High Nitrates

[Cuixus]

Hey guys, I was wondering if I could get some help here because I’m a little bamboozled. So I have a 13.5 Evo, tomorrow marks the 2 months. Up until last week all my parameters were normal. Ammonia/Nitrites 0, PH at a constant 7.8, Nitrates I kept between 0-5 ppm and I was achieving this through weekly water changes.

And then suddenly last week Thursday I saw that my Nitrates were at a 10, so I did a water change that same night in the hopes to bring it down but nitrates were still at 10 the next day when I tested. Saturday is my regular water change so I figured in the next water change I’d probably level out. Do water change... things seem normal but then last night I check my water again and my nitrates are basically at 20 ppm. So I did a water change and brought it down to 10 ppm.

Why am I having a battle with nitrate all of a sudden? And what can I do to keep it under 5?
I have

2 Clowns
1 Cleaner
5 Hermits
5 Snails
4 Zoas
1 Monti
1 Candy cane

 

[ihavecrabs]

Hey guys, I was wondering if I could get some help here because I’m a little bamboozled. So I have a 13.5 Evo, tomorrow marks the 2 months. Up until last week all my parameters were normal. Ammonia/Nitrites 0, PH at a constant 7.8, Nitrates I kept between 0-5 ppm and I was achieving this through weekly water changes.

And then suddenly last week Thursday I saw that my Nitrates were at a 10, so I did a water change that same night in the hopes to bring it down but nitrates were still at 10 the next day when I tested. Saturday is my regular water change so I figured in the next water change I’d probably level out. Do water change... things seem normal but then last night I check my water again and my nitrates are basically at 20 ppm. So I did a water change and brought it down to 10 ppm.

Why am I having a battle with nitrate all of a sudden? And what can I do to keep it under 5?
I have

2 Clowns
1 Cleaner
5 Hermits
5 Snails
4 Zoas
1 Monti
1 Candy cane

Most likely scenario is you lost a snail/hermit and they are decomposing somewhere in the tank. Either that or you may be overfeeding.

How long have the inhabitants been in the tank? Did you see the rise from 5-10 and 10-20 shortly following their addition? Could be it is taking time for the bacteria to catch up with the additional food (i.e. Nitrate)

 

[brandon429]

On any nano reef, the best thing you can do to increase its longevity and health and chemical balance is to fully clean it, top to bottom including the sand. we do this routinely without any mini cycles, we do it to remove all clouding/detritus and waste that impacts in the sand and rocks, and causes nitrate and phosphate issues -beyond- what the normal bioload and feed represents.

By removing the waste, we balance the nutrients. its not done by dosing the water with something, its done by cleaning, if you want to mimic what the worlds oldest nano reefs are doing to get that old. large tanks cannot clean this well unless they're bare bottom, so in time they do use water dosers, plant binding, all kinds of stuff to take up the leak, from the cloudy areas of the tank if applicable. The most balancing, life boosting thing you can do to a nano reef is fully clean it top to bottom, so that sand doesn't cloud if disturbed, and so that rocks don't cast off any waste cloud if they're shaken in tank. Post pics so we can see if this is the case. cleaning allows you to inventory all animals, its surgery basically but it resets the tank without chemicals or cheats or temporary offsets that still allow waste to compound (anything you could be dosing to the water)

20 ppm isn't bad, my own tank runs that its nearly 14 yrs old. the handy part about a full cleaning is it can be applied to any nano reef at any time, you can't harm the tank by doing it, only put it back in line and if its already in line, then its cloudless after reassembly. It is literally harmless and ideal to deep clean any accessible reef tank to make it live the longest it can possibly live