High Nitrate Level... No carbon for 6 days..

[WXB]

So today is testing day. I my 40 gal has a nitrate level of 20 as to 3 weeks ago that was at 0.00 to .25 everthing was good. Nothing in my tank is showing any signs of anything being wrong. It is kind of an odd situation. Amonia is at 0.00
Ph is at 8.4
Kh-Gh is at 161.1
Phos is at .25
Cal is at 500 (HIGH)
Nitrites are at 0.00
The only thing that I had to do in that time was have the carbon out for medication reasons. That is the only thing i could think of. everthing else is good. I am going to cut down on the feeding and do some water changes and keep an eye on the levels daily.
Could the 6 days of no carbon be the issue?

 

[iamwrasseman]

something has been polluting your tank and its showing up in your test so i would look for any missing tankmates .phos at .25 is high to me , do you have corals in your tank ? what are you using for water ?
carbon usually gets used up much quicker than we think so even though its in your system its pretty much useless after a couple of weeks at most IMO. that being said i would pretty much assume that it has nothing to do with your carbon . it may have to do with your medication and its effect on your microbacteria . what are you dosing with in your tank ?

 

[JustinM]

And cheap carbon can leak phosphates into tank, I don't believe carbon will have anything to do with nitrates at all.

 

[WXB]

I put the carbon back in 4 days ago. Nothing is missing. I do know i need to add more crabs. I have a tone of worms so i am not too worried about things not being picked up. There is pulsing xena mushroom polyps frog spawn green star poylps fungia nem 2 clowns 6 line and yellow eye tang.
I used microbe lift herbal activve herbtana. clears up ich gill and skin chilodonella costia trichadina oodinium. its a all natural expellant. that was 15 days ago for 10 days then i put the carbon back in tested today and its out of ballance. The onlything i could pin it on for waste was a shrimp chung for the nem that the clown took out and did not finish. I think if anything that is what poluted the tank. other than that and the high level of CAL things are good. but this is not good. then onlything to change is I upgraded the fliter when i put the carbon back into the tank. went from a 700 canister filter to a 100. other than thies things nothing has changed.
for the past few month everthing was normal. this month UGH now i have high levels.

 

[iamwrasseman]

well im sorry to say but saltwater and canister filters just dont mix . the canister filter becomes a nitrate factory IMO and will only hurt your system unless its used for a few days a week only for polishing the water .
how old is your tank ?

 

[WXB]

the tank is 3 years old. the cani ster has bio balls. and it has 2 other baskets for floss pads and the carbon bag i fill with fresh carbon every 3 weeks. This tank has had the same filter for 3 years now. I took out the 2 baskets added one more and thats it. keeping everthing from the old filter. When i clean out the filter i CLEAN it out every 3 weeks. I take apart everything.
I have extra waterfall filters i am not using. would it help to add them to the back till it clears up? I have never had a problem with my can filters. I have 3 tanks with the cans the other two are BioCubes so no external filter needed.

 

[iamwrasseman]

im not saying that it cant be done but its much easier with a sump and skimmer . if it works for you ,keep doing as you are doing . the major problem will be when your bio load surpasses the filters ability to properly break down ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and also your co2 level will usually be high as there is much much less aeration . high co2 will add to ph and alk being to low .

 

[WXB]

I got a bigger can to help me keep things balanced. The skimmer I am trying to find a good one still. I do not want to spend 150 on a POS. I keep reading and learning more about each skimmer one day i will find that one that makes me happy. I am happy with what I have i just want to get this spike under control. With the water change I am not sure what else to do. I am not adding Vodka to my tank. The Nitrate removers I know are Junk. I am not adding chemicals and crap to my tank. That is why I am asking for some help. I have a good feeling the Med week with out the carbon did somthing. I am trying to get everthing back to its normal balance.

 

[bryan007]

Ohhh yes remove that canister filter. It does nothing but produce nitrates like weeds and remove some detritus. The bioballs make nitrate manufacturing even more worse. If you can afford to buy something to make an under tank sump then that will reduce much if not most of your nitrates.