High nitrates

[vincephuket]

Hi Everyone,

I am having a strange spike in the nitrates. After the cycling they were at about 25, then went down to 5 ppm which was perfect, for a while. Now they are at 17 ppm, which i don t like.

In the tank I have only a small clown and a mandarin. The clown is fed with high quality pellets (one at time to make sure he consumes) and the mandarin with live pods.
There are also a lot of lps and some sps in my tank which are all doing great with nice colors. Filtration is a Tunze 9012 (the tank is only 35g), chemipure and floss.

What is causing this spike?
I suspect my Salifert test is out...

My other parameters:

- NH3 and NO2 0 (Salifert)
- PO4 0 (Hanna)
- Alk 8.3 (Hanna)
- Ca 440 (Nyos)
- Mg 1320 (Nyos)

 

[Spare time]

17 is not a problem. I run mine somewhere near there. PS you need more phosphates. 0 is bad. As for nitrates, have you done a water change recently?

 

[Crustaceon]

Bacteria consumes nitrates and phosphates, reducing nitrate level to 5ppm, propagating in the process. Gut-loaded bacteria isn’t sufficiently exported out of the tank, begins to starve (probably due to lack of phosphates) and releases some of that nitrate back into the system until the bacterial population stabilizes.

 

[vincephuket]

17 is not a problem. I run mine somewhere near there. PS you need more phosphates. 0 is bad. As for nitrates, have you done a water change recently?

Last water change was done on Sunday Sep 6th (20%). Yeah 17 is not too bad but I love to see the metallic colors in the acroporas and that doesn t happen with 17... by the way I purchased a few days ago Fauna Marin zeolite and a small reactor. Will start running it tonight, the zeolite is still in the pre conditioning bath...

 

[vincephuket]

Bacteria consumes nitrates and phosphates, reducing nitrate level to 5ppm, propagating in the process. Gut-loaded bacteria isn’t sufficiently exported out of the tank, begins to starve (probably due to lack of phosphates) and releases some of that nitrate back into the system until the bacterial population stabilizes.

Yep, this could be the reason... should I feed more? I don t really want to dose phosphorus...

 

[vincephuket]

Bacteria consumes nitrates and phosphates, reducing nitrate level to 5ppm, propagating in the process. Gut-loaded bacteria isn’t sufficiently exported out of the tank, begins to starve (probably due to lack of phosphates) and releases some of that nitrate back into the system until the bacterial population stabilizes.

Yep, this could be the reason... should I feed more? I don t really want to dose phosphorus...

 

[Crustaceon]

Yep, this could be the reason... should I feed more? I don t really want to dose phosphorus...

If everything is doing great, don’t change a thing.

 

[vincephuket]

If everything is doing great, don’t change a thing.

Well I plan to introduce two fish this coming weekend... that should probably positively compensate the NO3O4 balance...

 

[Spare time]

Last water change was done on Sunday Sep 6th (20%). Yeah 17 is not too bad but I love to see the metallic colors in the acroporas and that doesn t happen with 17... by the way I purchased a few days ago Fauna Marin zeolite and a small reactor. Will start running it tonight, the zeolite is still in the pre conditioning bath...

Ah I didn't realize you had acros.

 

[vincephuket]

Ah I didn't realize you had acros.

Only 4 small frags at the moment... but in the future...

 

[EvilLucky6]

WWC is running there sps system at 20ppm no3 .
So I don't think 17ppm is a issue ‍

 

[Dbichler]

Adding 2 fish won’t help the nitrate problem. You may have to balance out n and p to get n to drop. You may be over feeding? I’m no expert of the science side of reefing but usually I find nitrates are from over feeding.

 

[vincephuket]

Adding 2 fish won’t help the nitrate problem. You may have to balance out n and p to get n to drop. You may be over feeding? I’m no expert of the science side of reefing but usually I find nitrates are from over feeding.

Thanks for your reply, if you read what I wrote above you would know I am not overfeeding. I give my clown probably 10 pellets x day, given one by one to make sure he consumes it. Live pods for the mandarin are not a problem. The reason I want to add to fish is becoz that would force me to feed more, and to imput more PO4 in the tank.

With the filtration I have, a Tunze 9012 skimmer on a 35g tank 2 fish shouldn t be a problem.

 

[Dbichler]

It didn’t say how much just that one at a time but yes probably not enough people on here have said same thing and been way over. With as small of a bioload as you have are you sure your rodi system is giving you nitrates

 

[vincephuket]

It didn’t say how much just that one at a time but yes probably not enough people on here have said same thing and been way over. With as small of a bioload as you have are you sure your rodi system is giving you nitrates

I do not use RODI. Where I live is not available. I use a bottled water which is made through RO, purchased a TDS meter and the value was 2. The best I could get. And I checked the nitrates after mixing the salt, before pouring in the tanks. Zero...

I have two options left:
1- the test is out although it expires in 2 yrs
2- NO3-Po4 unbalance is causing the issue

 

[Dbichler]

I would feed more then and skim more on the wet side. See if that helps and adjust from there. Your levels aren’t bad anyways.

 

[vincephuket]

Will do, plus tonight will start the zeolite reactor.

Thanks a lot!