nitrates & nitrates spike

[Colin Gilboy]

so right now i’m bouncing back from a velvet outbreak. so i thought, hey, why not upgrade some things on the tank while i’m at it. i had a HOB skimmer so i upgraded to a HOB overflow & sump. ever since then i’ve been feeding my corals and my nitrates have been spiking around .025-.050PPM. im trying to get the tank use to feeding again. my skimmer is sized up to 200Gal usage, i don’t know if i’m under skimming or not. any comments are useful, thank you.

p.s. i know the water is coming out of the skimmer in the front i wanted to see much how much water it was pushing out, since then i plugged it and it’s been going fine.

 

[SPR1968]

Those nitrate figures are extremely low and not really ‘spikes’ depending on what your trying to achieve in your system. I keep mine around 15ppm and if you go to low your risking issues such as cyno bacteria etc.

You need some food to feed your corals and your bordering on sterile water at those levels.

As far as the skimmer is concerned you want one designed for the correct tank size otherwise it won’t work as efficiently if you have a massive skimmer in a small tank (you didn’t say tank size)

But there are many ways of reefing, these are just my personal thoughts

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

so right now i’m bouncing back from a velvet outbreak. so i thought, hey, why not upgrade some things on the tank while i’m at it. i had a HOB skimmer so i upgraded to a HOB overflow & sump. ever since then i’ve been feeding my corals and my nitrates have been spiking around .025-.050PPM. im trying to get the tank use to feeding again. my skimmer is sized up to 200Gal usage, i don’t know if i’m under skimming or not. any comments are useful, thank you.

p.s. i know the water is coming out of the skimmer in the front i wanted to see much how much water it was pushing out, since then i plugged it and it’s been going fine.

Some members here have 80 + nitrates and corals thriving

 

[Colin Gilboy]

Some members here have 80 + nitrates and corals thriving

i know nitrates are good for corals but my nitrites are what concern me.

 

[SPR1968]

i know nitrates are good for corals but my nitrites are what concern me.

Your title states Nitrates, not nitrites and there’s a difference

You don’t want or shouldn’t have any nitrite in the system once it’s cycled correctly?

No worries if you got mixed up so no problem, we will try and help you out

 

[Colin Gilboy]

Your title states Nitrates, not nitrites and there’s a difference

You don’t want or shouldn’t have any nitrite in the system once it’s cycled correctly?

No worries if you got mixed up so no problem, we will try and help you out

sorry wrote it wrong. i had a velvet outbreak so i wasn’t feeding at all plus it was completely empty so i have to get my tank use to feeding slowly but i’m getting some nitrites, my nitrates are at .5ppm. reasons i could be getting spikes nitrites but is that typical