Nitrates

[ryangrieder]

actually, real quick, my buddy on here, bilbo913, i was just over at his house few days ago, and snapped a few pics. according to API and SERA test kit, he has around 140ppm of nitrates. sorry, no SPS, i know we were speaking of SPS, but i just wanted to show his tank real quick for an example of nitrates, and corals thriving very well...

even fresh frags...

 

[Pallobi]

Approximate 90 gallon system. Triton 5, 3 koralias, no pads or sponges except for a 100 micron sock that gets changed out weekly while doing 10% water changes using Reef Crystals and RO/DI water. 2 reactors, 1 w Carbon and 1 w Phosban swapped out every 2 weeks. 2-3" sand bed in fuge. Cheato and 2 lbs of rubble. NAC5 skimmer. Tanks has a total of 5 damsels totaling about 10-12" of fish .Still average 10-15ppm. Have been told by a few people the tank looks great. Still not Zero though. To those that are zero I commend you

if everything looks good, then thats all that matters my friend

 

[strgazr27]

Search for Jerl77 tank. AMAZING LPS/SPS tank and he doesn't even test for nitrates lol.

 

[Pallobi]

ryan, that makes complete sense for lps and softies... im not sure i would say 80ppm is good even for them, but it is known that softies and lps like a bit more "dirty" water... i am not trying to sound like a jerkie, i jus wana see proof that people with high trates are keeping sps with success... that tank looks great jus as you said... however i dont think those frags are fresh at all, it appears the plugs they are on have been there for quite some time due to the coloring up and algae on them... again, nice tank either way though, kudo's to him

 

[Pallobi]

Search for Jerl77 tank. AMAZING LPS/SPS tank and he doesn't even test for nitrates lol.

if he doesnt test, then i think its unreasonable to say he has high nitrates... ill check it out, thanks for the lead!

 

[ryangrieder]

i ment more in line of new to the set up when i said fresh. like recentl purchased a few like the chalice and 1-2 of the acans and p's...

im not 100% sure what my other buddy has for nitrates, i know it was always high, but he has sps in there. ALTHOUGH, a few did die, many did do well and growing pretty well. ill see if i can call him and send me some pics.

 

[marrone]

if he doesnt test, then i think its unreasonable to say he has high nitrates... ill check it out, thanks for the lead!

He doesn't check because he knows that they're high. A lot of people don't check things, they just watch how their tank is and only check when things are out of wack. I haven't done a nitrates test in over a year and I only check Alk and Cal every so often.

As for having zero nitrates, in SPS tanks, you'll find plenty of people that run very successful sps tanks with high nitrate level, also most people don't want to have the nitrates at zero, as having them at such a low level starves the corals.

 

[Pallobi]

i would jus love to see more pics and some test results... as far as ULNS starving corals, that is one reason why i myself feed my tang heavy and use oysterfeast every so often... my colors are great imo, and my growth does well...

again, i am not saying it isnt possible, but it goes against what i have come to understand is acceptable for growing sps... the word "high" doesnt give me a number, it jus says they have some...

 

[Pallobi]

i want to add that i feel, as well as some others i have spoken to, that nitrates being low are not nearly as important as keeping your phosphates in check... phates are much more detrimental to the health of corals it seems than having your trates as low as possible... what makes me curious is that i wont say 20ppm is detrimental, but seems with levels that high, it would be very difficult to keep the phates in check, which most say are not good for sps when they get anything over .03 ppm... i will also say that i have seen sps tanks with reasonably high nitrates, as in 10 to 20, but to say 80ppm or higher, or anything in that range is acceptable, well i jus dont know if i agree with that... what can i say, i love a discussion concerning reefs, as i am sure most here do, cuz thats why we came to forums in the first place

 

[nyshoots]

Im glad I started this thread, this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Im still gonna be doing my weekly water changes and testing my water but I may not get as crazy when I see my nitrates go up.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Pallobi]

good call bud... its never a good thing to act out of impulse in this hobby... slow it down, do some research, and gather some opinions and make a educated decision on what to do next... GL my friend