High nitrates and frustration

fernalfer

New member
Ok my tank has been running now for about a month, it has cycled, had the ammonia spike, nitrite spike and was able to dose ammonia to 2 ppm and have it processed in under 18 hrs. about 2 weeks ago. My problem is Nitrates, they are very high like 80ppm using the red sea test kit. I have done about 8 (50) gallon water changes over the course of the last 2 weeks and nitrates are still 80ppm. My tank is empty. After it cycled about 2 weeks ago i did leave some pellets in a mesh bag to feed the bacteria but have now taken that out. This last week nothing has been in the tank and they still won't come down.

Problem is how expensive and time consuming these water changes are getting with little results. I'm afraid to put a CUC in there to help with my diatom bloom because i heard that high nitrates and inverts is not good. Any suggestions on how i can battle these high nitrates? It seems to me these water changes are having little or no effect.
 
I had nitrate problems despite huge water changes, but as soon as I got rid of my canister filter and replaced it with a skimmer they dropped within three days to undetectable. Not sure what your set-up so it is hard to give advice.
 
I had nitrate problems despite huge water changes, but as soon as I got rid of my canister filter and replaced it with a skimmer they dropped within three days to undetectable. Not sure what your set-up so it is hard to give advice.

I have a ReefOctopus Classic 150INT skimmer and it has been running for two weeks now. I have done multiple water changes with little to no effect on the nitrate levels. Thinking about trying that NoPox stuff by Red Sea.
 
First thing to me...have you tried a different test kit?

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 
I had the same issue and after I added the ARID now I need to dose nitrates as nitrates and phosphates went down to almost zero
 
I built a twin tower nitrate destroyer from PVC pipes and nitrate drop from 80ppm to 0ppm in 3 weeks. Now i have to dose sodium nitrate to color up my coral. In fact, there is a lot of method to reduce nitrate, some can be built from PVC pipes, others are commercially available. I chose to built it myself cheaply from material available at my garage.
 
Ok my tank has been running now for about a month, it has cycled, had the ammonia spike, nitrite spike and was able to dose ammonia to 2 ppm and have it processed in under 18 hrs. about 2 weeks ago. My problem is Nitrates, they are very high like 80ppm using the red sea test kit. I have done about 8 (50) gallon water changes over the course of the last 2 weeks and nitrates are still 80ppm. My tank is empty. After it cycled about 2 weeks ago i did leave some pellets in a mesh bag to feed the bacteria but have now taken that out. This last week nothing has been in the tank and they still won't come down.

Problem is how expensive and time consuming these water changes are getting with little results. I'm afraid to put a CUC in there to help with my diatom bloom because i heard that high nitrates and inverts is not good. Any suggestions on how i can battle these high nitrates? It seems to me these water changes are having little or no effect.


My suggestion, though not what anyone wants to hear is to wait. Don't add a cuc, dont add organics (pellets or anything else) and forget about doing water changes. If you have any type of canister, bioballs, filter media or anything advertised as such; remove it. Do user a skimmer or ATS or fuge or some combination as you deisre.

You need something to export/convert your nutrients (nitrates). How much LR do you have? Where did you source it from? System volume? What are your current plans for filtration?

edit: Throwing a mesh bag of purigen in the sump may help, again, consider what type(s) of mechanical, chemical and biological filtration you want to have.
 
I agree with LJA, you need to come up with a long term plan for how you are going to maintain proper NO3 and PO4 export from your system. I started cycling my tank 3 weeks ago and NO3 is presently about 7.5. I had originally planned that I was going use macro algae and gfo. To cycle the tank I bought the Red Sea Reef Mature Pro Kit, which comes with a bottle of NO3:pO4-X. I did some research and realized that it is carbon dosing and that along with wet skimming can be used to have an ultra low nutrient system, so much so that you can end up having to actually dose nitrates. I expect that I will likely end up just staying the course with NOPOX because I am highly impressed. After curing my BRS Pukani for 8 weeks in the basement and never seeing NO3 less than 20 and usually closer to 50 even with 100% water changes I am feeling pretty happy with 7.5 after 3 weeks of dosing.
 
What size is the tank?

Water changes WILL/MUST have an effect..
Could your test kit be bad?
Are you still checking for nitrites? If so whats that at..
Nitrites could be confusing the nitrate test kit I believe..
 
What size is the tank?

Water changes WILL/MUST have an effect..
Could your test kit be bad?
Are you still checking for nitrites? If so whats that at..
Nitrites could be confusing the nitrate test kit I believe..

This. Nitrates don't choose a level and stay there. They build up over time. Doing large water changes is guaranteed to instantly have an effect. If it doesn't, something is wrong with the test. If by some weird event, your nitrates are building so fast, that they get back up to 80 almost instantly, they wouldn't just stop there. They would continue their massive climb into the hundreds.
 
Back
Top