nitrite

[jdy22]

I can't get my nitrite to go to zero. It constantlly at .03 I think. Any help would be gladly accepted.

[thereefgeek]

.03 mg/L is pretty great for a reef tank. Heck, 3.0 mg/L is good! The best way to get your nitrates to zero is to remove all living matter, drain your tank, clean it out, refill it with fresh, de-chlorinated water then re-test.:lol: In other words, don't sweat a little nitrate. If it gets up to 30.0 mg/L then it might be time to do some water changes. BTW, where did you find a test kit that measures NO3 down to 1/100 of a milligram?

[thereefgeek]

oops! Just saw that it was nitr-I-te, not nitr-A-te. How long's the tank been set up, and what kind of livestock are you keeping? Any sand or rock (live) ? How are the amonia and N-ate? Is something dying off on your rock? That might cause a spike in the N-ite

[waterdevil1]

Great Recovery Rich!

[jdy22]

Been up for about 3 month got fish and reef and live sand and live rocks. change half the water already. after I change it, it was zero and now it rising up and it is stable at .03 mg/l

[thereefgeek]

How big is the tank? How many fish? Did you cure the rock when you brought it home? (even cured rock will have some die-off if it's transported "moist") When I bring home new rock (even fully cured, beautiful, oderless rock, I always keep it in a bucket or Rubbermaid container for at least a week with some old tank water (good excuse for a water change) before adding it to my system. Run a powerhead & heater in with it to keep it aerated.

[German]

Hi there,

Adding my two cents here. What is your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels, and ph? What your livestock? What kind of test kit you're using.

I know you're looking at nitrite, but we need to see the whole picture. My tank had that issue to, ammonia=0, nitrite greater than 0, and nitrate=0. It took me a month to figure out what was wrong, including some needless spending. I found out I was reading the test kit wrong. I was using the Quick Dip test kits which test for both nitrite and nitrate on a single test strip. I had read the test strip backward. Meaning my nitrite was really zero and my nitrate was greater than 0.

I hope this help.