Tank moved, now a few questions

[ElectronRider]

I just got done moving my tank, getting all the crushed coral bed and live rock back in, water stabilized, and inhabitants all looking happy.

I broke out the trusty test kit, and thats where my question comes in.

I have 0 amonia, 0 nitrites, but my nitrates are up around 20. This seems high to me, should I just watch for a few days and do another water change? say 20 gallons or so? ( about 80 gallons in system)

Thanks everyone

 

[iCam]

It's possible that you had a small bit of dieoff during the move.

Was the crushed coral used previously? If so, did you clean it? If it was previously in the tank and not rinsed, it's possible you added back all of the junk that might have been trapped in it.

 

[ElectronRider]

I gave the crushed coral a light rinse, but not much, I was more worried about critters in the crushed coral that would hopefully survive. How bad is 20 on my nitrates?

 

[bertoni]

20ppm nitrate might be an issue with some stony corals or similar touch animals, but fish, shrimp, and mushroom corals won't care.

 

[Fast Fred]

The shrimp may not do well in >20ppm Nitrate. Try doing another water change and retesting in a few hours and then again the next day.

"Current Tanks: 75 gallon tank, remora pro skimmer, 20 gallon sump with bio-balls"

The bioballs are a nitrate factory. Instead of bioballs for bio-filtration, try using 1 pound of live rock per gallon of water in your system. After the live rock has matured in about 6 weeks, start removing the bioballs, say 10-20 per week until they are gone. If you go this route, try and get already cured rock so as not to re-cycle the tank.

 

[iCam]

I agree with the above posts regarding the nitrates. For most fish, they aren't much of a problem, but it's still good to have them as low as possible to prevent stress, et cetera.

The main worry is the invertebrates in the tank.

 

[bertoni]

Hmm, well, I've had cleaner and fire shrimp live for years in a tank with 40-50 ppm nitrate, and I don't recall any scientific evidence of toxicity, either.

 

[Fast Fred]

JB,

I have read and learned about the nitrate levels and inverts many times over the past 15 years in this hobby. My school of thought maybe slightly outdated, but here's a quick reference to my thoughts:

"The next critical parameter is nitrates. Saltwater fish are more
tolerant of higher nitrates than invertebrates (in general), but still like nitrates lower than 20ppm, with less than 5ppm being required for most invertebrates. Reef keepers tend to quote anything higher than 0.5ppm as unacceptable, but this is an unrealistic goal for fish-only or minimal invertebrate tanks."

This quote was taken from this website:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aquaria/general-faq/sw-begin/

I'm here to learn just like everyone else here. I try and learn at least one new thing here everyday. And if I can help others learn in the mean time, I like that too.

If I'm wrong, or old school about the nitrates and inverts, please let me know.

 

[bertoni]

In general, I'm not a believer in nitrate harming motile invertebrates or soft corals. There's not much scientific data to support it, and a lot of experience to the contrary. The chemistry forum might have more information on this topic. It'd be interesting to see how shrimp farms do the job, if they use captive ponds.

 

[fishox]

I too did a tank move/upgrade. I moved all the live rock and a couple cups of sand from the old sand bed to the new tank. I even used most of the old water and am still having some new tank issues. I had a cyano outbreak about 1 month in and am now experiencing a diatom bloom. I suppose there is no way to avoid some die off and a mini cycle. The thing is though I tested religiously for ammonia and nitrite and never saw any. My nitrates have held at a steady 10 (salifert).