nitrates too high

P

petenheather

In Memoriam
Hi, first the basics, 46gal sw tank w/ 40lbs+lr,substrate sand, sun coral, 2 frogspawn, 1 hammer coral, 1 torch coral, wet-dry filter,not quite sure of lighting, 2 power jets,1 hermit crab, 1 lawnmower blenny, 4 turbo snails, 1 damsel, that is going back to fish store for a new home. heres the problem, the nitrates are going up and we cant get them to go down. Over the last few days we have done a 30% water change to try to help lower them, we put in a carbon filter, still no luck. all my other parameters are okay I think? ph is 8.2, nitrite is 0, ammonia is 0, NITRATE is about 70 and climbing, any help would be great. thanks

:rollface:
 
Well it's kinda wierd that your ammonia and trites never show anything because in order for there to be trates those two need to come first.

A thought... I see you have alot of LPS and that sun coral (which ever class that falls into) do you feed them often? That could be a cause of your problem. If there's alot of extra food in the tank that would cause there to be higher trates in the end.

Do you do regualer WC's other than the 30% you've done in the past few days? Oh yeah....... duh... (on my part) if your not showing trites or ammonia then maybe it's your test kit that has gone bad. Take a smaple to you LFS and see what their test says.

HTH
 
first yes we do regular water changes, my test is new, i hate the strips they dont work, i bought one of those more intense kind, and yes i took the water to the fish guy and he tested it, said all is fine but nitrates were tooooo high, I am stuck, i dont know what to do, we dont seem to overfeed, but...I am not sure, i am lost here, should i do more water changes, like every day?
 
Do you have a sump? Growing some macro would definitely take care of those nitrates IMO. If not, I guess do some more WC's till they are under control then feed once every two or three days. JMO though.
 
no sump here, but where can i get some of that macro ? will more water changes make it go down faster than macro?
 
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What kind of water are you using for water changes and evaporation? Check the nitrates in that, you could be introducing it into your tank which would explain why its climbing.

Make sure to clean your filter pads, sponges, filter sock, etc regularly which will accumulate detritus and raise nitrate levels also. Use a turkey baster to blow the crud out of your live rock if you have any and suck up any detritus on your sand bed. I would do a 20% water change of RO/DI water every couple days until nitrates read about 20-30 then less frequently.
 
Yes, frequent water changes are a better short-term solution than macro. Once the problem is controlled, macro or a DSB may eliminate your nitrate problem long-term.
 
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

That article goes into a lot of ideas on controlling nitrate levels.

How much and what are you feeding? What does the freshly-mixed saltwater measure? How much circulation do you have in the tank? How about a skimmer?

I am not a big believer in using water changes to try to reduce the nitrate level in a tank, since nitrate can be produced quite rapidly. Carbon is unlikely to help as well, as it can't remove much in terms of quantity.
 
feed flake and mysis shrimps, elements for corals, feed 2 times a day only a scant amount, regarding the water i get, it comes from a tank from my fish store, it is only for water changes, he sells this so people dont have to mix it themself.
 
regarding circulation, i have 2 power jets. there is a lot of movement from them, before the nitrate problem all my corals were open and flowing beautiful
 
Pete...i'm not too far from you in west la.

I too was battling with nitrates and now it is never an issue.
you mentioned dry\wet filter...is that the one with the bio-balls?
if yes - than - BINGO on the nitrate production.

i grow cheato macro algae in my sump and that is what has kept my nitrates down - it feeds on it and grows - you can have a some for $5 if you want.

hth
 
gooliver, I am not sure if you would call these bio balls, they are hard like a rock and seem to be sorta ceramic? the look like short tube pasta, they told us they were to help with ammonia, which we have none of, i do not know exactly what they are??? any clues?
 
The ceramic media might be a sort of nitrate problems. The article talks about why bio-balls might be an issue. The same logic might apply to the ceramic media. I would try removing it slowly over a period of a few weeks, while watching the ammonia level carefully.

What kind of powerheads do you have?
 
Hi all, I had problems with nitrates too with crazy cyano bac growth. You know everybody says get a sump put algae in there well I added chaeto....something don't know how to spell it, but I added it directly into my tank and man did that work wonders try that maybe it will work if your fish don't pick at it.
 
listen...there are 3 filtration basics and 1 of them is really optional.

biological - live rock, you got enough

chemical - do you have a protein skimmer?

mechanical - (optional) - you dont absolutely need it. this would be something that catches debris in the water, but needs to be cleaned regularly to avoid nitrate build up. i replace my filter sock once a week - always zero nitrates

----- as far as these tube pasta things are concerned, sounds like BS to me...here's how you keep ammonia down - LIVE ROCK

I'll be glad to help more, i feel your pain.
if you'd like we can get together or you can call me
 
Gooliver, can you really spare some algae? where would i put it? in my wet/dry filter, we do not have a sump yet, although we a planning on one. I thought you did not need a sump, or even a skimmer in a 46 gal tank...go figure
 
boomsticks - cheato made a huge difference in my tank too ...its amazing how simple things are if you do enough research :)
 
Pete...your first priority is to get a skimmer and get one soon.
the skimmer is probably the most important investment...dont go cheap on it...i had a remora skimmer in my 46g and it did great.
you can buy it used here at RC for like $100 or go to marinedepot.

let me know once you got the skimmer going and you can come over to pickup some algae
 
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