Are there any cool “big fish” that would do good in a 20 gallon tall? I was thinking something like a small tang? I also would like to know if I could add a puffer. Thanks for the help and if anyone has suggestions let me know. Fin friend out 😊
@@patthereefkeeper Hi Fin, you can’t really put a tang or a puffer in 20. 😊I was that way in the beginning. There’s so many cool fish! Wait until you move up to 50 gal 👍🏻
Hi mate My aquarium guy told me to keep my nitrates 10-15ppm for best results in my reef tank I don't know now CAn you maybe tell me why he said this? He's a good trustworthy guy,I'm just confused now Thx
For years I struggled with SPS as I was under the impression my nutrients had to be near 0. After almost quitting I decided to restart a tank, add substrate (went barebottom for years) and let it do its thing. 25 nitrate, .05 phosphate and things are thriving! I actually dose about .1ppm of phosphate a day to keep my level there. Nutrients aren’t the enemy!
Hello, greetings from Germany, I will start next days a 400 liter aquarium and I may need some advices. I am a beginner and I aim to have more fishes at the beginning and slowly add corals( since are more expensive ) .
@TOMReefer how, right now I am mixing the salt in my Aquarium, did like 30% so far and looks cloudy. I do have 2 power heads and I hope will be back crystal clear
My nitrates have been hovering in the 20 to 40 ppm and I have been doing weekly water changes .I can’t seem to drop it .I don’t have any fish at the moment just a 2 torchs and a couple zoas frags and one jack o latern coral oh and 4 rock flower and cleaner shrimp and two turbo snails
Hi Htowner, are you using RODI water? You might want to test your salt mix for nitrate after you mix it. That’s quite high with the bio load you have and not feeding. How about your test kit? Thanks for your comment 👍🏻
@@TOMReefer I will be doing a water change today and I will test for it .I’m using an api test kit but was thinking of getting something better .what test kit do you recommend?
Hi Nick, you caught me at a good time 😊. Try Phosphate RX. It’s lanthanum Cloride. It will lower it over night. Follow directions. I use it all the time. 👍🏻any questions feel free.
You may have solved this by now, but what are your Nitrate levels? Imagine this... Your corals consume nitrate and phosphate at a ratio of 10 to 1. For every 10 nitrate consumed, they also consume 1 phosphate. If there's too little of one, they don't have that golden ratio to draw from... and suffer a little color loss, etc. So if your nitrate is 1 and phosphate is 1, then your corals will consume 1 nitrate and 0.1 phosphate. Leaving you with a surplus of 0.9 phosphate. In short... try to raise nitrate, and phosphate will probably lower itself. That's the theory behind The NeoNitro and NeoPhos products by Brightwell. You add the one you are low in the ratio on... and that allows the one that's high in the ratio to get consumed. The 10:1 ratio is really close to what you want, unless I'm mistaken. Where your tank looks the best... could be at any spot, using that ratio. Nitrate at 20, Phosphate at 2 Nitrate at 5, Phosphate at 0.5 Nitrate at 2, Phosphate at 0.2 Your results will vary... Depending on where your tank naturally settles at, without adding unnecessary chemicals and filtration. I have a few tanks... but check this out: One of my tanks is a 75 gal, with NO fish. Like 6-7 hermits, 2 snails, and a shrimp... plus soft and SPS corals. Nitrate is at 2, Phosphate at 0.2. I can take a rock out of the 36 Bow that's covered in hair algae, put it in the 75, and watch the algae all but disappear over the course of days. The ratio is magical...
@@TOMReefer I have the Hanna Ultra Low Range Nitrate test kit. It's a bit time consuming and there are several steps, but it would show you the levels accurately below 5. Without the wonderful color chart! I've never used the Salifert Nitrate, although I do have others of theirs. I like the Ca, Mag, & dKH. The Phosphate is just too much of a jump in scale for me between the colors. Running a lower nutrient tank, I don't think I could live without the Hanna ULR Nitrate kit. Again... it's a bit of a pain, about 15 minutes worth of pain, but it's very accurate.
