keeping nitrates down

[velocityoflove]

Is it normal to have excessive nitrates in a newer tank? I'll do a 25% water change and within a few days they're back up again (20-40 range). Should I change half of the water or keep doing water changes until they're completely down and then try to keep them down from there? Or is there a bigger problem I'm missing?

No ammonia, nitrites, or phosphates. I recently had an outbreak of cyano but that has been mostly cleared up. I don't overfeed. I have a decent amount of water flow. The tank isn't overstocked. It's a 55 gallon and I recently got T5HO lights.

It may be that I need a skimmer (I only have a hang on the back filter, but it's rated for 90 gallons).

Just wondering if this is typical for new tanks, if there's a problem I could be missing, or if anyone has any other input!

 

[frantz]

what are you using to test? I've got false high's with API test which is when I finially realized everyone was right and they are junk. You can take a sample into LFS and they will test for you to make sure there is really a problem. I got off the chart readings with API once and Red Sea read 0, I have no idea what triggered the reaction in the test. Or if you test for that at the pool store I see that you work at, try using their test (-=

 

[KrisDeitz]

What's the fish list

 

[velocityoflove]

My pool store only has nitrate strips because its usually not a huge problem in pools haha.

And I only have 2 young ocellaris clownfish and 5 peppermint shrimp.