Nitrates

Big_Mclargehuge

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Thanks to anyone reading this. I've been posting a lot. This is my first tank and even though I though I had a grasp on what I was doing etc... Once you get going, a million questions pop up. Anyway. My tank is eliminating ammonia at 2ppm in 24 hours and my nitrites are super low. The problem is. My nitrates are around 80ppm. Do I just keep letting it go? Add more Bacteria? Or do a water change? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

andrewey

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No worries- that's what we're all here for! We all had a million questions in the beginning..... and now ony have two million questions!

That suggests your tank is cycled. At this point, before you add more life or increase the photoperiod, I suggest performing some major water changes to drop your nitrate down. After that, you're good to go :)

No need to add any more bacteria at this point.
 

Aclman88

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No worries- that's what we're all here for! We all had a million questions in the beginning..... and now ony have two million questions!

That suggests your tank is cycled. At this point, before you add more life or increase the photoperiod, I suggest performing some major water changes to drop your nitrate down. After that, you're good to go :)

No need to add any more bacteria at this point.

Agreed. Water changes should lower things to an acceptable level. I would be sure to test again for ammonia and nitrite to ensure they are at zero after the water changes, as well as nitrate to ensure you have that low enough.
 

RiversideReefer

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i started my first tank a little over 2 months ago.

my nitrates were really high in the beginning as well... about 80ppm just like yours. i kept up with the water changes until i read aboud 40-50ppm and i added 2 clown fish.

took a good month or so but after introducing the fish and keeping up with weekly 20% water changes my nitrates dropped to about 10ppm. i did also add seachem matrix and chemipure blue.
 
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Big_Mclargehuge

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No worries- that's what we're all here for! We all had a million questions in the beginning..... and now ony have two million questions!

That suggests your tank is cycled. At this point, before you add more life or increase the photoperiod, I suggest performing some major water changes to drop your nitrate down. After that, you're good to go :)

No need to add any more bacteria at this point.
Thanks! How much of a water change would you suggest. My tank is 32 gallons.
 

andrewey

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I'm a fan of a pretty large water change right after cycling for this exact scenario- so I'd suggest as large as you can manage. There's no real rush, so it's perfectly fine to do it in stages with frequent smaller water changes. It never really works out this neatly in practice, but you could imagine a series of two 10 gallon water change would theoretically drop your nitrates down to 38.
 
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Big_Mclargehuge

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I'm a fan of a pretty large water change right after cycling for this exact scenario- so I'd suggest as large as you can manage. There's no real rush, so it's perfectly fine to do it in stages with frequent smaller water changes. It never really works out this neatly in practice, but you could imagine a series of two 10 gallon water change would theoretically drop your nitrates down to 38.
Thanks! Is there any downside to doing one large change rather than a couple smaller ones?
 

andrewey

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No downsides in this situation. If your tank were more mature and contained sensitive organisms, large water changes carry the risk of ensuring you don't shock the organisms due to changes in pH, alkalinity, temperature, salinity, etc. In this case, your live rock won't care, so there's no downside (the only downside is making sure you have enough space to mix/heat that amount of water).
 
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Big_Mclargehuge

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No downsides in this situation. If your tank were more mature and contained sensitive organisms, large water changes carry the risk of ensuring you don't shock the organisms due to changes in pH, alkalinity, temperature, salinity, etc. In this case, your live rock won't care, so there's no downside (the only downside is making sure you have enough space to mix/heat that amount of water).
I was planning on buying more water from my lfs since I don't have an rodi. So I need to heat my water before I put it in the tank?
 

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