@kevin8360 hi Kevin, I do have the Hanna N03 test, I use it every once and a while to make sure my seller is still accurate. I get a 0 reading on that also. I’ve just never been a fan of dosing N03. My colors look good, so I stay where I’m at 👍🏻
How do you get your nitrates to 0 ? Even after i do a 50% water change on my 60 gallon i still get 10 nitrates. I have a fluval fx4 filter full of marine bio balls and seachem matrix with only one sponge ontop. Any advice to reduce nitrate ? Skimmer ?
Hi Ray, if you have live rock in your tank, enough to support your bacteria culture, slowly, over a period of a week, remove your bio balls as well as your matrix sponge. Those filter areas where bio balls are kept become nutrient sinks. Btw, 10ppm nitrate isn’t horrible.
15-20ppm is only high if your corals don’t look that great. (Polyps not open, just not their best) A skimmer isn’t really meant to lower nitrate. It removes organics before they can become nitrate. Even that is quite negligible. Best way to lower nitrates is 50% water change. So if you have 20ppm and want 10ppm, do a 50% water change. 👍🏻😊 refugium will help lower nitrates also.
@@TOMReefer thank you. Idk if you've looked at any of my videos but im running the tank on a fluval fx4 full of seachem matrix and another smaller canister filter full of filter floss. I also have a uv light. Might add a tunze 9004 intank skimmer soon
My glass has been crystal clear for nearly a week now. But my nitrate is 80ppm 😅 but my corals are doing better an ever. Is there a way to bring it lower tho ?
Hi Reef Rapture, I’ve been quite lucky with Dino’s. I’ve never had a bad outbreak. Even when it did happen it was at start up of a tank and they went quite quickly.
According to all the experts you need to have a little bit of nitrate in your tank mine is about point two also they recommend a little bit of phosphate I have a trace of both and I think that's fine in my opinion good video
In my opinion biological process in itself is going to lower your alkalinity a little bit anyway but you know that's my opinion i-dos my tank 24/7 with kalkwasser my alkalinity stays about 8 dkh all the time pH is about 8.1 late in the afternoon I have no hair algae everything's doing pretty well my old saying if it's not broke don't fix it every three days maybe I get a very light Haze of algae but it's so light that you can hardly see it
Good one on Nitrate Guys! Any questions as always feel free to leave a comment. I always respond.
Are there any cool “big fish” that would do good in a 20 gallon tall? I was thinking something like a small tang? I also would like to know if I could add a puffer. Thanks for the help and if anyone has suggestions let me know. Fin friend out 😊
@@patthereefkeeper Hi Fin, you can’t really put a tang or a puffer in 20. 😊I was that way in the beginning. There’s so many cool fish! Wait until you move up to 50 gal 👍🏻
@@TOMReefer do you have any recommended fish for a 20 tall other than clowns and royal gramma?
@@patthereefkeeper yellow clown goby blue spotted goby, Google nano reef fish 😊👍🏻
Hi mate
My aquarium guy told me to keep my nitrates 10-15ppm for best results in my reef tank
I don't know now
CAn you maybe tell me why he said this?
He's a good trustworthy guy,I'm just confused now
Thx
For years I struggled with SPS as I was under the impression my nutrients had to be near 0. After almost quitting I decided to restart a tank, add substrate (went barebottom for years) and let it do its thing.
25 nitrate, .05 phosphate and things are thriving! I actually dose about .1ppm of phosphate a day to keep my level there. Nutrients aren’t the enemy!
Hi AJ, I have low N03 but High Po4 and my sps do well. Happy to hear you’re being successful 👍🏻😊
The best success I had with sps and acropora was not low nitrates or phosphates when my nitrates were above 10 to 20 I had the best acro colors
@davidleach4689 I agree. 👍🏻
Excellent discourse. I have my nitrates between 15-20. And phosphate around 0.04 to 0.08. Keeping mostly LPS and soft corals.
Hi Douglas, if your corals look good, stay the course. Your phosphate is very good. 👍🏻
Great pointer with checking how quickly algae builds up on glass
Hi Geoff, Thanks, give it a try👍🏻😊
Solid vid, Tom. I'm running 66 ppm nitrate and .22 PO4 on a grown out SPS system with no ill results currently.
