experience. Dont do it! They will level out and start to register at some point.

As others have said. I wouldn't worry about the nitrates that you currently have. Just ride the wave and if you get too worried about it, you can always start your protein skimmer and or perform a small water change as others suggested.

Looking really good at 3months. Keep up the good work.