High nitrAtes

[shark32]

Good morning all,
I am having a high nitrAte problem in my 75 gallon (the tank is 14 months old)...tested with a Seachem test kit it tests over the 50 mark (it is a very deep purple)...my nitrItes and ammonia are at zero, my PH 8.3 and my SG is 1.025 as of yesterday... I have done two 7 gallon water changes in the last two days and added Seachem Prime and Stability with each change...my question is when should I notice a drop in the nitrAtes? Is it over a couple of weeks or should they have gone down by now at least somewhat, that I would see a change with on the test? As of yesterday's test, it was still the same deep purple...
Also, one LFS store told me to add more live rock... as of right now I have about 160lbs of rock in the tank...is it possible that the high nitrAtes killed off some of my bacteria? He said it will boost my bacteria in the tank..
My fish, tuxedo urchin, porcelain crab and two shrimp seem fine, but all of my snails have died and yesterday my conch, Sifty, died . I don't want to loose anything else either...Any advice is greatly appreciated
Thanks! I

 

[marrone]

You need to do a good size water change, about 40-50%, which should get the nitrates down. Also siphon out or remove any dead snail and such from the tank. I think the amount of rock you have is fine, what would help is a good skimmer. Can you tell us about your setup, outside of it being a 75gal tank?

 

[Jzhou]

You need to do a good size water change, about 40-50%, which should get the nitrates down. Also siphon out or remove any dead snail and such from the tank. I think the amount of rock you have is fine, what would help is a good skimmer. Can you tell us about your setup, outside of it being a 75gal tank?

+1, Can you also tell us whats in your filter and when the last time you cleaned it. Trapped food and waste in the filter and over feeding is usually the cause of high nitrate levels.

 

[shark32]

marrone,
I currently have an AquaC Remora Pro skimmer, and in my sump I have two balls of cheato and I have a phosphate reactor with chemipur and ferric oxcide (that I just added again; I had took it out of the reactor when I noitced my snails acting funny a few weeks ago)... I was actually looking to buy a Precision Marine skimmer for an upgrade...
Jzhou, other that what I just stated I do not have any other type of filter
Thanks guys!!

 

[Jzhou]

Do you have any polyester pads or bio balls in your filter that might have trapped waste? What are your feeding habits like?

 

[shark32]

Jzhou,
I do not have any polyester pads or bio balls down there....
I am a guilty of a little over feeding becuase I want to make sure my two shrimp and starfish eat... my wrasse is like a vacuum and eats everything in sight and the she hits the sand and eats everything that floats up... I usually feed a mixture of frozen mysis shrimp, clams and sometimes Rod's carnivore food...
Thanks!!

 

[Jzhou]

Usually the only thing that gets rid of Nitrate are water changes, algae and good skimming. Aside from the feeding, I don't see anything that can cause such a high amount of Nitrate. Can you tll us more about how often you do water changes and what ever details you have of your tank?

 

[shark32]

I usually do 10 gallon water changes every two to three weeks....over this past summer, I might have waited 4 weeks between them once...I didn't think it would have resulted in this though....
I have to make a correction, in my reactor, it's purigen, I took the chemipur out last week...sorry about that...what type of algae? like cheato or something else?
should I add more cheato?
Other details about my thank, it has a 3 1/2 inch sand bed, as far as my fish go, I have a flame hawkfish, a true perc clown, an indigo dottyback, a christmas wrasse, a scooter dragonnet, a yellow watchman goby and a starry blenny. I have no corals. I have a cleaner shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, a Randall's pistol shrimp and a blue tuxedo urchin...I have an ADHI sump and an Eshopps overflow box and an eheim pump sending the water back into my tank...

 

[Jzhou]

Does that sump use filter socks? Any algae in general should absorb nitrate even the nuisance ones. The lack of water changes + the large feedings most likely did it. My suggestion would be to do 20% weekly water changes from now on, vacuum all debris build up, feed as much as your tank can eat in a few minutes, clean the sponges and socks in your sump regularly, and run some denitrate. Ask you LFS to test your water for you, just incase your test kit have gone bad.

 

[Silverni2]

As stated above you have more than enough live rock and that skimmer is fine I had one on my 90 with a much higher bio load and it worked fine I'm almost sorry I got rid of it. You need to change much more water than 7-10 gallons at a time IMO I would change 20 gallons at a time or better be sure your using ro/ di and test the water coming out of your purifier to be sure the filters are clean. IMO you may b feeding way to heavy!
Good luck

 

[shark32]

My sump currently does not have a filter sock...but I did buy one when the LFS suggested I try the purigen instead of chemipur...the only sponge like thing in my sump is the black foam that came glued into the sump and it's full of amphipods, baby brittle stars and bristle worms...shoud I take that out? As far as denitrate, is that something other than Prime? Do you recommend anything? and will up my water changes to 20 gallons...when I get the cheato today, I will bring a water sample too... Thanks for all your info!!!

 

[cowfish]

DeNitrate is a Seachem product, but they recommend only using it after your Nitrates have been reduced to about 20ppm. It's not useful for lowering really high nitrates. The best thing to do would be several large water changes (40%) and to decrease feedings. You may also want to look into carbon/vodka dosing.

 

[mbg75]

For the most part, nitrate should drop the same % as your water change..ie..nitrate 50 and you do a 50% water change, u should end up with nitrate at roughly 25.

When u make a new batch of water, test it before your water change. New water should read 0.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[shark32]

Silverni2---I will start changing 20 gallons at a clip from now on...and I am going to test my water from from my ro/di when I get home (my tour ends at 2pm) and I will check my filters..I thought I remember reading that they turn a brownish color when they need to changed...thanks for the wish of luck too
cowfish---the for the info...I was looking into vodka dosing as well and I will cut down on how much I am feeding...
mbg75---thanks for the advice...maybe my filters do need to be changed
Thanks again for the help

 

[mbg75]

I meant to test the nitrate of a batch of new saltwater to make sure your test kit is good..

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[shark32]

I tested my ro/di water which, nitrItes, nitrAtes and ammonia all tested 0....so I will change 40% of my water today and do 20 gallon water changes from now on...hopfully that will lower the nitrates for good...I have also cut down on my feeding and have been manually removing the green hair algae....I have my fingers crossed
Thanks agian for everyone who offered advice

 

[Turbovr3six]

Do you have enough flow in the tank, or do you have 'dead spots'?

 

[shark32]

I have two maxi-jet 1200's towards the top of my tank...nothing close to the bottom though...

 

[Turbovr3six]

I would up your flow. If you have detritus settling, it will raise nitrates. IMO, more flow + larger water changes as suggested = no more nitrates.

 

[shark32]

Thanks Turbovr3six...
I have an extra Maxi jet that I can add to the tank and point it towards the rocks...every week I was blasting my rocks with a turkey baster and all this nasty stuff would float around...I was actually catching some of it it with a small net...