Cleaned tank… high nitrates

[alddb]

We do water changes every two weeks or so… I know bad… but time just gets away from us. I do go into the crushed coral when I do but I dont go crazy cleaning it. Normally about 10-15% done. At times a little more. Ph has never went lower than 7.8, I do test water once a month or so. I do daily clean out any extra food seen and any other debris seen.

anyways my nitrates are high. 160. We did a water change. Nothing changed. Bought bio filter balls, carbon and started a refugium in sump. Still no change. Ammonia, nitrites are zero and ph is 8.0.

today I did a bigger water change… 25%. I ensured I really went into that coral being that is probably where the nitrates are camping out.

now my nitrates are even higher! I know it’s probably because I really went deep and tried to really give it a good cleaning. But what do I do now?

Do I do another water change tomorrow? Let it go a day?

current readings:
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate over 160 on api and over 100 on seifert
calcium 380
Mg 1300
Kh 8-12
Salt .026

I do use RODI water. I only have 5 fish (bat, tang, small trigger, small grouper and a small parrot fish), eel and now a serpant in water. 150 gallon, 60 gallon sump. We just added serpant to help remove food I miss out on. So it’s not overloaded.

 

[alddb]

We do water changes every two weeks or so… I know bad… but time just gets away from us. I do go into the crushed coral when I do but I dont go crazy cleaning it. Normally about 10-15% done. At times a little more. Ph has never went lower than 7.8, I do test water once a month or so. I do daily clean out any extra food seen and any other debris seen.

anyways my nitrates are high. 160. We did a water change. Nothing changed. Bought bio filter balls, carbon and started a refugium in sump. Still no change. Ammonia, nitrites are zero and ph is 8.0.

today I did a bigger water change… 25%. I ensured I really went into that coral being that is probably where the nitrates are camping out.

now my nitrates are even higher! I know it’s probably because I really went deep and tried to really give it a good cleaning. But what do I do now?

Do I do another water change tomorrow? Let it go a day?

current readings:
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate over 160 on api and over 100 on seifert
calcium 380
Mg 1300
Kh 8-12
Salt .026

I do use RODI water. I only have 5 fish (bat, tang, small trigger, small grouper and a small parrot fish), eel and now a serpant in water. 150 gallon, 60 gallon sump. We just added serpant to help remove food I miss out on. So it’s not overloaded.

We do have a skimmer running also.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Normally, you’re leaving 85% to 90% of 160 nitrates in your tank. On an API test kit, I don’t think you’ll see much difference. If it was me, I’d do a 50% water change and the change my test kit to Salifert. You might see numbers in the 30s or 40s. Good luck!!!

 

[TheDragonsReef]

How old is the tank? Id recommend 50% water changes weekly or 2 25% until you get them down. Id also start carbon dosing if you dont already either with nopox or biopellets. Test nitrates weekly until you get them in check. If they start getting low you can start doing smaller water changes again. But predators eat alot of food and produce a ton of waste. Keeping nutrients in check is the hardest part of keeping them. Feeding less will also help if you feed heavily.

 

[Reffetsevla]

Another thing to consider, I don't recommend siphoning or cleaning your substrate. The bacteria and organisms in the substrate, especially deeper, aides in reducing your nitrates, phosphates, etc. By cleaning it deeply, you likely disturbed a "cache" of nitrate. I have cerith snails I let clean the top 1/4" or so, but my sandbed is only about 2" deep. Other than that, I never touch it. There are some pods and worms that make their way through naturally, but trying to manually clean it has always resulted in extremely elevated parameters for me, almost always nitrates and/or phosphates. I tried it a few times early on (15yrs or so ago) but never have since.

Also curious on the tank age too, do you run a fuge at all?