3 gallon nitrate levels, without a fuge

[JeremyChase]

Hello,

 

My 3 gallon has been running for 4 months without any major hiccups. I regularly check my salinity, Am, Ni, and Na. Am, and Ni are always at zero, and Na slowly goes up until I do a water change. I never let it get much above 10 because that freaks me out; so I do a 20% water change every week or so. Fortunately this is really easy on my tiny tank.

 

However, I hear many people say that to keep water quality perfect you need Na at zero. Now, I know a bit about how tanks work, and to keep Na at zero something must be consuming that Na(algae). The stock that I keep isn't sensitive to Na, other than my stupid peppermint shrimp, so it isn't a worry for me. I just wonder what setups can actually keep Na at zero.

 

Would a HOB refugium help much in this regard?

 

My tank:

 

3 gallon eclipse system

upgraded lights to 13w 50/50

got rid of eclipse filtration

small powerhead

 

7 lbs of liverock, 1.5 inches of live sand

1 yellow clown goby

2 peppermint shrimp

2 nas snails

2 astrea snails

1 red stripped leg hermit

1 tiny emerald crab

small pulsing xenia, small GSP cluster, and about 10 zoo polyps

 

My tank is maxed out!

 

-Jeremy

[MrAnderson]

It sounds like you have enough live rock. Any way you can increase anaerobic bacteria growth will help. But really, probably the best idea in my opinion is to reduce bioload.

[icenine]

It's a 3 gallon tank.... slowly work your way up to a 3 gallon weekly water change (but with seven pounds of rock you don't have near that much water in there). ...but yes, you could really still cut back on the bio-load in addition.

[Carinya]

If you're not experiencing any trouble due to the 10 Nitrate readings...why mess around with it? To lots of folks, 10 and under is very acceptable. It's extremely difficult in small tanks to have enough anaerobic space to break down Nitrate. If it bothers you a lot, I'd suggest you do more frequent water changes prior to setting up a fuge or other elaborate scheme that may or may not work. But that's just my two cents, because my tanks almost always have some kind of 5-10 Nitrate reading.

[Physh1]

I would agree with Carinya...people really do overreact to nitrates. In my years of experience, a level of 20 or less is acceptable and will really cause no detrimental affects to the tank/inhabitants.

 

While 0 is perfect...it's also very difficult in general to keep there. Some is perfectly acceptable in my honest opionion.

 

Cameron

[JeremyChase]

I would agree with Carinya...people really do overreact to nitrates. In my years of experience, a level of 20 or less is acceptable and will really cause no detrimental affects to the tank/inhabitants.

 

While 0 is perfect...it's also very difficult in general to keep there. Some is perfectly acceptable in my honest opionion.

 

Cameron

 

Thanks for the input everyone.. I'm pretty content being able to keep the nitrates below 10.. I am going to look into an AC500 to see if it will fit on the back. If so, I might do that as a little refugium. It would add a significant percentage of water volume to my little tank too

 

To those asking about water displacement; the tank is a 3 gallon, but with all rock etc, the water displacement is like 2.4 gallons. It is amazing that it is stable, but so far it has been brilliant..

 

-Jeremy