Help with my Nitrate

C

critofer

New member
Hey all,
Today i bought a new master test kit thing for API. I did all the test and here were my results

PH- 8.0
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 80 - 160 ppm ( i really cant tell a difference in the color thing)

a few days ago i did a like a 25% water change
i dont see any Green Hair Algae or any Cyano red slime.
i feed a little flakes in morning, half a brine shrimp cube in the afternoon, and somemore flakes at night.
I dont know way the nitrate would be so high!?!

I am gunna try cutting back on the feeding for a few days to see if it will lower it.

Could my test be wrong? What should i be doing? i am afraid ill lose my livestock. But my blood shrimp and cleaner shrimp both look fine, my clowns,goby, and cardinal all look fine. my mushroom coral looks fine and so does my condy anemone.

Any ideas???

Thanks
 
Feeding 3 times a day like that will give you very high levels of nitrate depending on how long youve been feeding that way. I feed my tanks 3-4 times a week. The more food you put into the tank the more waste gets put into the tank. How often are you doing water changes? Also what type of water are you using? You might be putting nitrates back into the system during your water changes.
What size tank is it? How long as it been setup?
 
yeah. 80 - 160 is really high would think your corals and inverts would show signs of stress at that level. Is the test kit outdated maybe you got an old one and its just reading wrong. Id switch to a pellet oer a flake. Spectrum has some great pellet foods.
 
Thats pretty high reading... are you following the instructions on the NitrAte test and shaking the bottle?

just a thought.
 
He said he just purchased the test kit.

Ive serviced plenty of tanks with nitrate levels around 80-100 with no signs of stress to inverts so it is possible.
 
If your results are repeatable, I'd double check nitrates with a different brand test kit, or ask the LFS to check for you. In the meantime, I'd cut feedings to once a day and do more water changes.
 
Yes i shook the bottle for 1 minute b4 adding the drops. My tank is a 29 gallon. I am using tap water but i have a rainsoft water purification system installed and my tap water is okay to use. the only reason i fed that much is because some fish i have says they need to be fed a few times a day according to liveaquaria. I do water changes every 2 weeks of about 20%. my tank has been running for like 3 and half months now.
 
LA's website, along with every other website and container of food, says to feed multiple times a day so you buy more fish food...

Test your tap water for nitrates. The rainsoft filter will not remove them. If they test at zero youre fine.

Cut back feedings and do weekly 10g water changes.
 
okay, so how often and what should i be feeding 2 clowns, yellow watchmen goby, 1 cardinal, 1 blood shrimp and 1 cleaner shrimp?

Im currently just doing flakes and brine shrimp cubes
 
You might consider trying a sulfur denitrator. I have had great results keeping nitrates around 1, they were up around 50 at one point.
 
I'd say your problem lies in the tap water that you are using. I can't be 100% for certain on this, but it very well could be. I know a lot of people on here will tell you that a water purifier is just not going to cut it on a reef tank.
 
Bristleworms, nassarius, a fighting conch in tanks 50 gal and up: your shrooms are probably noshing down quite happily, but could do without the 'trate, for sure. Do you have a filter in the system besides live rock? That can be a problem, if gunk piles up. Even an uncleaned filter sock, bioballs, anything that catches detritus, which your shrooms would prefer to have anyway...a forgotten carbon bag can do it.
 
Sk8r, I have probably 35 - 40 lbs of live rock, live sand. I have a HOB filter. its an Emperor 280 with a bio-wheel, it also has a filter in it that has black active carbon built into the filter media thing. I am thinking about making one of those DIY denitrator. but its a little confusing to read how to make it.
 
Okay, well its definitly not the water im putting in the tank that has the nitrates, i just did a test on some WC water i mixed up 3 days ago and the nitrates were undetectable.
 
UPDATE. Okay today I tested my tank fir nitrates and it was like 40. I think the feeding was causing such a high nitrate lvl
 
Khoad said:
You might consider trying a sulfur denitrator. I have had great results keeping nitrates around 1, they were up around 50 at one point.
Click to expand...

+1 on the sulfur denitrator.....it was a life saver for me.
I looked for alternative solutions opposed to cutting back on feeding or fish or doing large water changes.

I now keep my nitrates levels < 1.
I feed 2 times a day pellets as I like my fish happy.
Wet skim about 5 gallons a week.
Have 4 fish over 10 inches long and some of their poop look like worms.....
 
critofer said:
Hey all,
Today i bought a new master test kit thing for API. I did all the test and here were my results

PH- 8.0
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 80 - 160 ppm ( i really cant tell a difference in the color thing)

a few days ago i did a like a 25% water change
i don't see any Green Hair Algae or any Cyano red slime.
i feed a little flakes in morning, half a brine shrimp cube in the afternoon, and some more flakes at night.
I don't know way the nitrate would be so high!?!

I am gunna try cutting back on the feeding for a few days to see if it will lower it.

Could my test be wrong? What should i be doing? i am afraid ill lose my livestock. But my blood shrimp and cleaner shrimp both look fine, my clowns,goby, and cardinal all look fine. my mushroom coral looks fine and so does my condy anemone.

Any ideas???

Thanks
Click to expand...

Before you start jumping around to different "remedies" I will say this; the API Nitrate test has to be done exactly as the directions state. The one bottle must be shaken for 30 sec. and the vial must be shaken for a full minute. If you have done this I would double check with LFS or other source as to insure you have a "good" test kit. Check the date, but, sometimes the kit is just faulty.
 
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