Nitrates issue

ErosJN

ErosJN

New member
Hey guys,
So Im alittle frustrated... as stated before, I have high nitrates (around 80ppm).. Ive been using tap water instead of RODI however, after brewing a batch of fresh saltwater and testing, Nitrates come up as zero (yellow color). Im in the process of saving for a better skimmer as I have the EuroReef CS61 which is rated 100 gal. I purchased the skimmer used and had no idea what brand it was until RobThorn helped me out a few days ago (thanks again Rob!) Anyway today i did a huge 75 gallon WC on the 210 (with rocks and sand taking up volume, draining 75 gallons took me down to about 1/2 the tanks water).. shortly after the WC i tested nitrates and they are still at 80.. not higher, not lower... Im just not comprehending it... half the tanks volume had no affect on nitrates?!
 
Before you do anything else, take a sample of your water and have someone else test it. Test kit might be bad.
 
I just took a sample and they said its between 40-80.. that didnt help much because if its 40 then Id see progress but if its 80 then my WC did nothing. Im going to take another sample elsewhere
 
Tanks and nutrients are nothing less than crazy. Somehow they are hard to dilute. If your new water was truly 0 nitrates and if you change exactly 50% of the water you will not cut nitrates in. Half. It sounds like it should it just never works out that way.
You are very welcome by the way.
I forget if you said you have sand or not. If you do I would use a gravel vac when you do water changes and vacuum no more than 1/4 of the tank the first time you do it. If you don't already stir your sand. Too much of anything messes up everything.
Relax and don't get too crazy over the high levels. The more knee jerk reaction you have the less it seems to help.
Getting off tap water and getting a larger skimmer should help a lot. Minimize feeding until then is what I would do. Every other day at most unless they start looking pinched in.
 
Thanks Rob :) I did bring a sample to another fish store and nitrates read 0 lol... When I came home I did another test on my water and nitrates were 40-50 in comparison to the 80 yesterday. I did the test last night immediately after the change so maybe I didnt give it enough time to settle.. i feel alot better knowing they dropped 30-40 ppm today... ill do a few more large water changes weekly and feed less as you suggest then see where I stand then. Thanks buddy!
 
I had nitrates in the 50-100 range and carbon dosing with fructose has solved that problem. I noticed the same thing with volumes not directly translating on the subsequent test. Maybe my calculations were off but it wasn't working for me regardless.
 
risin said:
I had nitrates in the 50-100 range and carbon dosing with fructose has solved that problem. I noticed the same thing with volumes not directly translating on the subsequent test. Maybe my calculations were off but it wasn't working for me regardless.
Click to expand...


I have heard good success with sugar dosing, but I would use RODI water and you will be happy.
 
I didn't see it above. Are you having issues right now (algae, stuff not living, etc.)? That also might help in seeing what is going on. You said your using tap water. Any idea of the TDS? If everything is looking good and no problems and your testing is "off", then that also points to some things.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Ive experimented with sugar dosing for a few days in the past but was nervous to continue due to my skimmer being undersized and reading multiple times that you want a really good skimmer for this method. Im not sure the waters TDS but i does read zero nitrates after mixing with salt. I did notice 1 days after the large water change that the nitrates went down around 30 ppm. That was last weekend so this weekend i plan on doing another large change.
 
Your skimmer is a good skimmer. Don't let anyone fool you that the old Euro Reefs aren't still one of the best skimmers out there. Where other skimmers tiny bodys lack the Euro Reef has. Those tiny skimmers have to over power the bodys to collect well. You have contact time on your side. You skimmer is on the small side but still collects as much as many of the new skimmers rated at twice what yours is. (Rough guess only).
If you want to carbon dose go ahead just start a lot lower than recommended. Even a tiny amount of carbon dosing will still help.
 
Your tap water could contain untraceable contaminants that not only could be killing the micro fauna in your reef but also damaging your nitrifying bacteria. I will agreed with everyone else, please invest in a good RO/DI unit (average $200 and sometimes even cheaper if you buy an open box remanufactured unit) and save yourself and your reef of bigger troubles that could lead you to a complete ecosystem crash.
 
I just recently have been battling nitrates too. My 2 cents is not to dose anything yet, find the source of the issue and deal with that first. Heavy feeding with not enough export, lots of dead crap laying around in the tank, old old subtrate etc. I was at 50 and now i am around 20. I changed out my sandbed as it was about 5-7 years old and never been cleaned and i started blowing off all my rocks daily to make sure any detritus laying around got put in the water column. I did two 50% water changes over the course of two weeks and a few smaller every 3 days. I also added half a liter of Matrix and Denitrate to my tank. This is a 60 gallon cube and 24 sump. On my new 75gallon i am going to run as much Matrix as i can fit in the sump. Over 2 liters.
 
Awesome! Yep a RODI will be added soon. Ill see how thr nitrates look after the next change and decide from therr if i should go full time with the sugar dosing. As always, valuable information Rob. After we started texting and I made a few tweaks to the skimmer... its been running alot wetter but even then the watery skimmate is still dark! I think I prefer running wet rather than dry.
 
Listening to those that struggle will leave you struggling. Listen to those that are successful. You have a better chance of being successful too.
Adding media to a tank is just like dosing carbon only more expensive.
The guy already knows what things he needs to improve on and where levels are coming from.
Telling someone don't do something the majority of people are successful with is pretty much crap. No it is not something he wants to have to do but it helps a great deal.
 
Thank you guys, I appreciate everyones time and effort to give advise and assist with my nitrates. This weekend I will perform another large WC and observe trate levels. Im sure with time and better husbandry I will overcome my nitrates :)
 
So I asked above in a post. What issues are you having other than your readings "appear" high? From the looks of the tank with no algae and what appears to be a healthy tank in the photo, I would suspect something is wrong with testing. Remember, visual condition of tank is also part of the testing. You will get used to how the tank reacts to current condition and what your doing as far as daily routine. Don't over react to a test if the tank is "acting" normal. Also, don't do kneejerk things based on what people (both LFS and friends) tell you. This hobby is a balancing act and you need to watch your tank and then make reasonableness tests against what you test and what you see.
What I see, is a nice tank! Remember, you always have to "normalize" all the opinions and data in this hobby. Nothing good happens fast, bad things although do!!
 
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