Best nitrate level for lps

Nikita1981 · Jun 14, 2018

I have had my nitrate level up for years and years. In every tank I owned it was on the higher end of the scale. I love healthy, full fish so I tend to feed too much. At my worst I had around 70 nitrates, at my best 15-20..

Needless to say my sps was not thriving. I focussed on lps instead and got away with higher nutrients. Hammers, torches, acans, zoas, rock nems etc all thriving at 20 ppm nitrates.

But the sticks kept calling and I kept tweaking. Just a little. Add some po4. A bit of nopox dosing. I just meant it as a maintenance dosage so my nitrates would not skyrocket again.

And now suddenly....2 ppm nitrates. Barely. Maybe less. I am panicking. How will my corals who are used to high nutrients react? What to do now? Cut back the nopox? How much? Or am I finally where I wanted to be for the last 10 years and should I leave it be?

I don't know if I have to laugh or cry....

Thanks for reading!

Dr. Reef · Jun 14, 2018

I keep my tanks at 2ppm nitrates and 0 to 0.03 phos with no ill effects.

SPR1968 · Jun 14, 2018

My corals both LPS and SPS (once the tank matured after 12 months for SPS) glow with life when the Nitrate is around 10-15ppm and Phosphate low at around 0.03ppm

If you read the article Tanks Of The Masters on here it’s very interesting as few are ULN and you may be surprised at some of the levels, at least I was and that’s why I don’t panic anymore if Nitrate goes up a bit.