Acceptable Nitrates for BTA in a 12g Nano?

[L76]

Hi Guys,

Q: What are acceptable Nitrate levels for a well established Nano?

BACKGROUND: I am running a 12g Nanocube that was a successful home to my 10 year old mated pair of oceallris clowns... until my son was born about 7 weeks ago. Went to the hospital... got carried away for 3 days... and came back to dead fish in the Nano! Not sure how it all went sideways so quickly... I left the tank in good shape when we left for the hospital... nonetheless I lost all my snails, 3 hermit crabs and 3/4 of the branches on my torch coral too! Doh! Have since cleaned tank, conducted 25-50% water chnages weekly for last 7 weeks... and added no new critters. I am down to just 2 hermit crabs and a one-branched torch coral. Tank has live sand, live rock, mechanical sponge filters + bio balls + ceramic clinders + some Phosguard and NiTrate Guard (all this in back chambers of Nano). Tests show Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 10-12ppm (consistnely in this range over last 3-4 weeks) pH=7.8-8.2. When I went to LFS they claimed that 10-12ppm for Nitrates is acceptable for a well establilshed tank. I have always in the past taregted 0ppm. I want to add a maroon clown and eventually a BTA... but not if water conditions will not permit. Just don't know if 10-12ppm Nitrate is acceptable and whetehr or not a BTA will yack on this. Also - thinking of adding one of those mini Nano skimmers from Current.

Thoughts?

thx,
-d

 

[fyrefysh]

:welcome: , L76! I would say the acceptable level for nitrates in a 12g nano with a bta would be right around 0. You may want to get rid of your spnge filters, your bio-balls and you ceramic cilinders as these all produce nitrates after they capture detritus from your water column. I would suggest replacing all of these with live rock rubble. This would help reduce nitrates. Also, such a small aquarium, in my opinion, should have a 10% water change done on it every week.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think the nano cube has enough light for an anemone.



Fyrefish, I have the same tank. I didn't use the ceramic or the bioballs, but I left the sponges in. Your thoughts on the following please:

What makes you think the sponges will catch detritus more than LR rubble? With the sponge, I can take it out and rinse it. Plus I put some filter floss on top of it which catches most of the detritus and gets thrown away ever few days. With LR rubble, all the detrutus just stays in there. It's probably fine because something will eat it back there, but long term, won't you have more material decaying in the tank than with sponges you rinse out once a week?

 

[fyrefysh]

IMO, live rock contains many organisms that consume decaying matter, such as amphipods, copepods, isopods, mysid shrimp (if you are lucky), small feather duster worms, bristle worms, aiptasia and mojano anemones, small sponges, etc. Bio-balls and sponges do not support this type of life in them the way that live rock rubble does.

I also agree with you about the lighting requirements for the bta.

 

[Meloco14]

When I read this my first concern was lighting. My next concern was keeping the water parameters stable enough for an anemone in the nano. But if you can get past this, you will want to try to get your nitrates down and keep them down. As mentioned, the bioballs, rings, and sponges will all collect detritus and this causes nitrates to build. You may want to remove some or all of these. In my nanocube, I removed all of that and just put some live rock rubble in the back, along with some purigen and chemi pure.

Manny - I replaced all of that stuff with LR rubble. You are correct in that rubble, or anything you put in that back sump area, will collect detritus. It is important to siphon that out when you do a water change, or use a turkey baster to get some of it out. The reason I prefer to use rubble instead of the sponges or bioballs is the fact that rubble can provide more anaerobic filtration, which bioballs and sponges cannot. Ceramic rings might be able to, I'm not sure. But the anaerobic filtration is the process that breaks down the nitrate into nitrogen gas, so personally I want as much as I can get. This helps break down the nitrate that will result when detritus collects on the rubble, essentially taking care of itself. These are just my thoughts, and since you know you need to keep the sponges clean I am sure that you will be just as successful as someone using rubble. I also know some people use absolutely nothing in that back area and are successful. The key I believe is just to keep things clean. HTH

 

[Anonymous]

BTAs get huge and a nano is no place for them IMO. Nitrates are not much of a problem for anemones IMO/IME.

Also Ocellaris clowns are not found in BTAs and do not move into BTAs often.