Help with nitrate levels in a 20 gallon nano

[nanonanoman113]

have had the tank for years and as of the last 3 months my nitrates have been spiking beyond 40ppm and i lost a good amount of my sps corals and frags. 20 gallon tall 2 450gph power heads heater and 30 gallon HOB filter with no carbon running right now. Help me anyone please I want my tank back to normal. Every other water parameter is perfect just dont understand

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Nitrate and phosphate usually require some way to export them.

I presume you are not using any such methods?

Do you have fish in it that you feed?

 

[FarmerTy]

For the interim, I would do a couple of good water changes. Nitrate levels decrease at the same proportion of water removed, i.e. you change 20% of your water, you will theoretically reduce your nitrate concentration by 20%.

Longer term, I would see if you could run a refugium with macro in the sump for exporting of nitrates or perhaps look into a fork of carbon dosing (vodka, vinegar, biopellets, etc).

 

[nanonanoman113]

I am doing partial changes as well as using nitrate reducer and bio filter is my live rock

 

[fishroomlady]

what type of nitrate reducer?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Carbon Dose (vodka, vinegar, sugar)
Larger water changes up front to get the numbers down faster, like 50% water changes.Then possible larger weekly changes once you've gotten those numbers inline.

 

[nanonanoman113]

Wont that constantly casue my tank to cycle with that large a water change that ofter its a 20 gallon nano

 

[nanonanoman113]

I confirm the brand when I get home purple bottle believe its instant ocean

 

[Reefing Madness]

No, you want to get the nitrates to a resonable number, they are high and in abundance, your tank doesn't need that much to break down the nitrites, so you artificially birng them down, thus water changes, or carbon dosing, or sumps with macro algae, or other means. Once you've gotten them down via water changes, then bring the water changes down to weekly % that will maintain that nitrate number so it doesn't go up again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Wont that constantly casue my tank to cycle with that large a water change that ofter its a 20 gallon nano

The water doesn't "cycle", the surfaces in the tank do, such as live rock, sand, filter media, etc. Anywhere bacteria attach and grow.

So water changes don't generally impact the cycling of an aquarium, unless you eliminate ammonia that was being used to cycle it.