Nitrate help

[Renato]

Also, just a thought, how old is your test kit/what test kit are you using? I have had a test kit that has given me false nitrate readings due to old age. You could test it by testing some RO water or some distilled water that you know should have 0 nitrates.
One more thing, how often do you do water changes and how much do you do?

test kit is about a month old, it is API test kit.
I did check the RO water and it reads 0 so i guess its working

 

[JohnK]

How big is your ref/how much cheato are you growing?

Sounds like a lot of fish, which means a lot of food, which leads to a lot of nitrate (poo). Without a lot of nutrient export somewhere, something's got to give.

What do you have for a skimmer?

Yes, DSB/RDSB anywhere will help with nitrate once it gets established. Of cuourse there a lot of considerations about where and how to do that....

 

[Renato]

How big is your ref/how much cheato are you growing?

Sounds like a lot of fish, which means a lot of food, which leads to a lot of nitrate (poo). Without a lot of nutrient export somewhere, something's got to give.

What do you have for a skimmer?

Yes, DSB/RDSB anywhere will help with nitrate once it gets established. Of cuourse there a lot of considerations about where and how to do that....

I have a 120g, my fuge is a 29g half of that is cheato.
My skimmer is a ASM g4+

 

[Liam]

I am not sure if that is a typo on the phosphates but phosphates should be below 0.03 i am guessing you are testing and getting 0.5 which is very high.
Basically if you are getting any kind of color change with a liquid test you have a problem that will impede coral growth and fuel algae growth.

As far as nitrate you should be striving for zero,any measurable nitrate will cause algae.

Some folks here are saying that 5 or 10ppm is ok but i would bet my bottom dollar that they have algae issues also.