Dropping nitrate levels - is this normal?

[oreocookie]

I’m about a month and a half into a fallow period and wondering about the nitrate levels in my 12g AIO. Current occupants are 3 trochus and 3 cerith snails, and 2 blue leg hermits (all added shortly after my last sick fish died at the end of March). About 3 weeks ago, my nitrates were reading at 8, so I skipped the water change. Today, they are reading at 5.5 on my Hanna checker. Wondering if I had managed to dump half the reagent on the table by mistake, I retested with the salifert kit and got a similar result. I’m feeding about 2 flakes of food every couple of days to keep the bacteria happy. Ammonia looks like <0.15. There is no excessive algae growth in the display, though there is some in the back chambers, and the trochus snails all have varying degrees of fuzz growing on their shells.

Should I take this as a sign that things are going well or that something is off? Tank has been running since beginning of January, cycled since early/mid February. I expect to introduce my first new fish and/or coral in early June.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

How often are you doing water changes?
What does your filtration look like?
Feed more nitrate enriched food (frozen food is what I did)

 

[oreocookie]

How often are you doing water changes?
What does your filtration look like?
Feed more nitrate enriched food (frozen food is what I did)

Last water change was before I got the reading of 8, so maybe 3 weeks or a month ago, so it’s dropping because of internal factors, not because I’m removing it. I guess my other question is do I want or need nitrates to be higher righ now?

 

[CHSUB]

You can add corals now if you want. Your no3 is of no concern and “your” bacteria is fine without food for probably a few millennia. Just continue with your fish fallow period and relax.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/how-dormant-bacteria-return-life

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Are there corals in the tank? If there are no corals, then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That small difference may be test error, but if you are not feeding the tank, I’d expect any growth of photosynthetic organisms, including algae, will consume N and P.

 

[exnisstech]

I wouldn't worry about it. This tank has been running 2-8 NO3 It has been zero before when I've dosed ammonium