How do you feel about Nitrates and what's the limit for you?

[revhtree]

Back in the olden days, at the dawn of reefing time, we were told we needed ZERO Nitrates but ah how times have changed! Now we know there are safe and healthy levels we should set our sights on in terms of Nitrate readings.

How do you feel about Nitrates and what's the limit for you?

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

I like them. But only a little. Well, my limit is 25 and i'm still over that. Working on it.

 

[JustAnotherNanoTank]

I try to stay below 10 and above 5.

Good range for sticks.

 

[air_run]

I still keep mine between 0 - 2ppm. Keep in mind though, I always prefer a reading of something. When my Hanna Nitrate Checker reads zero I do dose nitrates for 2 -3 days until I get a reading. Rarely do my nitrates ever get above 3ppm. I test once a week.

 

[Garf]

10ppm is ideal because that's where my tank is. Oddly enough when it was 40ppm, that was also ideal, lol.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have roughly 0-2, it stays low in my tank, but hey everything is doing good!

 

[rtparty]

Nothing (or at least very, very little) in our systems utilizes nitrates as an energy source. They have to convert it back to nitrite or ammonia to use it as an energy source. Dosing nitrates is futile. Dose ammonia and give everything the real source of energy it wants. Then shoot for nitrates above 0 but below 10ppm or so. This will tell you if you are dosing just enough ammonia to cover the needs of your tank but not overdosing.

 

[PotatoPig]

I’ve had them in the 40s and everything was doing fine (LPS and softies), then I guess I hit a critical mass of coral/fuge algae vs livestock because they dropped to zero without me knowing due to lax testing and got some Dinos, that have since been resolved.

Currently I dose ammonia 3x a day to keep bioavailable nitrogen present and test once every couple weeks - just in case nitrates are somehow spiking. Typically I see them between 0 and 5.

 

[luis angel]

My tank likes between 30 and 40

 

[Miami Reef]

Under 20ppm is good for me.

Less than 2ppm is too low for me.

5ppm to 10ppm is my ideal target.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Nothing (or at least very, very little) in our systems utilizes nitrates as an energy source. They have to convert it back to nitrite or ammonia to use it as an energy source. Dosing nitrates is futile. Dose ammonia and give everything the real source of energy it wants. Then shoot for nitrates above 0 but below 10ppm or so. This will tell you if you are dosing just enough ammonia to cover the needs of your tank but not overdosing.

Coral and Photosynthetic plants use no3 as a source of energy, no?

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

My tank likes between 30 and 40

Thats interesting. Thats kind of where I am and am not seeing any adverse effects, even with a low stock of coral at the moment.

 

[JoJosReef]

I'm lucky if I can read 1ppm. 5ppm would be nice, although noawadays I care less about the number its at and more about what the tank looks like--if it's running <1ppm but everything looks happy, I must be putting the right amount of food in the tank for everybody. Still, might be nice to have a bit more of a buffer... without inviting something else, unwanted sucking it all up.

 

[twentyleagues]

I dont know about "olden" days that was about half way through my olden days lol. I found when trying to keep that ulns type system my tanks didn't do so well. Currently and back after then 15-25 was/is good range for me.

 

[Reefer Matt]

25-35 ppm

 

[MrGisonni]

15-20 is the sweet spot for my mixed reef

 

[KrisReef]

If they are not too low, then they are too High.

 

[rc8t6353]

25-35 ppm

Where do you keep your phosphates? Beautiful tank!

 

[Miami Reef]

Where do you keep your phosphates? Beautiful tank!

It was around 0.01ppm, but he recently started dosing PO4 to maintain 0.05ppm.

I just recently started to routinely test phosphate. I always have higher nitrate (25-35 ppm), but very low phosphate (.00-.02 ppm). I now dose phosphate to keep it around .05 ppm. My sps tanks consume about .01 ppm a day.

 

[betareef]

I had trouble with dino. My nitrates were zero - newish tank. Now nitrates are 10-20 ppm and dino problem has gone away.

What's the "official" lower limit at which they'll come back, so I can stay above it (or have I got it all wrong) ?