Hi Roli, thanks, yea, “If it’s not broke, don’t try and fix it” 😊👍🏻
Great video explaining nitrates - dont have mine down to zero yet - working on it though.
Thanks RNE, glad you took something away from it👍🏻
Hello, greetings from Germany, I will start next days a 400 liter aquarium and I may need some advices. I am a beginner and I aim to have more fishes at the beginning and slowly add corals( since are more expensive ) .
Hi Alex, good luck! Any questions feel free to ask here👍🏻
@TOMReefer how, right now I am mixing the salt in my Aquarium, did like 30% so far and looks cloudy. I do have 2 power heads and I hope will be back crystal clear
@alexflorin24 it will. Usually 12 hours
My nitrates have been hovering in the 20 to 40 ppm and I have been doing weekly water changes .I can’t seem to drop it .I don’t have any fish at the moment just a 2 torchs and a couple zoas frags and one jack o latern coral oh and 4 rock flower and cleaner shrimp and two turbo snails
Hi Htowner, are you using RODI water? You might want to test your salt mix for nitrate after you mix it. That’s quite high with the bio load you have and not feeding. How about your test kit? Thanks for your comment 👍🏻
@@TOMReefer I will be doing a water change today and I will test for it .I’m using an api test kit but was thinking of getting something better .what test kit do you recommend?
Hi Htowner, if you want accurate results you should get the Hanna Nitrate Checker. The api test is not very reliable. 👍🏻
@@TOMReeferI've been using api test liquid kits for year and they have been very reliable for me. Consistent results as well
Tom your videos are very informative and helpful and inspiring
Thanks OU812, glad the vids are helpful👍🏻😊
My issue is phosphate. I run gfo in a reactor but lately hasn't been helping much. When gfo is doing its job it keeps things cleaner and clearer
Hi Nick, you caught me at a good time 😊. Try Phosphate RX. It’s lanthanum Cloride. It will lower it over night. Follow directions. I use it all the time. 👍🏻any questions feel free.
You may have solved this by now, but what are your Nitrate levels?
Imagine this... Your corals consume nitrate and phosphate at a ratio of 10 to 1. For every 10 nitrate consumed, they also consume 1 phosphate. If there's too little of one, they don't have that golden ratio to draw from... and suffer a little color loss, etc. So if your nitrate is 1 and phosphate is 1, then your corals will consume 1 nitrate and 0.1 phosphate. Leaving you with a surplus of 0.9 phosphate.
In short... try to raise nitrate, and phosphate will probably lower itself. That's the theory behind The NeoNitro and NeoPhos products by Brightwell. You add the one you are low in the ratio on... and that allows the one that's high in the ratio to get consumed.
The 10:1 ratio is really close to what you want, unless I'm mistaken. Where your tank looks the best... could be at any spot, using that ratio.
Nitrate at 20, Phosphate at 2
Nitrate at 5, Phosphate at 0.5
Nitrate at 2, Phosphate at 0.2
Your results will vary... Depending on where your tank naturally settles at, without adding unnecessary chemicals and filtration.
I have a few tanks... but check this out:
One of my tanks is a 75 gal, with NO fish. Like 6-7 hermits, 2 snails, and a shrimp... plus soft and SPS corals. Nitrate is at 2, Phosphate at 0.2.
I can take a rock out of the 36 Bow that's covered in hair algae, put it in the 75, and watch the algae all but disappear over the course of days.
The ratio is magical...
@kevin8360 hi Kevin, my N03 have been trace using the Salifert test
@@TOMReefer I have the Hanna Ultra Low Range Nitrate test kit. It's a bit time consuming and there are several steps, but it would show you the levels accurately below 5. Without the wonderful color chart!
I've never used the Salifert Nitrate, although I do have others of theirs. I like the Ca, Mag, & dKH. The Phosphate is just too much of a jump in scale for me between the colors.
Running a lower nutrient tank, I don't think I could live without the Hanna ULR Nitrate kit.
