The effect oh high nitrate on LPS/softies?

[Ballyhoo]

I made a newbie mistake earlier my 42 gallon /52 system tank, which by the way has a lot of filtration systems, a protein skimmer, reef reactor chamber, fleece roller. The only thing that I would work into is refugeium do mechanically. I can't figure out how I would put one in. I have no sump space left. overall parameters are good except N03. It's high. the mistake I made early on was I got enamored by all the beautiful fish I saw at LFS and I overstocked my tank. Fast forward 5 1/2 months and my corals are now stable with coraline appearing as well. but I don't really know that they're growing. N03 is embarrassingly high and I didn't realize until I tested for it using something other than a strip. I was much more focused on making sure my phosphates had a low amount, but my feeding habits were very liberal for my fish. just take a turkey baster suck it up and let my fish have at it. Fish need to eat and want them to be happy. But last few days since I started testing, I'm being very sparing on how I feed my fish and, I'm gonna have to try to re-home purple tang that should have never been talked into getting. I'm still wondering, nitrates i.e. high nutrients, gonna be a real problem for my corals as far as? my concern is I have this tang and if I underfeed it, it will become aggressive with the rest of my fish. That tang has got to go is beautiful as it is, or maybe I'm overthinking and the Tang gas got another year until it gets too big IDK. I got sucked into this hobbit pretty quickly and even got myself a second 30 gallon nano that just for nems. i'm making doubly sure not to stock that tank up with more than three fish. but this is the thing most corals are doing fine i think, not sure they're growing though and I know that i should not have a tang in there. let me just chalk it off too and newb mistake. I kind of go back-and-forth thinking to re home him right away or just wait and get a larger tank but I'm at least a year or two from being able to get a larger tank.
also, just to make sure, because I did test High for an N03, I tested zero or untraceable for N02. Using salifert.

 

[boacvh]

What is the actual no3 level?

 

[Ballyhoo]

like 30

 

[Slocke]

like 30

That’s not high at all. Honestly probably want higher for LPS and softies

Show me your polluted tanks: High Po4 High No3

I hear and see on many threads that you can't have high nutrients to run a colorful and successful reef. I see every day on threads about "help my coral" or "Is this coral dead" there is information that keeps getting regurgitated about having to high of phosphates or nitrates. This thread is...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[PharmrJohn]

IMO, the tang needs rehoming pretty much ASAP. It really has no swim lane to speak of. I've never been one to 'wait on a bigger tank'. Life gets in the way more often than not, so the best course of action is to work with what you've got and, when you actually do upgrade, get your bigger fish then.

And I've seen some really nice tanks with NO3 higher than 30. It's fine. You've got a lot of filtration with your system so once you dial in your feeding, that number should drop pretty fast.

 

[boacvh]

Agree with above, that's not very high at all. My tank runs 2x higher fwiw.
I'd say not to worry with that level at all. Having said that, if interested in lowering them probably the easiest ways are feed less, water changes and carbon dosing. There are many other ways if you do your research. But to reiterate, 30 is not high and I wouldn't react to it and start doing other stuff that could be worse for the tanks stability.