NO2 @ 0.05 ppm

[onghm]

Hi,

I just started this hobby about 3 to 4 months back.

Have been following this forum closely and enjoying it

Currently have been puzzled with my NO2 reading.

My NO2 reading for my 2-month old tank has been constantly @ 0.05 ppm.

While Ammonia and NO3 are both 0, ie undetectable

I tested the water paramters weekly.

Tank detail as follows :-

Tank dimension : 2ft (L) x 1.5ft(W) x 1.5ft(H)

Tank volume : approx 34 US gallons or 128 litres

10kg of liverock

about 1.5 cm of #3 sand

1 coralife 10K 36W PL

1 coralife actinic 03 36W PL

2 powerhead @600l/h diagonally opposite each other pointing towards surface in centre of tank.

1 eheim 2213

2213 contents top down :-

Chemical - poly filter

Chemical - chemipure

Chemical - poly filter

Mechanical - JBL symec synthetic filter floss

Mechanical - eheim blue coarse mech filter

Mechanical - ceramic rings, about 4cm to trap larger detritus

As you can see, my 2213 basically served as mech and chem filteration.

I'm leaving all the biological filteration to the 10 kg of liverock in tank.

Tank Occupants as follows :-

1 damsel

1 blue tang

2 cleaner shrimps

1 goniopora

1 yellow polyp

1 daisy or starburst polyp

1 button polyp

1 green flourescent mushroom

1 hard tube coco fan worm

1 tube anemone

All occupants look happy to me.

Do I need to be concerned with 0.05 ppm of NO2 ?

How can I drop it to 0 ?

I'm suspecting I might not have enough real estate for biological filteration.

Could easily add some bio media into 2213.

But at the same time, I'm reluctant to turn it into a nitrate factory.

Any suggestions or comments ?

Thanks

[BarraCudaTM]

0.05pmm seems low enough

relax and monitor

[Sinn]

wow,

2 months and already quite packed with corals...

guess im gonna venture into it soon!

[Tanzy]

Possibly test kit error.

[Limpc]

In my opinion, the difference between 0 and 0.05 is very minor. To what resolution can a test kit reflect? I'm not too sure. But utilising judgement by human eye already will introduce some error. Thus, I would feel 0.05 is pretty ok.

From my experience, when I use JBL, the nitrite was at 0.05 and when I switch to a test kit from Aquaparm, it says 0.

So don't be too worry. Watch out for Nitrate, which I'm still struggling with it now.

Limpc

[onghm]

Thanks a lot guys.

So, the test kit could be the culprit.

I will try to get Salifert since it got mentioned quite a lot in this forum.

[onghm]

wow,

2 months and already quite packed with corals...

guess im gonna venture into it soon!

Hi Sinn,

Not to mislead you, I did not factor in the 1st month of cycling.

So all in all, tank is > 3 months old.

For the corals, I added them slowly; 1 per week or the most 2 per week.

After adding newcomer to tank, I monitor for about 1 week.

If every resident is happy, water parameter stable, then I scout for more.

By the way, normal 2 feet tank is only 57 litres.

My 2 feet is 128 litres.

The volume of the tank will also play a part on how many livestock you can add per go.

[Tigger]

Hi,

How do u manage such low NO3?

Rgds

Tig

[dodo]

to those with high NO3...y don't you try any brand of nitrate sponge it's a kind of resin that absorbs all NO3

mine have been pretty low after using tat

[TanGo]

Hi,

How do u manage such low NO3?

Rgds

Tig

I just redid my tank due to super high NO3 level. After some research, I realise that I did not place my LR properly causing alot of stagnent spots. And the large surface area of LR is sitting on the sandbed. Which is not very healthy, and to add to that, I was using an undergravel filtration system which seem to trap everything underneath. Everything was okay before I added my LRs, after adding LRs NO3 went up constantly.

After redoing my tank, my NO3 was greatly reduced, partly because I used back 40% of my water and also the placement of LR is different too..

I think the build-up of NO3 is possibly from a few reasons:

1. Water circulation in tank, maybe you have some stagnent spots where water is not moving.

2. Over feeding.

3. Improper filtration. Skimmer?

Maybe a few other factors, me still very new in this, but from what I gather, these could be the cause of high NO3.

My 2 cts

[dodo]

Hi Tango,

I thk my LRs are placed the same way you placed b4 you redo your tank however my nitrate level is less than 10.