Again... it's a bit of a pain, about 15 minutes worth of pain, but it's very accurate.
@kevin8360 hi Kevin, I do have the Hanna N03 test, I use it every once and a while to make sure my seller is still accurate. I get a 0 reading on that also. I’ve just never been a fan of dosing N03. My colors look good, so I stay where I’m at 👍🏻
How do you get your nitrates to 0 ? Even after i do a 50% water change on my 60 gallon i still get 10 nitrates. I have a fluval fx4 filter full of marine bio balls and seachem matrix with only one sponge ontop. Any advice to reduce nitrate ? Skimmer ?
Hi Ray, if you have live rock in your tank, enough to support your bacteria culture, slowly, over a period of a week, remove your bio balls as well as your matrix sponge. Those filter areas where bio balls are kept become nutrient sinks. Btw, 10ppm nitrate isn’t horrible.
Water changes won’t reduce much ,if you have coral run nitrates 10-20.
Our little eco-systems are a plethora of balancing diversity. The mind boggles with it's complexity... at least mine does 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Absolutely! Spicy Reef! Fascinating! Thanks for watching 😊
My lfs RODI is high on nitrate and alkalinity. Is it time for RODI system?
Hi Meliton, it may be time for new cartridges, and membrane. not necessarily a new unit.
Thank you! Ps your awesome
My nitrates are always at around 15-20 will a protein skimmer help idk if ive asked you already. Is 15-20ppm horrible?
15-20ppm is only high if your corals don’t look that great. (Polyps not open, just not their best) A skimmer isn’t really meant to lower nitrate. It removes organics before they can become nitrate. Even that is quite negligible. Best way to lower nitrates is 50% water change. So if you have 20ppm and want 10ppm, do a 50% water change. 👍🏻😊 refugium will help lower nitrates also.
@@TOMReefer thank you. Idk if you've looked at any of my videos but im running the tank on a fluval fx4 full of seachem matrix and another smaller canister filter full of filter floss. I also have a uv light. Might add a tunze 9004 intank skimmer soon
15-20 is good for corals, run phosphate very low
Why does my Hanna kit mark 5.00 and the numbers flash on and off
Hi GueReeffish corals, Sorry, I don’t know? the Hanna checker has not done that for me.
My glass has been crystal clear for nearly a week now. But my nitrate is 80ppm 😅 but my corals are doing better an ever. Is there a way to bring it lower tho ?
Hi Dav, my guess is your test kit is off. However if you watched my video, I give you some examples. I would try a different test kit first 👍🏻😊
Refugium explosion !!!! Nice video Tom.
Haha😃👍🏻thanks Jean
I don't really know where my nitrate goes - I have to dose it daily or it goes to zero and I get dinoflagellates.
Hi Reef Rapture, I’ve been quite lucky with Dino’s. I’ve never had a bad outbreak. Even when it did happen it was at start up of a tank and they went quite quickly.
Skimmer on too long?
Great Video Tom 🤟
Thanks Warren! 😊👍🏻
According to all the experts you need to have a little bit of nitrate in your tank mine is about point two also they recommend a little bit of phosphate I have a trace of both and I think that's fine in my opinion good video
It’s always about what’s working for you.👍🏻thanks
In my opinion biological process in itself is going to lower your alkalinity a little bit anyway but you know that's my opinion i-dos my tank 24/7 with kalkwasser my alkalinity stays about 8 dkh all the time pH is about 8.1 late in the afternoon I have no hair algae everything's doing pretty well my old saying if it's not broke don't fix it every three days maybe I get a very light Haze of algae but it's so light that you can hardly see it
Stay with what’s working Doberman guy👍🏻😊
👍
my nitrates are 3.2 phosphate 0.05 so quite good but i still have to clean my glass nice video subbed
Hi Tubefeet, great parameters, so interesting your phos is low and your N03 is 3.2ppm. Thanks for the Sub! 😊👍🏻
@@TOMReefer well for phos i use lanthanum chloride i have no clams so this works great for me thanx.
Yea, I use LC also 👍🏻