Have *some* nitrates, what to do??

[OneFishTwoFish]

Hello all,

so here is my question. I have a 30G tall tank stocked with one 2.5 inch coral beauty, live sand, and about 15 pounds of live rock. My nitrites and ammonia are 0 but my nitrates have been hovering around 10 ppm since Coral went in, four days ago. Do I do a water change to drop the levels, and if so, how much? Do I let nature do her thing, and leave it alone, watching for any increase? Or ??? Let me say, I would prefer not to use any chemicals to lower levels unless Absolutely Necessary.
I was hoping to add two saddleback clowns this weekend, but now, I am not sure.... my LFS said it would be ok, but - i am not sure how much to trust them, as they want my bizness. Looking forward to ur expertise, and "tanks" in advance.

 

[quality_reefer]

When you do your water changes are you using RO/DI water? I've heard that if you use tap then your nitrate levels have a chance at not really changing or even going up. I'm not sure if that is true but I have the same thing right now, I did a water change last night, tested it and the nitrates still hung at around 10ppm.

Also watch for sand disturbance, that may release nitrates.

 

[texreefer]

Water changes are always going to help lower nitrates. When doing a water change, the is no such thing as too much. I would do the biggest wc that you are able to do, or if you are scared of doing super large changes then do something like 50% today 25% 2 days later, etc. The more frequent your changes the less time you give for levels to build up in your system. On my 90, I do 5g per week, and two 40g changes per month and my levels stay in check. Before I had them under control, I was having the same issue as you, around 10 or so. I did one 100% change followed by three 50% changes in one week, with 0 ill effects. Water changes are the best thing for your tank, and are usually the answer to any problem you may have in relation to parameter issues.

 

[quality_reefer]

Good advice, I'll be doing a 5g change again today.

 

[bjohanson1234]

IMO, 10 ppm nitrate in a fish only is not bad. But if you want to lower them, i suggects a 10-20% change weekly with RO water. Tap water can have nitrates in it, so changing water with nitrates in it will not lower nitrates.

I do a 5 gallon a week change on my 29 gallon and levels are always good.

 

[little_fish]

You should also wait at least 3 weeks between additions to let the bacteria load grow to handle the current load.

 

[Northstar24]

I would also like to add that you can't really 'let nature take its course' with Nitrates - they are the end product of the ammonia cycle and they need to be removed from our system. There are several ways this can be accomplished but the most important (and probably the most significant export from the system) is by doing regular water changes on your tank. You can also set up a refugium with macro algae such as Cheatomorpha or Caulerpa. I have a 20 gallon 'fuge tied to my 180 that is packed with macro and I have yet to detect nitrates on a Nitrate test