fowler confusion

[reefer1187]

hey everyone i just finish testing my water and nitrites is at 0ppm and nitrates is between 5ppm and 10ppm, i was wondering which one affects fish, nitrates or nitrites?

right now i have a lunare wrasse and a humu humu trigger

another question is i see phosphate hair started growing on my rocks, is this because of the nitrates in my water? i dont know where else it can be coming from because i do use ro/di water

 

[AllenFord_SC]

Caorals are more affected from high nitrates than fish are. Your levels are nothing to worry about at the moment but you should definetly keep them in check. I assume you are reffering to hair algae? That can be controlled easily with a Phosban reactor or many other forms of phosphate removal.

 

[viceversabrd]

both nitrites and nitrates affect fish, however, fish can tolerate nitrates more than nitrites or ammonia, hair algae can grow off of the nitrates not just phosphates, hope this helps
viceversabrd

 

[reefer1187]

what should be the limit to my nitrate factor though?

 

[Pandora]

In a FOWLR, I wouldn't worry about it. I have heard some fish tolerate in the 200's, you may be able to get more details for your species in the Fish Only forums. 15-20 in a FOWLR is actually not bad at all, good job.

 

[reefer1187]

how should i get rid of the hair algae? by the way i dont use a skimmer, and where can the nutrients be coming from in my water?

i do feed tiny meals throughout the day, but i just put one flake at a time because the trigger trys to eat all at once and just ends up leaving everything to fall to the bottom, when he can't catch them in time, pretty funny to watch.

 

[Pandora]

Triggers are messy eaters, I honestly don't think I've seen a tank with one that had nitrates lower than yours. Getting a skimmer may help, or fixing up a refugium to compete for some of the nutrients, and then there is just good old fashioned collecting by hand.

 

[reefer1187]

the reason i dont have a protein skimmer is because the lack of space i have, my tank is a corner tank so space is really limited and is a big issue.

i have a sump/refugium right now i am using the ecosystem filtration method with the miracle mud but i have't changed it in 2 years and a friend of mine told me that it is basically dead and i should remove it and replace all of it with live rocks?

is this a good idea?

 

[reefer1187]

?

 

[reefer1187]

?

 

[BlackOnyx]

Get some nitrate zorb and put it in the water flow return some where. More uneaten food you have the more fertilizer your making for the hair algae. Also turn your lights to maybe 8 hrs a day. Fish could care less bout the light levels, thou they'd like to see.