High Nitrates

minkota · Aug 11, 2014

I have a 150G tank the has been up and running for about 2-1/2 years, It was a FOWLR until about 2 3 months ago when I decided to try my hand at Mixed Reef. to convert I first had remove all the fish and to do so I had to disturb the Aquascaping and then I saw a spike in Nitrates (160ppm) (which I was not surprised about) I gave it about a month to settle in and there was no change. I was told by many people to ditch the Bio-Balls that were in my wet/dry and run it with nothing until I get the new sump installed in November. I have been doing 50 gallon water changes every week and the Nitrates were dropping and were down to about 20ppm last week. I had to work this weekend so I was unable to do a water change and I tested it and now it is back up to 160ppm. why are the Nitrates going up, I have about 8-10 small frags in the tank and NO fish.

Tank Set-Up
150G tank (48x24x30)
Wet/Dry Sump (no Bio-Balls)
Aqua-C 120 Skimmer Over driven with Mag7
Running Bio-Pellets
180lbs of Live Rock
No Fish
8-10 Small Frags

Latest Parameter Test
Salinity - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 160
PH - 8.2
Phosphate - 0.5
Calcium - 520
Alkalinity - 9

Reefing Madness · Aug 11, 2014

That would be pretty tough for them to go from 20 to 160 in a week, have you had your water tested by the LFS or got another test kit just to make sure the one you have is working correctly?

minkota · Aug 11, 2014

Those readings are from a LFS, near my house and they tested it twice because I went to a different LFS near my work and it tested Nitrates at 0 so I made sure to have it tested again somewhere else

Reefing Madness · Aug 11, 2014

Yea something is wrong, that's a huge number swing for just 7 days.

minkota · Aug 11, 2014

Actually it was only 2-1/2 days. I had a ready of zero nitrates Friday at one store and a reading of 160 on Sunday at another. I just found out the tank was dosed with Aquavitro Fuel by Seachem about an hour before I had it tested and it showed so high so I'm going to test again tonight and see what it shows. I'm hoping the "Fuel" is what caused it to read so high...

minkota · Aug 11, 2014

And it's especially a huge number when considering the fact that there are no fish producing waste and I haven't fed the tank since mid May

JOKER · Aug 11, 2014

I would get my own test kits. Sounds like one of the test kits may be bad

minkota · Aug 11, 2014

I have my own, API. It showed high as well which is why I went elsewhere to confirm. It just doesn't make sense that it went from zero to 160 in a few days with no fish in the system and no food added to the system.