Completely Puzzled....?

[Straight_Chaos]

A whole cube a night!!!!
That there is your problem boss haha
Frozen/ fresh food has a lot of "juice" that is just full of goodies that fish and coral can not eat. That just adds up and adds up. Do a 90% water change or 40 gallons(you have a sump) and that will bring your levels down! Then just maintenance from there on out. You are spending money on these products and bacteria to lower you nitrates but I would just do a huge water change to get the level down and use the products to maintain the low level. Feed flake for a while. My fish and coral are happy and colorful and I feed flake one a day and cyclops about once a month about a pea sized somewhat targeted to the coral. fish eat the rest. REMEMBER CORAL GET MOST FOOD/ENERGY FROM LIGHT!!! thats why we spend money to get bright *** lights

 

[CrazyEyes]

I only now feed the fish every 3 days. I do still thaw an entire cube in tank water, which then gets strained to get rid of all the shrimp juice. And then instead of dumping I just slowly feed the fish making sure I am only putting in what they can consume. And honestly, I've heard mixed thoughts about flakes.

 

[MJNTWise]

What i read is only feed your fish what they can eat in 2 to 3 mins....Thats it...I have 12 fish in my 120 and I feed once every morning, I make sure I only feed what they can eat in those 2 to 3 mins...I have never had a problem with Nitrates just po4....But remember evry tank is different.

 

[CrazyEyes]

Right, which is what I have just started to do within the past couple of weeks. I only feed what they are actually going to eat. It takes a little bit longer but I'm not just dumping a bunch of food in now.

 

[Straight_Chaos]

If you change 34 gallons of 200ppm water with 0ppm water by my math you will have a nitrate level of 30ppm. Then dose to keep it down. Water changes are cheap considering.

 

[MJNTWise]

Sounds to me then your on your way now.....

 

[MrHarvard]

I have been through pretty much everything you guys arw saying. I thought for sure it was the feeding so that was the first thing I told him to fix. The thing thats confusses me is why after several water changes there has been no decrease in nitrates? I thought maybe alot of build up on the sand and rocks from over feesing but he was siphoning the sand and blowing off yhe rocks before the water changes. It seems to me that after chamging the water volume out that he has he should see some kind of drop..The only advice I had left to give was keep doing what your doing and changing water and in a few weeks it should start to decline..

 

[Postal]

If you do a large water change and your nitrates don't drop then there are only two options. Either you have multiple bad test kits or your source water is bad (whether initially or by contamination from the jugs).

 

[BlueCoast]

A whole cube a night!!!!
That there is your problem boss haha
Frozen/ fresh food has a lot of "juice" that is just full of goodies that fish and coral can not eat.

I feed on average 2 frozen cubes a day in my 40B, nitrates @ <1 (salifert and elos), po4 @ .02 Hanna checker.


Randy Holmes Farley on rinsing frozen food. I cut and pasted the summary of it below.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. Not really worthwhile, in my opinion, but that decision is one every aquarist can make for themselves.

Finding the source of the nitrate is the main goal. A large water change should temporarily drop the nitrates. I don't see how jugs could add THAT much nitrate to a system. I assume CrazyEyes isn't missing any fish recently that could be slowly decomposing?

Have you tested for ammonia and nitrite? Nitrite can interfere with Nitrate tests.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=723756

 

[MrHarvard]

I feed on average 2 frozen cubes a day in my 40B, nitrates @ <1 (salifert and elos), po4 @ .02 Hanna checker.


Randy Holmes Farley on rinsing frozen food. I cut and pasted the summary of it below.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry


Finding the source of the nitrate is the main goal. A large water change should temporarily drop the nitrates. I don't see how jugs could add THAT much nitrate to a system. I assume CrazyEyes isn't missing any fish recently that could be slowly decomposing?

Have you tested for ammonia and nitrite? Nitrite can interfere with Nitrate tests.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=723756

All these things I agree with.. I feed heavy as well but I run a large skimmer so the amount of food he is NOW feeding should be fine. Im also baffled that the nitrates arent dropping at all after all the water changes. And yes tests show no ammonia or nitrites and no dead fish..
This is the reason I posted this thread because it just doesn't make sense.....

 

[snake1]

Hopefully it is just the feeding I was told by FAOIS to cut my feeding back to every 3 days and all the cleaning to, it did help for sure. I still wonder what is the bacteria he is dosing I have never heard anyone doing that, that sounds like a huge nitrate addition to the tank I dont see the purpose?

 

[CrazyEyes]

It's Microbacter7. It's beneficial bacteria. Bacteria that is in the LR, sand etc.

 

[snake1]

Ok were your nitrates still high prior to dosing and just wondering has anyone called that company to see if that product would spike your nitrates for a short whilethan taper off?

 

[snake1]

the reason i ask is that you are adding stuff to your tank you should cut everything off clean really good cut the food back to 3 days, water changes, change socks and see where your at, there is no way to have bad water if your skimming and changing water....your skimmer is not leaking the cup contents back into your tank?

 

[snake1]

Take it back to the basics your salt should have enough to hold you over without dosing anything your fish might hate you for starving them haha ,i Have a friend that has several bad*ss Tanks full of corals and he doesnt add anything only water changes everyweek

 

[MrHarvard]

Microbac7 will not cause this to be happening.

 

[snake1]

the only thing im saying is if you hang out in a small room and someone comes in and smokes a cigar the room gets filled with smoke( not good for you ) same with the tank keep it to the basics fresh salt and keep the cigar smoke/dosing out then see where you are at and make sure your RO is pure

 

[snake1]

/food to a min,clean sand , no detritis , reg water changes,good skimming, no heavy animal load, no decaing animals, ect..........

 

[CrazyEyes]

I'm not really sure what you're getting at snake. How do you figure you can't get bad water? That makes no sense. And how often is your friend doing water changes to be able to keep the correct amount of Ca,alk and mag in there after the corals consume them?

 

[snake1]

i just mean stop with everything you are adding and just do the basic maintance practices and clean really good to get you through what you are going through. and then check step by step as you start your dosing additives one by one ......my friend his tanks are amazing and he only changes his water every week 5 to 10% a week.. I have seen your post and see that you go to FAOIS alot i have been going there since the first year they opened they have helped me with similiar problems and just trying to help in the same way they helped me... I hope you get through this and dont give up it can be frustrating but you will miss it in the end and want to start another, tanks are like chips you cant have just one!!!