HELP!!! Huge nitrate/nitrite spike!!!

[Mbmarkus]

Hi RC:

My tank finished cycling a few weeks ago and I recently added three green chromes (testers), a davinci clown, a snowflake phantom clown, a a diamond goby that I've had for a long time from my old tank and a cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp from my old tank. All were added over the course of a few weeks.

I started my tank with Coralife Real Reef Rock and used live sand. However, I didn't use RO/DI water. I treated tap water and mixed my own saltwater. It seems I should've listened to my brother when he told me this was a mistake:/

The tank was doing great but in the past few days, a huge amount of brown algae has started to grow. It's covering many rocks. I did some tests sand my levels are: Calcium - 420; magnesium - 1300; dkH - 8.2; salinity - 1.026; temp is 77; ammonia is 0; pH is 8.1; nitrate at .5/ppm and nitrite at 10/ppm.

Question: How do I deal with the high nitrate/nitrite levels and get rid of this algae??? I want to avoid having to move my livestock if possible, and want to avoid stressing them out as much as I can.

HELPPPPP!!!

 

[alf1096]

A water change will help reduce the levels. Nitrite should be 0 but I don't think .5 will harm anything but is would to a water change 10 to 20 percent.

 

[btucker7587]

If you used tap water, you most likely have a higher than normal Po4 (Phosphate) levels which will cause the outbreaks.

Did you mean .5 Nitrite and 10 Nitrate?

 

[Pife]

Lots of water changes.

 

[mcgyvr]

10ppm of nitrate is NOTHING to worry about at all.. especially for a fish only tank.
Fish can tolerate much higher levels.. 100+ppm

Just relax.. nothing to react to at all.

And algae is part of a new tank.. again nothing to react to yet.

stay with a normal water change regimen and stop using regular tap water and continue to monitor.

 

[tzylak]

The tank had a Nitrite spike as a follow-up of the bio load spike.
Ask yourself what would you expect when you give your fledgling tank all those fish and all at once??
Relax, take a deep breath and remember that the slow and steady wins the race.
Well, at least you found Reef Central so start your reading, especially all the sickys as the first listings of vital topics.
Good luck!!

 

[Jeff210]

Can't stress RODI water enough...

 

[Mbmarkus]

I did a 10% water change using RODI water. Thank you for all the responses. The levels have balanced out.

 

[FF184]

Like others said most likely from the tap water.

One other thing to check is your filtration. What kind of filtration are you using? Is it time to clean your media?

 

[FF184]

Oops, I guess you can ignore my last post then lol

 

[Mbmarkus]

If you used tap water, you most likely have a higher than normal Po4 (Phosphate) levels which will cause the outbreaks.

Did you mean .5 Nitrite and 10 Nitrate?

Yea I had a brain fart, it is the other way around.

 

[Mbmarkus]

Like others said most likely from the tap water.

One other thing to check is your filtration. What kind of filtration are you using? Is it time to clean your media?

I use a filter sock for filtration and a bubble magus 3.5 in my sump. I just cleaned the sock the other day by using hydrogen peroxide and three sanitize cycles in the washing machine hot water only.

 

[ReefKeep66]

I would do some wc with RO water. As long as I used tap water, I was battling my phosphates