Is this causing high nitrite/nitrate?

[reef tank 2.0]

Over the last week or so, I noticed I had a high spike in nitrates and nitrites in my QT tank. I have been doing what I thought to be enough every few days, in water changes but my test results tell me other wise. I never have ammonia spikes at all. Just the trite/trate.

My QT is a 20 gallon tank. I have a HOB filter on the back. In my HOB filter, I have (don't know the exact name of it) what I think is known as swimming pool filter media. I used this back in my freshwater tank days. I cut a piece of it out, folded it in half, then placed it in the HOB for filtration. I didn't put any of the pillow floss in since it was just for a QT. Well, I have been running this type of filter for a good month now. Yesterday I did another test and noticed they were through the roof (trites/trates). So I thought crap, I need to lower them numbers with another water change. So tonight when I got home, i did a 50-60% water change and refilled with sparkling fresh salt water.

Once I did that, I waited a tad and retested. The trites/trates NEVER dropped. I'm thinking to myself, ***, what is the problem here. Water is clear, fish are acting normal (2 clownfish),

Then a light bulb went off.......Although I am changing the water, what are the chances the media inside the HOB filter are absolutely killing my parameters? I just pulled that out of the filter, so I'm running filterless right now.

Can anyone shed some light on what I'm doing wrong? Did my trites/trates sky rocket because of that filter media I was using? Should I be replacing that filter every time? Is the filter media necessary at this point of time since there is no medication in the water?

 

[CStrickland]

How big of a spike?
Unless you have rock in the qt, most of your biofilter has probs populated the filter media. You'd risk ammonia if you took it out. There's all diff qt setups, rock, filter, nothing; they have diff maintenance needs.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

the nitrates are around 100
nitrites were around .5-1.0

they were at 0. once I started taking water from the DT and mixing it in, is when I started seeing the change. (the only thing that registers in the DT is nitrates, which im working on lowering)

I took the media out of the HOB, and was getting ready to remove 5 gallons to see if that was the reason.........

 

[reef tank 2.0]

the tank is bare bottom with nothing but 2 pvc elbows in it for hiding

a heater and the HOB, that's it

 

[CStrickland]

Nitrate tests are inaccurate when there's measurable nitrites in the water. It reads a little trite as a lot of trate.
Without the biofilter that had populated the media, you'll need to test a couple times a day for ammonia and do a lot of big waterchanges. You'll want to have some Prime on hand to neutralize ammo too. Bare tank qt is for ttm, which gets a 100% change every couple days.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I have not been doing 100% changes.......normally around 50%

so at this point, do I need to add a fresh filter in the HOB and continue water changes?

Right now I was trying to match the DT params so there was no shock when it was time to move them in.

but nites decided to show up

 

[CStrickland]

Dunno. A new filter won't have any bacteria to process ammonia. Like, smaller changes were ok when you had a biofilter, but now it's a bare tank like ttm uses

 

[billdogg]

Yes, a month old filter pad will be full of fish waste/detritus and create a nitrate problem. Any filter pad/floss/sock must be cleaned every few days. That's why there is none in my systems if it's a pia I won't do it. Washing filters is a pia.

+1 For using Prime or similar to help prevent ammonia issues. Keep doing the biggest changes you can. Siphon out any detritus. A python siphon will serve you well.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Have you tested your wc water before doing a wc? If not I would certainly do it just to make sure...

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I have been siphoning my bottom when doing these water changes. That's one thing iv'e been doing right

this HOB has me a little nervous now

I will test the wc water again. When I first filled the tank with the wc water, i had zeros all across the board....can't imagine that would change now....but i'll check