Can I add fish with nitrates at 15ppm

[mike12345]

16 days into cycling new tank following dr Tim’s method, the tank seems to be cycled ammonia is 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates were at 5ppm but I accidentally disturbed sand bed now it’s around 15ppm, I ordered 2 small clownfish Comming in a few days are they fine to add? I was thinking of doing a 20% water change to try and bring down nitrates before adding fish

 

[Kilman805]

Yes, it's fine. Plenty of tanks run that high normally.

When I used Dr Tims to cycle a small tank it took longer to cycle. And the nitrites were stubbornly slow to convert to nitrates. But it sounds like yours is on the right path.

Start a build thread with some pics once the fish arrive!

 

[DatReefGuy]

Yessir. Should be good. Not really an emergency though. :)

 

[brclark82]

As long as you’ve seen ammonia go from a non zero number to zero you are fine to add fish and don’t even need to test for ammonia anymore…nitrate at 15 is perfectly fine, once you get you fish and start feeding you will want to start testing nitrate and phosphate and just make sure they don’t get too high but just a weekly water change should be fine for the first few months…make sure you don’t let either reach zero as well

 

[mike12345]

Yes, it's fine. Plenty of tanks run that high normally.

When I used Dr Tims to cycle a small tank it took longer to cycle. And the nitrites were stubbornly slow to convert to nitrates. But it sounds like yours is on the right path.

Start a build thread with some pics once the fish arrive!

Right on! I will

 

[mike12345]

Yessir. Should be good. Not really an emergency though. :)

Ok good! I didn’t mean to put emergency on the post