Water test > cannot get 0's across the board

[Tazzabro]

Hey all,

Had my tank going for probably 6 weeks now. I have 10 lecky yellows 2 blue dolphins and a red tp black shark. They are all doing fine and not being effected by the water (my daily or every 2nd day water changes are probably helping) but i cannot get 0's across the board.

I get Ammonia basically 0, Nitrite 0-.25 and nitrate 10.

Any tips to help me improve this? He is what my sump looks like except I dont have the bio balls anymore i have the coral in the first section (Since it is underwater) and I also have the water running through filter mat.

Suggestions ?

[__CAV__]

there's nothing wrong with your tank.

in a perfect tank you will always have nitrates.

the only real way to remove them is water changes.

by your tests, the ammonia is being transformed into nitrites which in turn (well most of the nitrites are) being turned into nitrates.

[HannibalsMum]

i always got confused by all that, but now i know that if your ammnia an nitrites are up its not good, an low nitrates are ok. its when it all are high (often happens with my smaller tanks) you need to worry.

my 3f tank started out with a fishless cycle an very high ammonia, now she is perfect.

as cav said you tank is all good..

a tip i was told when i was setting up my 3f, was to use midea from a already cycled tank, even a sponge out of anther filter anything that will have the mrico good guys on it can help. if you are really concened.

[Tazzabro]

Ok cool. Yeah i thought my fish would be acting out if something was wrong.

Yeah i did use a filter courtesy of Donny@AOA and that really helped it get going. I just thought you were meant to have 0's but what ive read about makes me believe its doing fine.

Thanks for you advice.

[noddy]

could be the water out of your tap. I consistently have 0.25ppm of ammonia on my test kit, been there since day one. tank looks like it has cycled. you may be doing more damage by doing constant water changes. If you use Prime water conditioner it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite anyway from memory. I'd let it settle for a few days and see what happens. If you're worried about your nitrates add some macropore (speak to AOA or Tech Den). Try not to over think or over test it. You can kill them with love you know... The fish you have are quite hardy so they will put up with a bit too.

Trav

[Nem0]

I wish my nitrate was that low. Getting rid of the bio balls is a good step in my opinion. I have a constant nitrate problem in my saltwater tank and I have started combating it with the following:

1. Daily doses of no3pox4. Not sure if you can use it in fresh?

2. Got rid of all plastic media.

3. Bought an RO/DI system to make my own water for the changes as pure as possible.

4. Bought a kit done by Red Sea that kicks off the denitrification process with appropriate bacteria.

5. Bought a nitrate reducing mat and a nitrate reactor.

You could try going a deep sand bed in your sump?

I went pretty full on with mine as my nitrates were in the 40+ range and are now down to about 12ppm. But your levels are pretty acceptable, but if you really want to get it down lower it's just going to take time imo.

[Mackayman]

Yep, I gotta agree, I want your problem. Nitrates at 10ppm sounds like a dream come true for me.

:-)

Brendan