Nitrates and how I can stop them..

[BrandonFlorida]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and would like some info from the advanced aquarist on here.

I have a 75 gallon reef tank with a nitrate problem. I have had this problem for some time now and my local fish store has ran out of ideas. About 6 months ago, I switched out my 75 gallon tank to a drilled 75 gallon tank. I bought new fiji pink sand and put it in the new tank. It was successful and I didnt lose any livestock. My nitrates are testing red and they go from 40 to 160 in a few days.

After a big waterchange (30 gallons) it went to around 40 ppm and two days later it is back to red (80-160ppm). I have 2 1050 koralia pumps, 150 reef octopus skimmer, about 80 lbs of live rock. I also just started to run npx bioballs for nitrate and phosphate in a two little fishes reactor. I got some rock from the new purchase and put that in the tank as well but it was not live.

I just recently cleaned out my sump, all the equiptment, the attached 20 gallon fuge that is bare bottom and holds an eel and chateo and still have nitrates that soar after a few days. The eel is being moved to my 90 gallon tank this weekend so dont be alarmed about him, he will have a nice home.


I test and everything is good, ph is at 8.2-8.3, dKh is 9 and salinity is 1.025.

My questions are:

Do i need to cut back the cheato, it has gotten pretty big. I was reading a few posts here and they said it could be a problem.

Could the rock I added be a problem?? I bought most of the live rock from my LFS. I added some of the rock from the guy I bought the tank from.

Could my fiji pink sand be a problem? Should I have rinsed it in salt water before putting it in the tank? I just dumped it stright from the bag into the tank.

Please any suggestions would be great and I can answer any questions you my have regarding my setup. Thanks

 

[worm5406]

The rock can be leaching and causing some of your problems.

If the cheato is large, now, cut it in 1/2 and let it grow again. If it stops/slows then it needs a good trimming so it can grown again. Keep cutting it back, the growth is what takes it out of the water column.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

The rock can be leaching and causing some of your problems.

If the cheato is large, now, cut it in 1/2 and let it grow again. If it stops/slows then it needs a good trimming so it can grown again. Keep cutting it back, the growth is what takes it out of the water column.

Ok, so I guess I should cut the cheato back first? It a very big piece of rock that I added. Could some type of rock leach nitrates like that? It was in his salt tank prior. Thanks for your time and input into my situation. I appricate it.

 

[worm5406]

Normally the rock can leach pO4 phospates. The nitrates are sometimes from over feeding or other items in the tank. Keep up with your water changes for a bit and lets see.

How often and how are you setup to do water changes?

RODI or Tap water?

What salt are you using?

What food are you using?

What does the water test like BEFORE you do the water change? (both tank and the water you are going to use)

 

[BrandonFlorida]

Normally the rock can leach pO4 phospates. The nitrates are sometimes from over feeding or other items in the tank. Keep up with your water changes for a bit and lets see.

How often and how are you setup to do water changes?

RODI or Tap water?

What salt are you using?

What food are you using?

What does the water test like BEFORE you do the water change? (both tank and the water you are going to use)

Thats what I was thinking on the rock/phosphates, I feed every other day now but I was in the habit of feeding every day.

I do 20 gallon water changes weekly. I use reef crystals made by instant ocean.

I have an RO/DI that I changed the filters out just last week for the water and have a 55 gallon barrell that i mix the water/salt in.

I test the water after mixing and i have no nitrates, ph is a tad low so I add some buffer to get the ph and dkh up. I usually let it sit for a day or so with a pump running inside to mix the water up really good. I usually siphon out the top of the sand if needed in the display tank.

Just last week I rearranged the rock and moved some things around. I did a massive cleaning on the sump, fuge, all equiptment and the only thing i didnt clean was the drilled overflow section that I will do this weekend. I hope this information can help someone on here so that I can figure out what im doing wrong. Thanks again

 

[worm5406]

What did you clean/clean out?

I have seen those that do a lot of cleaning instead of little bits at a time kill off/remove all of the beneficial bacteria that WAS keeping things clean and low. Then POP... it sky rockets.

so... What did you clean?

Keeping a cleaning regiment going from the start keeps it from growing on things you want to keep clean. So that a large cleaning does not knock it all off.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

also, here is the fish i currently have, not a big bioload at all:

2-clown fish
1-coral beauty
1-six line wrasse
2-green cromis
1-fire shrimp
1-golden banded shrimp
2-harlequin sea stars
1-sand sifting star
lots of LPS and a few SPS.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I cleaned out the skimmer, all pumps, sump, and fuge. I did clean out alot of things, but I have had this problem for some time now.

 

[shaka]

Just tagging along . . . I've noticed in my 140 gallon FOWLR that hair algae always grows on Tonga Branch live rock at first. It eventually spreads onto the other types of live rock and then I'll take all the rocks out and scrub them down. I've done this for years now despite using RO water.

Basically, at this point I think the hair algae is caused by leaching of the Tonga Branch live rock and/or the Fiji Pink sand bed . . . I've been reading that a sand bed will accumulate phosphates after time.

