Ready to give up Nitrate battle...need help

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danb73

New member
I have a 29 gallon FOWLR setup that I have had for about 3 years. I am looking to start adding some soft corals and possibly an anenome. The tank looks great, no algae problems and the water quality appears to be good (the three fish in the tank are healthy 2 clowns and a royal gramma). I will say up front that I use tap water and I understand this is not preferred. I have always had some difficulty keeping the Nitrates down as the readings typically show 50ppm or higher. I recently made 2 20% water changes over a two week period hoping this would help and the nitrates are higher than ever 100ppm.
Few quick details:
20 pounds of live rock
2" sandbed
Coralife super skimmer
Aquaclear filter (Empty for water movement only)
Light feeding twice a day

Could all my nitrate problems be due to tap water. I can't see tap water having extremely high nitrates to begin with but maybe I am wrong. Any help would be appreciated.
 
tap will do that the one of the main problams is the feeding, you could get away with 3 feddings a week. also is its frozen food wash it out that also my be adding to your problam. ill tell you now that you will never have an anenome if your not using RODI.
how old are your test they could be bad and give high readings
 
con999 said:
tap will do that the one of the main problams is the feeding, you could get away with 3 feddings a week. also is its frozen food wash it out that also my be adding to your problam. ill tell you now that you will never have an anenome if your not using RODI.
how old are your test they could be bad and give high readings
Click to expand...

You cannot keep an anenome using tap...it makes that much of a difference using RO.
 
ok do yuo no ur tap TDS. i relly think its the feeding and the tap water then

yes RODI is the most improtant thing i think when your setting up a tank. and it is a must if you want corals or anything. also i wouldent recomend an anenome your tank is old enough but i would try a few easy corals first like zoas, shrooms, thouse kinds of things
 
you need to buy an RO/DI filter, and a nitrate reactor, if you want what you ask.
I have a Midwest, I believe, nitrate reactor that works well to keep the NO3 below 20ppm in my 120g.
 
Your nitrifying bacteria is doing a great job converting unknown contaminants in your tapwater into nitrates that aren't harmful to your fish. However as long as you keep adding those contaminants you're going to have high nitrates. You saw that when after doing two large water changes nitrates actually went up.

Fish only tanks can handle nitrates but once you start stocking corals that's another matter. Nitrates are just an indicator that you're adding unknown elements to your tank with the tap water. You may be able to keep some corals alive and even healthy with tap water but not the more sensitive species. An anemone is considered a sensitive species.
 
As previously stated, fish can tolerate 80 ppm nitrates, unlike most coral and anemones.

What type of filtration are you using.

I'm concerned that your filtration may be part of the culprit as well. There may not be enough flow through your live rock.

Also overfeeding can quickly raise the nitrate level.
When I had high nitrates, I too was feeding twice a day. I went to feeding every 3 days. I only fed what they could immediately eat. I would drop one or two pellets and watch them devour them. I would drop a couple more pellets and watch them devour those. I'm done. After a few weeks of this regimen, with regular water (ro/di)changes, my nitrates were under control.

As previously stated, rinse frozen food prior to feeding. Drastically limit your flake food.

In my particular case, my nitrates were caused by overfeeding. I now feed whenever I want, but I am overconscientious about my nitrate level.
I also notice every morning after a good feeding, my waste level in skimmer cup has increased.



To help identify, test your water immediately before a water change. Test again several hours later. do not feed during this time.

Many individuals use tap water. Measure the tds in it. Tap can vary greatly throughout parts of the region. My tap water tds is 125. I used it while I was running a fowlr system. I now have a reef and use RO/DI.
 
USE RO/DI water, then try adding Seachem Matrix to the aquaclear. Stuff does help. I would not use a bag, I would just place it in the Aquaclear and fill it up. Matrix Pond is good too.
 
Thanks for the help everyone....I will test my tap water tonight.
I never thought I was overfeeding because I only give enough that will be eaten in a minute or two.
The flow in the tank also seems fine as I forgot to mention I have a Koralia 3 and another powerhead in the tank along with the aquaclear filter moving water.
It just gets a little frustrating when you try to have good water quality and your test kit keeps coming up RED on the chart.
 
You are not overfeeding in the technical sense, as there are people with complex and overkill filtration that feed a lot, but for most people overfeeding is a major problem. You are overfeeding for your system if you plan on having corals. I feed about a pea sized chunk every other day in my 125. Any more and it is a problem over time.

+1 on the RO/DI. It is not just nitrates, but anything else in the tap that may have been accumulating over the years (undesirable metals etc.) It is the first line of defense for reef tanks IMO.
 
You'll be sooooooooo much happier with ro/di. So will your fish, for that matter: they can SURVIVE high nitrate, but if they could swim to no-nitrate water, they'd do that. And corals, absolutely. Good for you for making the choice.

It'll take a while to clear the stuff out, but with water changes and healthy bacteria, you'll also note, I think, over all better conditions.
 
Thanks again for all the info....
When feeding it can also be difficult to make sure the less aggressive fish (Royal Gramma) gets enough so maybe I feed a little more than I should. The clowns are always at the top and eat the majority of what I put in.

Quick sidebar question: If I start a new tank possibly a 45 G cube using RO/DI water and allow it to cycle, can I use some of the rock and sand from my old tank to seed the new tank or is this a bad idea due to the nitrate problems I have been having. If I start over I just want to make sure I do everything correctly this time. Thanks in advance for any suggestions on feeding and my second question about transferring live rock and sand.
 
i would feed 3 times a week, for a few weeks untill you start fixing this. dont use store rodi it is just as bad as tap u should buy your own RODI system. and on to the new tank qustion. yes you can but why would you bother seting up a new tank it will be at least 6 months untill ur can put corals into it. but you could though.
 
Try feeding a mixture of floating and sinking pellet: the gramma will go for the sinking stuff. And encourage bristleworms and hermits and nassarius snails. They're major in helping clean up extra food.
 
con999 said:
i would feed 3 times a week, for a few weeks untill you start fixing this. dont use store rodi it is just as bad as tap u should buy your own RODI system. and on to the new tank qustion. yes you can but why would you bother seting up a new tank it will be at least 6 months untill ur can put corals into it. but you could though.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't advocate starving your fish to fix a problem caused by source water.
 
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