What’s going on with my nitrates

[RMMKD0]

Hi everyone,
I’m not sure what’s going on with my tank. Last week my nitrates tested at 2.5 with salifert test kit, I tested again 5 days later and it was 0. I didn’t do any water changes and have not add anything In weeks. I feed my fish every other day, that hasn’t changed. This has happened a couple times now where nitrate seems to go through cycles where I get a reading then a week or two later it’s 0 then takes weeks to get a reading again. Does anyone have an idea what could be going on or how I could stabilize nitrates better

 

[piranhaman00]

That is called denitrification. Anaerobic bacteria are converting nitrate into nitrogen gas. It is very good to be happening in your aquarium

You can dose nitrate, feed more, no w/c ect. Drifting from 2.5 to near 0ppm is very stable imo.

 

[RMMKD0]

Well that makes me feel better lol. I thought something was wrong.. what had me worried was I lost all my lps frags I had in there to polyp bail out and I can not figure out what caused it. I did get an icp test and nothing was off. I was thinking the low/no nutrients may have been the factor

 

[piranhaman00]

Well that makes me feel better lol. I thought something was wrong.. what had me worried was I lost all my lps frags I had in there to polyp bail out and I can not figure out what caused it. I did get an icp test and nothing was off. I was thinking the low/no nutrients may have been the factor

Well yes, while denitrification is a good thing, having near zero or zero nitrates is not.

 

[RMMKD0]

I understand I don’t want 0 my main concern was why nitrates seemed to disappear without doing water changes. I’ll just plan to feed more as I’d like to avoid getting into dosing nitrates.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I understand I don’t want 0 my main concern was why nitrates seemed to disappear without doing water changes. I’ll just plan to feed more as I’d like to avoid getting into dosing nitrates.

I don't think anyone can say exactly, beyond the simplistic idea that the tank is consuming more N than you are feeding it.

 

[Reef.]

I guess feeding every other day would see nitrates do that...I would feed way more, lps are said to prefer higher nutrients., and your fish will thank you too.