Tank Cycled

[chunchma]

My tank has cycled and I have zero Ammonia and Nitrites. But my Nitrates are at 25. How do I get zero Nitrates and why would they be so high.

I assume that I should not put any inverts in with the Nitrates at 25.

After the tank cycles shouldn't my nitrates be close to zero?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Have you done a water change yet? If not, do one and check your nitrates in a day or so.

 

[Anonymous]

Varying opinions on trates, but the more people i talk to and the more i read, the less important trates seem to be.
My trates are always in the 20 range, and everything looks great.
LFS, who has an incredible store full of everything, including clams etc and I trust , also has told me that trates in that range are absolutely fine.
Just my opinion and experience thus far.

 

[Rikko]

Nitrate panic is often overdone in the hobby.. If everything is healthy, don't fret about it!
At the last store I worked at there was a salt display tank with nitrates reading, I kid you not, 800ppm. I could only test it by diluting a sample of the tank water with pure water.

But no, your nitrates won't disappear as quickly, especially in a new tank. I always get a nitrate spike in a new tank as the live rock "recures" and the last little bit of dieoff is processed. If you left the tank alone for a month I'm sure it would go away, but as soon as you start adding any live animals or feeding it won't go down as fast (if at all).

Couple ways you can reduce nitrate:
1) Water changes. Do several large ones in quick succession.
2) Plant life. Beaslbob will surely chime in soon about the benefits of plant life. I suggest doing some searching for refugiums to see what the big deal is.
3) A denitrator. Typically you have to build them yourself and I would never bother, but it's an option. Essentially you have a very long channel for the water to move down (like a spool of airline tubing) and once the water reaches the end the oxygen has been depleted from the water and anaerobic, denitrifying bacteria live and work there.
4) A chemical sponge. I put it in the same class as carbon - it's a chemical media you put in a bag and it will adsorb nitrate from the water. I wouldn't bother with this, either. Not at 20ppm, anyways.