Do you really thk that stagnent areas, placement of LR onto the sand bed etc really contribute to nitrate problem? If so, I thk I really have to redo my tank liao

[Tigger]

to those with high NO3...y don't you try any brand of nitrate sponge it's a kind of resin that absorbs all NO3

mine have been pretty low after using tat

Just curious how "low" is yr NO3 reading?

[onghm]

Hi,

How do u manage such low NO3?

Rgds

Tig

Hi Tig,

I will try to explain, but by the way, I'm a newbie, so u have to discount whatever crap that comes out of me ok

I think the reason could be I'm not emphasising bio-filteration in my canister.

I'm working towards NNR whereby the bio filteration is left to DSB and liverock.

I don't have DSB yet, only liverocks.

IMO my 10kg of liverock might not be sufficient...that's why I have only 2 fishes.

Maybe its still too early to concur that my NO3 is low as my tank is only 2 to 3 month-old.

Whenever I clean my canister, I use tap-water to clean all the mech media; especially the ceramic rings.

Cause I do not want any nitrifying bacteria to buildup in the canister.

I'm quite sure if I start to populate the canister with bio media, my NO3 will go up.

Hope this helps.

Make sense or not ?

Maybe the "old birds" could comment.

[tigershark]

may i know what test kit you using??? my SERA NO2 tester can only detect up to 5ppm and anything less than that would reflect as 0...... maybe can intro??

[X_Japan]

then why in the world do u put bio rings in your canister filter for??

it's defeating the purpose

Bio rings are supposed to hold bacteria

they are meant for biological filtration, not chemical

it is supposed to have more surface area so as to hold more of these bacteria to deal with the bio load in the tank

and anyway,

there is alot of bacteria in the filter sponge also

SO in other words, it's the same

[Achilles Tang]

[i think the reason could be I'm not emphasising bio-filteration in my canister.

I'm working towards NNR whereby the bio filteration is left to DSB and liverock.

I don't have DSB yet, only liverocks.

IMO my 10kg of liverock might not be sufficient...that's why I have only 2 fishes.

Maybe its still too early to concur that my NO3 is low as my tank is only 2 to 3 month-old.

Whenever I clean my canister, I use tap-water to clean all the mech media; especially the ceramic rings.

Cause I do not want any nitrifying bacteria to buildup in the canister.

I'm quite sure if I start to populate the canister with bio media, my NO3 will go up.

I think your understanding of how filtration works is all wrong.

1. If you have ceramic rings in your canister... you are welcoming bacteria colonization in it.

2. Using tapwater to wash your ceramic rings will KILL all the bacteria that has colonized them.

3. If you don't want bacteria to colonise your ceramic rings in your canister, why have it in the first place?

4. If you are afraid of NO3 more than NO2... you are worrying for nothing. NO2 is more toxic than NO3... do you have enough biological media to support nitrifying bacteria in the first place?

Do you know its possible to have low NO3 but have high NO2? You need all the right bacteria in place to process the above. You cannot have an imbalance.

What are you using your canister for then? Mechanical filtration alone?

[dodo]

Just curious how "low" is yr NO3 reading?

jus tested 2 days ago, it is less than 10___i thk is 10meg or something like that...almost zero

the safe level is actually less than 40 but some books suggested it is best to keep nitrate below 20 i also read from the book...in some tanks it is impossible to keep nitrate at a low level...i dunno how true is tis...maybe they are referring to those with canister filter

[onghm]

Hi AT, X_Japan,

Thanks for pointing out my mistake.

That's what I need

1. I thought the ceramic rings can also be used as mech to trap larger detritus.

Q: Should I remove it altogther ?

2. I intentionally use tapwater to kill bacteria in canister as I want it to function just as mech and chem filteration

3. As per (1), came across articles whereby ceramic rings are used as 1st layer mech to trap larger detritus. Is it redundant ?? I only used about 4cm of those.

4 My intention was to reduce NO3 the natural way, using liverock.

I was hoping my liverock would take care of both NO2 and NO3

NO2 higher than NO3 is exactly my current situation.

Ammonia undetactable using sera testkit

NO2 @ 0.05 ppm using JBL testkit

NO3 undetactable (light yellow) using sera testkit

Yes, cannister is for mech and chem filtration alone.

Some of the forumers suggested possible testkit error for NO2.

I have not bought another testkit to verify yet.

Or could it be the bacteria is imbalance ?

ie not enough bacteria to convert all NO2 to NO3..

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks