Battling zero nitrates fish?

Hallowhead · Feb 18, 2020

Howdy,

I know this this topic comes up often but I'm battling zero nitrates all of a sudden... My tank for the past 4 months was happily at 10 ppm and all of a sudden some brown diatom slime has been forming on the substrate the last month. I've started to dose alk and ca BRS two part - nothing else has changed. I'm trying to understand why the sudden drop. I stopped doing weekly water changes to help my nitrates remain detectable.

I've thought about dosing sodium nitrate to just keep my nitrates at 5 but fear that I'll throw nitrates way the other way.

I have two clowns two Cardinals and a orchid Dottyback it's a 30 AIO... should I add more fish?

Spare time · Feb 18, 2020

What kind of filtration do you have? You can buy a bottle of nitrate from brightwell too (that is what I did).

Daniel92481 · Feb 18, 2020

This will work too, just do the research. Lots of helpful threads about it.

Hallowhead · Feb 19, 2020

Spare time said:
What kind of filtration do you have? You can buy a bottle of nitrate from brightwell too (that is what I did).

I have filter floss in floss holders

Hallowhead · Feb 19, 2020

But do you both think adding another fish would help the issue naturally ? It would take a month to QT one so I'd have to dose to help in the meantime

landlubber · Feb 19, 2020

Hallowhead said:
But do you both think adding another fish would help the issue naturally ? It would take a month to QT one so I'd have to dose to help in the meantime

more bioload is how I managed to elevate mine.
I would strongly recommend collecting a sample of that new brown slime to make sure you're not dealing with dinoflagellates.

Hallowhead · Feb 19, 2020

landlubber said:
more bioload is how I managed to elevate mine.
I would strongly recommend collecting a sample of that new brown slime to make sure you're not dealing with dinoflagellates.

I'd need to get a basic microscope. I just need to understand if another fish would be OK for my tank. I used to have an algae blenny but he died.. I'm considering a royal Gramma or a goby

piranhaman00 · Feb 19, 2020

I would consider dosing KNO3 natural and you get way more control then just adding more fish or feeding more and hoping you dont over shoot.

Spare time · Feb 19, 2020

Hallowhead said:
But do you both think adding another fish would help the issue naturally ? It would take a month to QT one so I'd have to dose to help in the meantime

Having more fish is the easier thing to do in the long run. Dosing nitrates (and phosphate if that was a problem) is just a quick way to get them up.