Nitrates

Checked my perameters tonight.
Everything is good besides nitrates are at 20.
Should I be concerned about them.
My tank has been up for a little over a month, and I have only done a 5 gallon water change since then, mainly because I finally got my RO system hooked up.

How often should I do water changes? and how much should I change?

Thanks

 

good rule of thumb is 10% weekly. considering you've only done one small change on a new system 20 ppm isn't bad. just keep doing changes and they will begin to drop.

 

I wouldn't worry yet. Like Andy said keep doing water changes, and maybe do a larger one next time, 10 gallons? Also, can you state how many and what kind of fish you have in there? If you have only been going one month I'd hope you don't have more than one fish. Have you been following your cycle? Where your nitrates ever zero? Did you cycle or have LR? Answering some of those ?'s may help us understand if you are going to have the nitrates go down or remain steady if not go up. :mrgreen:

 

I would do 10% weekly also. If you dont have fish in there I would do 50%, but if you have fish in the tank a large change like 50% can do more harm than good to them.

 

That all depends it has been suggested you do a 50% water change every 6 months or so to keep your buffers correct.

 

20 is okay. It's fine for fish. If you have any inverts I'd work to keep it at 10 or lower.

 

I have 2 clownfish, shrimp, hermits, snails.
I bought the tank used, so it was already cycled.
About 50 lbs of LR.
No my nitrates were never zero.

Thanks:sfish:

 

Take a small pump with tube on output and go around in your tank and blow around rocks, crevices, corners etc. stir the top 1/4 inch of the substrait gently to put the detritus back into solution. once this is done do a 20% water change, when the water clears change out all filters to new media or clean pads if you have those type of filters. each week do a 10 to 15% water change and watch the nitrates. if they start to come down in 2 to 4 weeks keep it up until you are below 10, if not, reevaluate your feeding, type of food, tank cirulation and the amount of water change. (The solution to polution is dilution). Nitrates will leach back out of rock, substrait, etc for a time, so keep up the maitenance and keep a log of your test results. Keep us posted. OH and all filters should be cleaned at least every 10 days max.