High Nitrate-add vinegar?

[Erink]

Hi everyone,

Alk: 4
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8- added PH buffer
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Phosphate: 0.25
Ammonia: 0.25

As you can see my nitrate and ammonia are high (not sure if phosphate is ok??). I definitely have a problem with over feeding so I'll stop that. I read online that if you add 15ml vinegar to 100gallons once a week it will lower nitrate. Anyone ever heard of this?
I have:
2 hammer corals
3 mushrooms
1 Sally lightfoot crab
1 Hermit crab
1 coral bandid
1 purple anemone
1 long tentacle anemone
1 porcelain shrimp
1 purple urchin

NO FISH at all... PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[Robert Binz]

Very confused about your ammonia concentration. How old is this tank?

 

[Plecosam]

Very confused about your ammonia concentration. How old is this tank?

Kit error my guess.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

When added to the tank, vinegar is considered a carbon source, just like vodka and sugar.

It promotes a bacteria bloom in the water column that removes nitrates and phosphates. One thing that is a must is that you have to have a decent skimmer.

Not sure about 15ml per 100 gallons a week. I dose vodka to my tank on a daily basis and starting out, it needs to be slow. Because you can create a big enough bacteria bloom to make the water cloudy and deplete oxygen from the water.

There's plenty of literature out there for carbon dosing, I would advise you educate yourself and understand what you're doing prior to starting a regimen.

Here's a great article for vodka, but it explains exactly what's going on in the tank when dosing carbon.
Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

 

[Hemmdog]

Your alk at 4 is the most concerning thing.

 

[Erink]

Your alk at 4 is the most concerning thing.

Really??? I thought 4 was great. What do you suggest?

 

[Erink]

Very confused about your ammonia concentration. How old is this tank?

Very confused about your ammonia concentration. How old is this tank?

It's about 9 or 10 months old. I Haven't had any fatalities, in fact I've nursed a few back to health. I've done 1/4 water changes every week- 2 in one week if needed. I test every week unless I'm worried about something then more often. I was lowering my salinity by adding tap water treated with Prime. Do you think live rock will help? That and more water changes is all I can think of doing...

 

[homer1475]

Is the 4meg/L?

4meg/l is around 11DKH and at the extreme upper end of the scale. While meg/L is the proper term, in the hobby we all reference Alkalinity in DKH.

 

[Sharir]

What are you feeding... Coral food? My go-to would be to do a large waterchange (+-70%) and then evaluate either one of the following:increase your nutrient export or feed little less

 

[Sharir]

Is your coral growing fine, your Alk is low... I don't think your nitrates are too "high" ;phosphates are higher than the general 0,1 ppm which is the recommended level

 

[cmoore806]

Could you tell us how old the tank is and how many gallons it holds total (display plus sump), what did you do when you first started the tank, how long did you wait before adding corals to the tank? Im curious if you've established enough nitrifying bacteria to control your ammonia levels. It sounds like you've added too much life too fast and are feeding too much. You could keep trying to add "something" to fix the problem but I suspect this isn't a long term fix.

 

[SMSREEF]

It's about 9 or 10 months old. I Haven't had any fatalities, in fact I've nursed a few back to health. I've done 1/4 water changes every week- 2 in one week if needed. I test every week unless I'm worried about something then more often. I was lowering my salinity by adding tap water treated with Prime. Do you think live rock will help? That and more water changes is all I can think of doing...

I would not use tap water in my tank. Get a good RO unit to mix new salts water and replace what you lose through evaporation.

live rock would help with nitrates I’m pretty sure. Just be careful adding any hitchhikers that you don’t want into tank.

a large water change would solve your issue If you use Reverse Osmosis water to mix new saltwater.

If you change 70% like @Sharir said above,
your nitrate would be 5 (perfect)
And phosphate would be 0.06 (good)

 

[cmoore806]

It's about 9 or 10 months old. I Haven't had any fatalities, in fact I've nursed a few back to health. I've done 1/4 water changes every week- 2 in one week if needed. I test every week unless I'm worried about something then more often. I was lowering my salinity by adding tap water treated with Prime. Do you think live rock will help? That and more water changes is all I can think of doing...

how long are you letting the prime work on the tap water before adding it to the tank?

 

[SMSREEF]

One thing I forgot to add... If you don’t want to buy an RODI unit right now you can just use distilled water from grocery store for top off water until you get one, and/or buy your saltwater or RO water from a local reef store.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

It's about 9 or 10 months old. I Haven't had any fatalities, in fact I've nursed a few back to health. I've done 1/4 water changes every week- 2 in one week if needed. I test every week unless I'm worried about something then more often. I was lowering my salinity by adding tap water treated with Prime. Do you think live rock will help? That and more water changes is all I can think of doing...

Don’t use tap water. Don’t use a cheap RODI system. Get the best RODI set up that you can.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

Based off your description of your set up right now the most important thing is the RODI. Tap water can add contamination problems progressively over time. Like in weekly water changes.
Don’t chase numbers like high nitrate and phosphate. Many successful reefers here have nitrates like three or four times what you do and five times what phosphates you have.

 

[jordan10]

Don’t use tap water. Don’t use a cheap RODI system. Get the best RODI set up that you can.

U don't need the best I got a 50 dollar set up pumps out 0tds always. Don't need the best to have success

 

[lapin]

Welcome and Howdy
If you have rock in the tank you are ok You should not have an ammonia problem or the critters would die.
I dont see an issue other than you might be using a API ammonia test which will show .25 when you have none.
Nitrates and Phosphates can be controlled by you feeding less. This is where I would start and see what happens over a few weeks. Corals do not need much food. They get most of what they need from light. Feeding the nems 1 x a week is fine. A bit of food for the shrimp too. Just dont over do it.
Keep up the water changes.
You mentioned tap water. Is that what you are using to do water changes?
Do you mix your own salt water of get it from an LFS?
If you mix your own what salt mix are you using (ie high alk) ?