Managing nitrates

[Dr Tomcat]

I've got a 80 gal tank, with a filter and a skimmer and without sump.

The tanks isn't much populated, since there are 10 small - medium fishes.

I'm changing 20% of water once a month but I'm not satisfied with the level of nitrates. Since the third week they are higher than 25.

What should I do to gain a better control of nitrates?

Thanks

 

[aquarius77]

change out water more often.

 

[Anonymous]

How old is the tank? How much LR do you have, any LS? How often do you feed?
Sure that others will have more questions for you, you will need to post as much info as you can to get a meaningful answer... Also prolly not a bad idea to specify your skimmer make and model for the more tech orientated folks here...
I'm sure that someone will send you a more formal welcoming just now, but Welcome!

 

[Dr Tomcat]

My skimmer is a seaclone 1000; I've 60Kg of live rocks and the acquarium is 7 months old.

I tried with more frequent but smaller changes of water, but I had no significant results.

I tried also with a more careful feeding. Now I've an automatic feeder that make them eat twice a day.

I know that a more frequent rhythm of changes can improve the situation, but I'm searching for more effective solutions.

Should I try something like Acquatic nature Nitrat stop?

Dr Tomcat

 

[shavo]

hey, I had a major nitrate problem , i had them anywhere from 40 to 60 and I had a die off of fish, I was skimming and I thought i had everything working correctly but could not get nitrates down , I started looking online for products and came accross a product that is actually working perfectly.

go to this website and snoop around, my nitrates are always at zero now and have been for atleast 6 months now.
the only thing is it was expensive.

www.midwestaquatic.com

 

[dnorton1978]

I could be completely off but IMO i would avoid the use of chemicals to get the nitrates down. When you say the fish are small to medium what fish do you have? What do you consider small and medium? Are you using tap water or ro/di water? What type of substrate do you have, and how deep is it? Are your ammonia and nitrite levels zero?

As a newbie myself I can tell you over kill on the information is best. Sometimes now I type post and feel like I am giving my life story, but it yields better results that way. Everybody here is very helpful, so welcome to RDO. Answer those questiions, add some more info, sit back and wait for the help.

 

[Dr Tomcat]

I have:
4 amphiprion oscellaris
1 salarias fasciatus
1 hepatus
1 valencienna puellaris
1 sinchironpus
1 zebrasoma veliferum
1 pagurus

I have a substrate of coral sand and it is deep abuot 6 cm.
Normally, nitrates are 0 and ammonia is 0 near to 0.
My changes are made with a cheap mineral water with 0 nitrates
Any suggestion?

 

[waymack97]

live rock would help. a refugium would really help and a skimmer upgrade. my nitrate were alway around 20 to 30 than i added a fuge and a better skimmer and my readings are always close to 0. you can also put plant life in your fuge which would feed on your nitrates.
_________________
Mercedes 190

 

[Anonymous]

I'm with Doni on this one, I'd stay away from additives, better to fix the cause than treat the symptoms. Bear in mind that the nitrates are probably (simplisticly) a consequence of something that you are adding or something that is dieing. I may be way off base here, but your bioload looks pretty high to me for an 80 ga total volume system.That would be the equivalent (again simplisticly as I am aware that the relationship is in no way linear..) of me putting over 50 fish in my system (385ga + 120ga) and I cant see how it would survive that. If you have no die-off going on, you are probably feeding too much. Remember that with a nitrate reading of 20, a 20% wc will only at best drop the new reading to around 16. Also, although it is prolly not anything to do with the NO prob, you may need to investigate just exactly what you are getting in that 'mineral water'. Just looking at a local bottle for example, TDS is 91mg/l, nitrate 1mg/l, also potassium, chloride, flouride etc present.