High Nitrate!

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

My tank is 125 gallons and is seven years old, and I've been battling with high nitrates (180 on API) for months now. It's a brand new test and I also have the Red Sea Kit. I've tried everything from changing the crushed coral to live sand, 25% water changes every day for a week to change out the water. Along with the weekly water changes. I use RO water.

Feeding only once a day. Adding a second protien skimmer (250 gallons) in the sump along with the 125 gallon protien skimmer. I added the macro algae, I tried sugar dosing for a couple months with no change. My fish guy gave me the No3-Pox4-x and I tried that for a couple months with no change. Only a white slime everywhere. I use RO
I only have a 2 clowns, a foxface, sailfish tang and one snail. They all seem happy with no signs of disease.
The rest of my fish, a magestic angle and powder blue tang died suddenly back in the spring, a couple weeks apart.

I dont know what to do, could it be the live rock or something else? I dont overfeed, I add a little each time when feeding and make sure everything is eaten before adding more. Hardly anything falls on the sand and if it does Foxface eats it up.

Please help.

Crabs McJones · Oct 8, 2018

Welcome to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
Can you check the expiration date on your test kit? I'm going to guess test kit error. All that work and nitrates are not coming down doesn't add up. I would maybe look into the salifert or red sea test kit to verify your findings. Only other thing I could thing of, are you using RO/DI water for your water changes?

WVNed · Oct 8, 2018

I would look into your phosphate levels. I started dosing it recently and it is rather amazing. There are many threads on here about it and they all went over my head and then the light bulb lit up a week ago.

NY_Caveman · Oct 8, 2018

Welcome to the forum! Maybe ask your LFS to test it to be sure. You need a second opinion. If you use tap water test that too. My parents for example have very high Nitrates from their tap.

cracker · Oct 8, 2018

welcome Miss Lisa ! We will help You with this .

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
Welcome to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
Can you check the expiration date on your test kit? I'm going to guess test kit error. All that work and nitrates are not coming down doesn't add up. I would maybe look into the salifert or red sea test kit to verify your findings. Only other thing I could thing of, are you using RO/DI water for your water changes?

It's a brand new kit, and I also bought the red sea kit. I use RO water and also got the water checked at my fish store.
Its frustrating.

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
Welcome to the forum! Maybe ask your LFS to test it to be sure. You need a second opinion. If you use tap water test that too. My parents for example have very high Nitrates from their tap.

Thanks, I had it tested and I use RO water.

Gregg @ ADP · Oct 8, 2018

Just looking at that pic, I have a very hard time believing your NO3 is 180ppm. I don’t even know if that’s possible with your light bio-load and husbandry.

Something is off.

Flippers4pups · Oct 8, 2018

If your using only RO water and not RO/DI, that may be your N03 source.

Do you know what your incoming and outgoing TDS is?

IslandLifeReef · Oct 8, 2018

This may be a stretch, but since your tank looks pristine, have you checked your NITRITES? If you have nitrites in the tank, it could be giving you a false high NITRATE reading.

Nitrites normally aren't harmful to marine aquariums, so you may have them and not even know. Just a shot in the dark.

Dan_P · Oct 8, 2018

So many questions

What do you mean that you have battling high nitrates for months? What were the nitrate level before “months ago”? Was there a sudden jump at that time? And how many months exactly has the battle been going on? It seems that you tried many things in a short (?) amount of time.

Tank looks good.

Changing the substrate would have potentially restarted a large portion of your denitification filter.

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

Dan_P said:
So many questions

What do you mean that you have battling high nitrates for months? What were the nitrate level before “months ago”? Was there a sudden jump at that time? And how many months exactly has the battle been going on? It seems that you tried many things in a short (?) amount of time.

Tank looks good.

Changing the substrate would have potentially restarted a large portion of your denitification filter.

Well I'm not sure how long the nitrate has been high. My fish guy informed me I was doing the test wrong (not shaking it for a minute on the API.) I was dumb and didnt read the directions and thought it was the same like for the rest of them. But that was back in March when I took the test the right way. So for six months they've been high.
Sometimes when I take the test it will be 80 then the next day it's back up to red, the highest.
I'm still sugar dosing and the protein skimmers are working great. I changed the sand back in April because I read the crush coral could be harboring waste and food in the shells.
The live rock is all the same, could that possibly be the problem? Waste in the crevices?

Flexin · Oct 8, 2018

Are those the same rocks in the display. They look newer.

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

Flexin said:
Are those the same rocks in the display. They look newer.

Only three rocks are new, the ones with the polyps. I got those in August.

Flippers4pups · Oct 8, 2018

Do you have any idea what your TDS is before and after the RO unit?

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

Flippers4pups said:
Do you have any idea what your TDS is before and after the RO unit?

It reads all zero, I checked the RO for nitrates to and reads zero along with my tap water. They both read zero.

Dan_P · Oct 8, 2018

Yeah, that one minute of vigorous shaking is a must. If the fish guy hasn’t already suggested it, dilute the tank sample to get a better reading of the nitrate amount. I would mix 1 mL of tank water and 9 mL of RO/DI and run the test as you usually do. This should give you a reading that isn’t bumping against the top end of color scale. If you are currently getting a reading around 80 your diluted sample will be around 8.

Crushed coral has a poor reputation because debris can accumulate between the large particles of sediment. It’s one of those hobby truisms that we believe in but the science might not be there to support it. So, don’t be too quick to change your substrate just yet or start vacuuming it every week. I would keep those as an elements of a “plan b” when all else fails.

By sugar dosing I assume you mean adding table sugar or sucrose or are you dosing glucose? How much were you adding when you saw a bacteria bloom? How long had you been dosing at that point? I need to do some calculations to compare it to vinegar dosing.

Forgot to ask if you performed any large water changes and if so how did the nitrate level change?

LisaJ21 · Oct 8, 2018

Dan_P said:
Yeah, that one minute of vigorous shaking is a must. If the fish guy hasn’t already suggested it, dilute the tank sample to get a better reading of the nitrate amount. I would mix 1 mL of tank water and 9 mL of RO/DI and run the test as you usually do. This should give you a reading that isn’t bumping against the top end of color scale. If you are currently getting a reading around 80 your diluted sample will be around 8.

Crushed coral has a poor reputation because debris can accumulate between the large particles of sediment. It’s one of those hobby truisms that we believe in but the science might not be there to support it. So, don’t be too quick to change your substrate just yet or start vacuuming it every week. I would keep those as an elements of a “plan b” when all else fails.

By sugar dosing I assume you mean adding table sugar or sucrose or are you dosing glucose? How much were you adding when you saw a bacteria bloom? How long had you been dosing at that point? I need to do some calculations to compare it to vinegar dosing.

Forgot to ask if you performed any large water changes and if so how did the nitrate level change?

A teaspoon of table sugar every day for a month now. The tank gets really cloudy but clears out the next day. About two days after the walls are full of a white film. I clean it off once a week.
Maybe I'm being impatient but I've watched YouTube videos of guys sugar dosing and the nitrate going down after a week or so for them.

I did a 25% water change three days ago. I do one once a week.

Larry L · Oct 8, 2018

Do you have a protein skimmer? The purpose of any sort of carbon dosing is to feed bacteria populations which consume the nitrates, but you have to have a way to get those bacteria out of the tank or else the nitrates just stay in the system.

Edit: Sorry, just re-read the original post and I see you have skimmers.