Wanting to add refugium, but are my nitrates too low?

[danieljones8623]

Hey everybody. I’ve been maintain my 40 gallon breeder with a 20 gallon sump for around a month now. I cycled it with fritz turbo start, so it’s been cycled for a few weeks now. I only had a couple of clownfish in it, until the other day, when I added a small YWG and a tiger pistol shrimp. I’m now wanting to add a refugium to my sump. There is a section already set up for it. That being said, I was wondering if my nitrates are too low? They’re currently at around 2.5 and that figure doesn’t creep up too much in a couple of weeks time. I’m assuming my skimmer and light feedings is keeping it sorta low. Is this too low to add chaeto into the refugium? At this point, i want the refugium so I can start establishing a sustainable copepod population in my sump more than nitrate/phosphate control, so I may not even need the chaeto at this point, I don’t know.

 

[X-37B]

Start with a small amount. If your no3 levels go down remove some or reduce lighting. This is how you control no3.