need to lower my 300+ ppm nitrates in 30 gal

[hail_sniper]

i just got back into the hobby after 5 years and realized i forgot alot of things. my dad had a 30 gal and ive decided to overhaul it while being tight on money. it has 2 damsels and a clark clown left. i just started this about 3 days ago :hmm5:

it was running off a canister filter with alot of pads. plus roughly 10 - 15 lbs of not so live rock. he hardly ever changed that water so much as looked at it. it was running off a cheap light only meant for visibility. and has a lot of nuisance algae

I did not know how bad it was in. my nitrates are upwards 300+ ppm, the ph is around 7.8 but nitrites and ammonia is non existent. so its cycled. i also use Ro/Di water

what ive done is got power compact lighting for it and set up timers, took out the airstone, put on an old aqua c remora (waiting for it to break in), did two 5 gal water changes, brought the salinity to 1.026, added another 5 lbs live rock and 10 lbs live sand. (prolly died off?) and i cleaned the power jet to get good flow in there and plan to get one more to kill the dead zones :uzi:

i plan on building or buying a sump/refugium within the next weeks to add to the volume. it has been a while since ive done this and im trying to re read back up on all the stuff. but i need some help!

i took out half the pads in the canister filter knowing it harbors nitrates, should i take off the rest? plus it has some sort of bio pellets and sand bags in there, should i take out those too?

i plan to scrub off all visible algae and blast some off the liverock and then do a water change. but another question is, should i trust things like amquel or other nitrate "reducers" or would it do more damage than it would fix?

i am trying to avoid a massive water change, but is that my only option at this point?

i attached a picture, this was after i fixed some things. i moved the power head on the right to the remora after i took the pic. n took out the air. you can see some of the algae on the back glass and the rocks to the right, the white rock is wat i recently added.. looks dead now

and plus i got some minerals for the tank? idk if im missing some?
Kents phytoplex, Tech I, Coral-Vite, and essential elements.

any help to help this reefer get back on his feet would be appreciated. thank you!

Sam

 

[HighlandReefer]

"I did not know how bad it was in. my nitrates are upwards 300+ ppm"

I would continue cleaning your tank and do water changes (less than 30%) to reduce levels this high. One 30% water change will reduce the nitrate down from 300+ to a say 100 ppm.

 

[skanderson]

highland your math is wrong. one 33% water change will lower the nitrates from 300 to 200. a 50% would lower it to 150. in my opinion the cheapest and best way to get that lvl down would be a series of large water changes. in a 30 gallon tank with a few hardy fish i would be doing at least a 50 percent change and would really stir up the substrate and get rid of alot of detritus as well. you will need to address the underlying issue to avoid having to continually change out the water but the best way to lower it to reasonable lvls would be 3 or 4 50% changes. watch your feeding.

 

[travis32]

I've read, someone confirm this, that the canister filters harbor most of the nitrates.

So, if that's true, I would guess cleaning the canister filter well or removing it would help and the water changes.

 

[hail_sniper]

hmm, im thinking im going to get rid of all sponges in the canister filter and just use carbon in there with the water changes, because i do remember hearing filters harbor nitrates. should i even leave the old live rock in there? or just kill it off?

 

[HighlandReefer]

highland your math is wrong. one 33% water change will lower the nitrates from 300 to 200. a 50% would lower it to 150. in my opinion the cheapest and best way to get that lvl down would be a series of large water changes. in a 30 gallon tank with a few hardy fish i would be doing at least a 50 percent change and would really stir up the substrate and get rid of alot of detritus as well. you will need to address the underlying issue to avoid having to continually change out the water but the best way to lower it to reasonable lvls would be 3 or 4 50% changes. watch your feeding.

Thanks for the correction. Obviously I was brain dead this AM. :lol:

 

[noobtothereef]

300ppm???? How the heck does it get that high? Do you feed a ton and never to any cleaning or water changes? I thought mine was bad at 15ppm......

 

[bertoni]

That level of nitrate is high enough that I might do something about it. I would do a series of smaller, say 10%, water changes. The filter pads seems to be more prone to producing nitrate than live rock.

That's a reasonable fish load for a 30g tank, and I'd be careful about removing filtration, since an ammonia spike might kill the animals. I'd probably leave the filtration alone for now, and cure some live rock to add to the system. After the live rock was in the system, I'd slowly remove the filter pads.

The algae can wait, too, in my opinion. I might spend 5 minutes per week harvesting out what was easy to get, if any can be gotten, but I wouldn't make the tank into a chore. You might want to dial back the feeding or add a skimmer.

 

[gp2]

Mine were high, not that high, but high. I built a small bucket refugium with cheato and it dropped them very quickly.

 

[hail_sniper]

ive tweaked the aqua c remora, but its been 3 days still no skimmate pouring over, should i be worried or am i just impatient? it doesnt have it's o ring, so im using a paper towel to jam it a lil higher. i have a rio 800 on it, but since i lost the original tubing to the skimmer so i got 1/2 ID tubing and connected it to an adapter to the inlet.. it had 3/4 id before, maybe it is impeding it?

300ppm???? How the heck does it get that high? Do you feed a ton and never to any cleaning or water changes? I thought mine was bad at 15ppm......

yep, my dad sorta just let it fend for itself for about 2 years w maybe a bi annual 5 gal water change. he did have a high bio load before, it WAS 7 damsels...

as of now im doing another 7 gal water change, and i took all but one of the filter pads, imma wait till he gets back from china tommorow to get more live rock...

 

[bertoni]

I never had much luck with my Remora Pro skimmer. I wan't convinced they were very good skimmers, but skimmers seem to be a dark art.

 

[hail_sniper]

it worked good before... but im losing faith

 

[hail_sniper]

just checked, nitrates still above 200+:thumbdown

 

[bertoni]

The fish won't be affected by that level, so I wouldn't worry much. The only reason to lower the level is that the algae should fade in the process.

 

[hail_sniper]

alright, thanks guys. ill post back in a week or two to show progress.

 

[jimmy frag]

the tank does not look as bad as you say. how old is the test kit you are useing. i cant believe the fish lived through 300 plus ppm nitrates. stick the air stone in the skimmer.

 

[bertoni]

There's very little data on toxicity of nitrate in reef fish, but the little data there is indicates that 600 ppm and below likely is tolerable for adult fish. Or at least that's all the data I've seen, although I haven't looked in a while.

 

[hail_sniper]

the tank does not look as bad as you say. how old is the test kit you are useing. i cant believe the fish lived through 300 plus ppm nitrates. stick the air stone in the skimmer.

its new, its those cheap dip strips till i can get a proper kit. and i cleaned the tank before i took the pic, new sand, and scrubbed glass.

imma try the air in the skimmer../

 

[ali1]

your readings may be lower than what you stated. I wouldnt worry about it until you get a nitrate drip test. This will ensure your not wasting your time/money.

 

[Ohponies]

.... but skimmers seem to be a dark art.

Reminds me of my skimmer during the first 2 weeks of my tank, nitrate during cycle was 200+ ppm, then i figured out that the air was closed that goes into the skimmer all the way. I opened up the air hose and wow, that's how that works! 80 ppm Nitrate the next week.