55 Gallon Tank Nitrates

I have had a 55 gallon saltwater reef tank for three years and my nitrates are off the wall high at 160 and the pH level seems to be always at 7.8 . The fish I have Maroon Clown Fish, Bi-Colored Blyne(sorry if I spelled it wrong), Pistol Shrimp, and a Randall Goby, and I also do atleast a 15 gallon water change once a month, change filters and empty the skimmer. I am just wanting to know what I can do to lower my nitrates to 0 and keep it there.

 

I only have freshwater but if you do 25% weekly water changes that will lower the nitrates. I believe that is the same with saltwater.

 

in my freshwater recently my nitrates were through the roof..... I did 50 % water changes every 2 days for little over a week...... I'm almost back to 0 with them.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Getting your nitrates to 0 is nearly impossible, as the fish are always producing nitrogen as waste.

Things you can do:
Make sure your skimmer is running optimally.
Operate a refugium with fast-growing macro algae.
Keep feedings to the minimum necessary to keep the inhabitants alive and healthy. In a reef tank, some of the food is going to be produced by the live rock. Beyond that, only feed what the fish can eat in 10-30 seconds.

After that, figure out how large of weekly water changes are necessary to keep the nitrates at 20 or less. It will take some time to get them down from 160, but once they're there, it shouldn't take much water a week.

 

hi, I know this is an old thread but heres something you should read.



ive just started using it, so its still building up. but my nitrates were at 150+ last week, I did a 25% water change and my nitrates are 0 (3 tests all 0)

I don't know if this is the algae scrubber or the water change, but ive had to do close to 75%/50%/50% (empty, half fill, empty again, then fully fill) water changes on other tanks to get nitrates down to 5.

worth a try