Is having too much live rock causing my high nitrate levels?

[Craigsmini]

Have 41 gallon dt and 50 gallon sump with I'm guessing 70 lbs of live rock and rubble between the sump and dt, my nitrate levels have always been high 60 ppm and up , even after bringing sump online with the addition of 35 gallons of water, use ro/di , have refugium with cheato that doesn't grow alot, have light on it 24/7 , rinse food before it is feed , feed once a day , have 3 fish , 3 shrimp, snails ,5 hermits 1 large the other small, 3 starfish clam soft corals, had lfs check water and measured between 40 and 60 ppm , They say getting nitrates under 20 is a dream, no I need to go the reactor route or dosing with vodka or something else? Sump has been up and running for almost 2 months, also have 2 mangroves in sump, have a API test kit, could that be bad , or cheap brand? Any thoughts would be great

 

[buckster]

I would buy a quality Nitrate test kit like Salifert and would also do water changes to remove nitrate. If you do a 50% water change it will lower you NO3 by 50% (i.e. it will go from 60 ppm to 30 ppm). Continue doing water changes every week until your nitrates are below 10 and preferably 0. After, you can develop a routine to do water changes on a weekly, bi weekly or monthly basis to remove nitrates and other compounds like phosphate. Do you have a protein skimmer? If you do make sure to clean it often. Daily cleaning of the neck and collection cup are best to insure it is running efficiently and pulling out the most organics it can before they break down in your tank. If you are using bio balls or a trickle filter (wet/dry) I would remove all bio media from it because it is not necessary and only contributes to nitrates.

 

[jimmy frag]

0 nitrates is not a dream, once you get there its the norm. are you running a skimmer ? how is your water flow. i believe if your nitrates were 60 ppm and up, your clam would not servive. what are you feedind and how much. placement of your rock can restrict movement in the tank and trap detrius. some substraits will also collect detrius. how often and what % of water change are you doing. mangroves are not vary effective at removing nitrates. vodka and vinegar do work great for keeping nitrates down as long as you have a skimmer. are you getting an algea out breake yet.

 

[alanbates12]

How are you cleaning your tank and how often?

 

[Craigsmini]

Have vertex in100 skimmer, draining into big jug , clean jug and skimmer every week and a half to 2 weeks , been doing 11-12 gall

 

[Craigsmini]

Have vertex in100 skimmer, draining into big jug , clean jug and skimmer every week and a half to 2 weeks , been doing 11-12 gallOn Water changes every 2 weeks, before sump was added was 7 gallons every 9 to 10 days when sump came on line added 35-40 gallons and didn't see a drop at all, have too big of a pump in return chamber, pumping at least 5-6 gph plus powerhead in tank, feed brine shrimp and green stuff from the tropicoriumn

 

[Craigsmini]

Don't really have any break outs , some mild green on glass , tank gets some strong morning light some days ,use gravel tumbler to suck up what I can, tank was a transplant from I bought off Craigslist , when I moved it took all the substrate out and replaced with live sand, since then have been sucking sand out and replacing with crushed coral, per a better lfs that I trust, tank is 24" wide by 18 deep by 24 high, have good flow

 

[Craigsmini]

Tank has been up and running for close to 5 months, have never seen ammonia or nitrite , trying to upload pic from iPhone can't seem to be able to do that

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are lots of ways to effectively reduce nitrate. Some (like macroalgae) require phosphate to be functioning properly. You are not driving down phosphate with GFO are you? Ever measure phosphate?

Do you skim?

 

[Craigsmini]

No gfo have skimmer , never test for phos

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd test for it, then consider organic carbon dosing. )

 

[Craigsmini]

Got Salifert test kit today, first test showed between 25 and 50 ppm, going to test in morning with different light, also cleaned skimmer and neck

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That is a nitrate test result?

 

[rhunter513]

my guess it the crushed coral substrate and the overfeeding with bine shrimp

 

[Goniocologist]

Do small water changes WEEKLY. Doing 50% water changes removes bacteria before it matures and is able to remove nitrates. your bioload isnt massive. your tank is only 5 months old it will eventually catch up. feed as little as possible. ive had good luck with biopellets.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

[welcome]

I believe that most bacteria that consume nitrate are benthic (attached to surfaces of some sort) so water changes are not generally going to cause a problem by depleting them.

 

[doctorgori]

I've seen a lot of tanks with nitrate/algae issue and sometimes its simply rock placement and flow that causes issues....
w/o seeing your tank, it isn't hard to imagine that dead spots could exist with 70lbs of rock
..and sometimes it can happen with "Minimalist" tanks w/o enough rock