Nitrate is testing above 50ppm ....

[physicslord]

80 gallon tank: ammonia ~1 ppm, SG 1.019, temp = 76
small bac pac skimmer, sand bed, NO3>50ppm!


I'm helping out a friend with his tank. His nitrates test off the scale but his fish seem to be okay.
Are they in immediate danger?

I'm going to do a 20 gallon water change with some Santa Cruz seawater today today.
Apparently he was using tap water as his top off!

 

[downlimit]

There was an experiment a while back that proved that if you put a frog in a pot and slowly raise the temperature, it would not move and essencially cook itself to death, while if you dropped a frog into a boiling hot pot of water it would try and get out.

So the answer to your question is while the fish may seem ok, that is cause by their adaptability to the slowly growing problem, hence at some point if left unchecked, the fish will begin to show signs of problems and maybe perish.

I would do several small water changes, 1 a day, through a period of 2 weeks to bring the nitrates down slowly and once the nitrates are in acceptable levels just keep doing water changes as normal.

 

[Paintbug]

most fish can handle high levels of nitrates some can handle >100ppm its the 1ppm of ammonia that will kill them. both levels need to be lowered which water changes. sounds like he may have had something die in the tank, and its stuck behind the rocks, or somewhere.

 

[mg426]

Wow I think that ammonia is way more toxic,than your nitrates. water changes till you get that figured out. then worry about the nitrates

 

[RBU1]

Yea nitrates are not a concern for saltwater fish. Amonia on the other hand burns gills and leads to death.

 

[physicslord]

Okay, I figured both ammonia and nitrate were a problem at the same time.
I'll do 10 gallons today and 10 more gallons tommorow to try and get the concentration of both down.

 

[Billybeau1]

One other thing to consider is if your ammonia is up, your nitrites are probably elevated. Most Nitrate test kits will not test accurate if nitrites are elevated. Get that ammonia down and go from there.

Then find out why your ammonia is up. Something died, biological filter not keeping up with demand, etc.

 

[reefgeek84]

You might want to buy some Prime, and ad it to the water changes that you do.

 

[miztic]

Why is the SG so low ? and I see nothing wrong with tap water for topoff if you use something like prime or amquell to get rid of the chlorine/chloramine.
I wouldn't do it in a reef tank, but for fish only should be ok.

 

[downlimit]

I understand that nitrates by themselfs are normally not a problem for saltwater fish. however if you understand how the biology of marine fish works, elevated nitrates does in fact hinder their immune system, therefore they may not die due to elevated nitrate levels, but under such conditions they are many times more likely to get sick and die as a result of that illiness.