 

[shaka]

I just read that you have Fiji Pink sand as well. My sand is about 7 or 8 years old. Did you always have gravel/sand and the nitrate problem? Or did the nitrate issues begin after adding the sand?

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I just read that you have Fiji Pink sand as well. My sand is about 7 or 8 years old. Did you always have gravel/sand and the nitrate problem? Or did the nitrate issues begin after adding the sand?

The nitrate problem started when I had the old sand in the tank. I would have to check my log book out to be sure.

They told me to dump the fiji pink sand out with the water since that is what kept it alive. Should I have rinsed it out in a bucket of salt prior? Or should I take some out little by little and rinse. Damn this is frustrating. I think I should just take everything out and do good cleaning. I have a 55 gallon bucket that I could put all the livestock in and clean all the sand out good, think that would work or is that a bad idea?

 

[worm5406]

The cleaning of this nature can cause a mini-cycle because you are changing the benificial bacteria and how they process the current bio load. To remove the sand could be a decrease in the current bio process and cause higher levels of ammonia/nitrities/nitrates until such time that the system recovers and increases to compensate.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

The cleaning of this nature can cause a mini-cycle because you are changing the benificial bacteria and how they process the current bio load. To remove the sand could be a decrease in the current bio process and cause higher levels of ammonia/nitrities/nitrates until such time that the system recovers and increases to compensate.

Correct, but If i only did small sections at a time I should be okay right? What if i just stirred the sand and siphoned out the debris? Would that be fine? Any suggestions would be awesome.

 

[worm5406]

Yeah you can. Many people do it this way. They take about 25% out with each water change. so that it takes a bit for it to recognize...

It is best to siphon it out DURING the water change (or as the water change) that way you don't stir up all that and put it back into the water column only to land somewhere else.

 

[navyfishguy]

How much are you feeding? Also you may want to add more flow to ensure that no food is settling the the crevices of the rock. Or maybe beef up your clean up crew i only saw a few shrimp listed in the live stock list.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[JBOD77]

also, here is the fish i currently have, not a big bioload at all:

2-clown fish
1-coral beauty
1-six line wrasse
2-green cromis
1-fire shrimp
1-golden banded shrimp
2-harlequin sea stars
1-sand sifting star
lots of LPS and a few SPS.

not to derail this or anything, but i too have been struggling with nitrate issues, due to neglect, but wanted to up the stock on my tank while i do water changes and vodka dose and gfo/carbon to cut my nitrates. anyway, your shrimp and lps were in the tank before your nitrate spike or did you add them after?

 

[worm5406]

The issue sometimes is the HA has grown and is sucking up the nutrients.

Short of taking the rock out and agent-orange it, it would prob still live, we need to remove what is causing it and get it absorbed by something else. (yes I know there are other methods, Hydrogen-peroxide......)

If we can remove some of the HA that is actively growing, let something else uptake the nutrients (gfo, cheato, water change) then starve out the existing HA strands, it will eventually get to a state of homeostasis where the free radical Po3/4 is being taken care of and will run out.

I mean even 'cooking in acid', the rock, still never gets to the center.

 

[shaka]

I had orginally put the Fiji Pink sand AND the shipping water it was packaged in into my tank . . . just like you did. I didn't have any algae problems until a couple of years later. But now the hair algae won't stop growing.

Did you remove your original gravel bed completely and replace it with the Fiji Pink? Or did you just add the Fiji Pink to the old sandbed?

If you replaced it completely then maybe the nutrients feeding the hair algae are being leached out from the rocks and the new Fiji Pink sand doesn't need to be cleaned at all.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

I really have no hair algae that is growing anywhere, and I did cut back my cheato to a small amount to let it grow and take up nutrients (thanks worm5406).

The Fiji Pink sand was put it brand new with no old sand leftover. I had three shrimp and lots of hermits, trochus, nassarius, and nertle snails with a few turbos mixed in. One shrimp died, and I need to replace him(cleaner shrimp). The corals have all been fine thru the nitrate issues, and only one died. I will be adding in some npx bioballs for the nitrate and phosphate in a two little fishies reactor tonight, but I was running some stuff called thrive that my LFS had. NPX was recommended by lots of other people so I will give it a try.

I feed every other day now and was doing it every day. I think I did over feed and now will be very careful with that. I run kalkwasser and I figured that it would help some but really has had no ill or good effect on my tank yet. I will be purchasing a new nitrate kit today since the one I bought was chewed up on by my lovely pit bull puppy. I did a 25 gallon change yesturday so I will test with the new kit and will post my results.

Thanks everyone on here for your help in this matter. Very frustrating and all your advise helps.

I do water changes very week with them being 20 gallons. I keep up with my tank and that is why this is so frustrating.

 

[worm5406]

Be careful how much you are throwing at it.

A oil leak in a car can be fixed by lots of things, but it is best to know what actually fixes it.

How much light is over your cheato? Is it lit 24/7? how long a cycle are you ruining your lights now? How much are you feeding, lately?