Constant nitrates, water changes

[Piker]

This is my first week with fish, 24g nano cycled quickly, maybe too quickly. I picked up two tiny clown fish and a cuc (3 hermits, 2 astro snails) on Monday. I was hesitant on the cuc, but the guy at my lfs said they wouldn't make an impact. My ammonia and nitrites have been perfect zero when testing twice daily.

I've done 2 water changes since I picked up the clowns monday. Nitrates are getting to 30+ within a day or so. I'm worried that I have some left over dead shrimp from cycling, or maybe I'm feeding too much? I feed about 1/5 a square of frozen petco carnivore mix in the morning and a flake or a few pellets at night.

I've only done 5 gallon water changes at a time because I'm limited to 5 gallon buckets and have one spare heater for prepping (another is being shipped), but I'm doing a 10 gallon batch of salt right now with one heater.

Anyway, I used bio spira to cycle, so I'm afraid to vac my sand as I don't want to suck up all the bacteria.

My tank:
24g nano (17-18 gal water)
24lbs dry rock
20lbs nature's ocean live sand
stock pump, small powerhead
1 piece Filter floss
chemi pure elite

Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance!

 

[oceaninabox12345]

How long has the tank been running?
What did you use to cycle it?

 

[Piker]

2 weeks, bio spira and a shrimp

 

[rob safron]

Pretty new tank. Not worried about the nitrate, what’s the ammonia running. Keep on the water changes until stable.

 

[oceaninabox12345]

2 weeks, bio spira and a shrimp

Id say you're maybe feeding too much? I honestly dont know.. maybe just try feeding some pellets or frozen food 3 times a week? How long did it take after adding the fish for the nitrates to go up?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Don’t sweat it honestly. Keep an eye on ammoina. The bio filter with catch up. Honestly.
You can get some dr Tim’s one and only if you are concerned about ammonia. The increased amounts bacteria will help bring down the nitrates.
Try to get the test verified at lfs.
But don’t sweat it.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

2 weeks <>cycle. With dry rock, the cycle will take a bit longer, on the good side, you've got live sand. Don't feed more than the fish can eat in 1 minute.

 

[Piker]

Thanks guys! I just read some stuff about nitrates harming fish at 30ppm. I'll keep doing water changes when it's 30+. I really appreciate the quick feedback. Also, Saltyfilmfolks I actually ordered dr tim's yesterday in case of a ammonia spike (I have chlor/am x too on hand). I haven't had any rise in ammonia or nitrite* though. Next time around, I'm going to use dr. tim's fishless cycle... hindsight.



*edit: typo... rise in nitrite, not nitrate, nitrate is obviously rising

 

[Jesterrace]

Honestly fish can tolerate fairly high nitrate levels, generally it's the corals and inverts that are more sensitive to them (although high nitrates will make the tank nasty).

 

[Piker]

Thanks for the feedback jester!

Update: I used a powerhead to blow the rocks clean and really stirred things up before the water change. I managed to get more stuff out than ever, that coupled with it being my largest water change... I'm hoping the nitrates accumulate a little more slowly.