At what levels do you ‘do something’ about nitrates?

[OwduaNM]

Question for the community:

At what level of nitrates do you actually take an action? I’ve seen a lot of recommendations from near zero up to 10, but am curious as to when it’s time to do something?

Bonus question:

How frequently do you check nitrates/recommend to check nitrates for a 1st year reefist.

Background:
Experienced freshwater aquarist, second ‘reef’ aquarium (1st was....a learning experience)

 

[Spare time]

I check them every few weeks. For a newer reefer, I would do it once a week til you get a feel of how much your fish are poopin' out. The hardest part about a new tank is that you don't know its rhythm yet and a fixed schedule of testing is the way you figure this out.

As for where to keep them, it depends. I do not like to see anything over 20. My reason is that the higher it gets, the harder it is to lower it. I also have SPS that begin to brown out when my nitrates begin to climb past 20. I am much more picky about phosphates than nitrates. Between 5 and 20 is a good range because you are not pushing the limits of too low or too high for most tanks. 0 is horrible, between 0 and 5 is hard to maintain since most test kits are not easy to read at that range or even read in there. Above 20 is hard because you have to do even larger water changes to get it back down to an acceptable range.

 

[OwduaNM]

I check them every few weeks. For a newer reefer, I would do it once a week til you get a feel of how much your fish are poopin' out. The hardest part about a new tank is that you don't know its rhythm yet and a fixed schedule of testing is the way you figure this out.

As for where to keep them, it depends. I do not like to see anything over 20. My reason is that the higher it gets, the harder it is to lower it. I also have SPS that begin to brown out when my nitrates begin to climb past 20. I am much more picky about phosphates than nitrates.

This is exactly that I was looking for! Thank you. Testing 2-3 times per week right now. I understand the importance of testing rhythm, but the “time to act points” are definitely different with saltwater than fresh.

 

[Spare time]

This is exactly that I was looking for! Thank you. Testing 2-3 times per week right now. I understand the importance of testing rhythm, but the “time to act points” are definitely different with saltwater than fresh.

What people say is the maximum nitrate level definitely varies, but it is definitely better to be on the safer side then exploring the upper ranges. For some reason it is hard to find any reef video saying why nitrates are exactly bad and what they do to the fish. The only things I have found deal with reproduction, immune systems, and disease but still most information seems to only be about freshwater fish (which makes sense given that marine fish never really have nitrate problems in the wild.

 

[Zeal]

I check about twice a week because I'm anal.

Usually comes back at 0 or very close to 1. Then that's when I dose

 

[Spare time]

I check about twice a week because I'm anal.

Usually comes back at 0 or very close to 1. Then that's when I dose

I have had people think I am crazy because I dose nitrate and phosphate lol

 

[Zeal]

I have had people think I am crazy because I dose nitrate and phosphate lol

Its struggle for me to get Nitrates about 1

 

[OwduaNM]

I check about twice a week because I'm anal.

Usually comes back at 0 or very close to 1. Then that's when I dose

What do you have in your tank for nutrient export? Habitants and/or equipment

 

[Zeal]

What do you have in your tank for nutrient export? Habitants and/or equipment

I have a stupid 40G AIO which I hate with every fiber in my body.

I dose NoPox daily 5ML, have a random assortment of snails and hermit crabs. In the my chambers I have cheato, Chemipure Blue in a media basket and a skimmer. Currently I'm dealing with lettuce algae which I cannot get rid of.