high nitrates

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Im going to be completely honest.. there’s more than one way to approach problems. Especially in established tanks vs newer tanks.

It sounds like you’ve had a series of problems. Some of them it seems because you are rushing to stock the tank. Trust me, i get it, I love getting new fish and coral but nothing good happens if we rush.

It is so important to build a strong foundation if you want the tank to last a very long time. Having a successful reef is a series of building blocks.

If I were you i would empty it out and start over. You can have a successful bare bottom aquarium but you need other ways for bacteria to thrive.

Id drain it, start off with clean water, more live rock, and a plan. Find a system that inspires you and follow that plan.

You will start off with no brooklynella, no nitrates .. just a clean start to build a strong foundation.

Don’t think of it as time wasted but a lesson.

of course you can do what you think it’s best but I’d start over.

A little rough, but well said. Too much, too soon. Patience is key in this beautiful underwater world. The little animals respond well to slight, thoughtful changes.

 

[Lasse]

I need to get a red sea test kit or a salifert

I would suggest to get either Fauna Marines Aquahome test NO2-NO3 or Tropical Marine NO2/NO3 professional test because they are among the few test where you can compensate for NO2 interference. Hanna low range and high range checkers have an unknown NO2 interference but - if we are talking about NO3 levels above 2 ppm and NO2 levels below 0.1 - both tests will perform good.

but I am really leaning toward there really is nothing wrong with my setup other than it needs to mature

It seems for me to be rather logical

As many have said - your aerobic nitrification bacteria concentration is probably high enough. Someone claimed that it was possible to see if you had enough of bacteria for your nitrification cycle with only looking on your pictures. Those eyes should be directly donated to science because a good working nitrification biofilm is only parts of µm thick. If it get thicker - not enough of oxygen in order to do the job in the deeper layers. If the person meant that it was not enough of denitrification bacteria (which could be true) an could see that with his/hers eyes - the person in question have X-rays eyes. These bacteria lives there it is no oxygen and that´s normal aquarium environments that can not be seen by the naked eye. In the sand, in holes in the rocks, below the rocks an at places there light (and hence photosynthesis) normally not exist.

Just take it slow, do not panic, use your own common sense (it seems for me that you already do that).

According to your disease problems. Many people suggest to have the tank fishless for a prolonged period after a brook infection but for me - I do not know - as an example - this source - the most scientific source I have found - do not mention prolonged period of fishless system. As I understand Brooklynella hostilis do not have a dormant stage - it reproduce asexually using simple binary fission through conjugation.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[fishRus]

Carbon dosing will work, but only if you have a large amount of phosphates too.

Often times people will start carbon dosing(NoPox) and see no results. Simply because the bacteria need nitrates, and phosphates to reproduce. With no phosphates, your just dumping a chemical in your tank with no benefit.

We often see systems that are carbon dosing to be deficient in phosphates, and 0 depletion in nitrates. Dosing phosphates will resume the carbon dosing effects.

My nitrates are 50 ppm and my phosphates are 0.5 Are my phosphates to low for no pox to work?

 

[drakebuffie]

I added 5 pounds of LR last night after taking water to the LFS and having them tell me that my nitrates are fine and seeing it with my own eyes. API test. API tests are not the best.

Next step is going to be get a better nitrate test. Red sea or Salifert I think. It does not make sense to me that there is not enough bacteria on the rocks, wether you want to call them live or dead, as the bacteria doubles every couple of day and tank has been set up a little over 3 months. I have media bags in the back portion of the tank and estimate at least 50 pounds of base rock that has been seeded with 10 pounds of LR and bottled bacteria.

The clown fish will probably be fine. There was concern of brook because when the puffer came out of my tank and went into the 330 gal the guy said a week later his tank got brook from the puffer. I did have 3 fish die over several weeks a clown a blenny and a cardinal but I never saw any signs of sickness in tank. Definitley not brook which from what I have seen looks pretty obvious and would be hard to mistake. My 3 fish that died went from fine to one stuck in filter sock, one dead on bottom and one missing in action with never one sign of illness.

There is no doubt I went to fast at the start. I have a solid understanding of how the cycle works and am learning the rest of the chemistry involved.

I appreciate the help. I just need to find out my ACTUAL nitrate levels. All my inverts and the 3 corals I have in the tank are doing fine as well as the final clown. We will see what happens and I will probably start a build thread.

 

[Lasse]

Are my phosphates to low for no pox to work?

nope

Sincerely Lasse

 

[melonheadorion]

I added 5 pounds of LR last night after taking water to the LFS and having them tell me that my nitrates are fine and seeing it with my own eyes. API test. API tests are not the best.

Next step is going to be get a better nitrate test. Red sea or Salifert I think. It does not make sense to me that there is not enough bacteria on the rocks, wether you want to call them live or dead, as the bacteria doubles every couple of day and tank has been set up a little over 3 months. I have media bags in the back portion of the tank and estimate at least 50 pounds of base rock that has been seeded with 10 pounds of LR and bottled bacteria.

The clown fish will probably be fine. There was concern of brook because when the puffer came out of my tank and went into the 330 gal the guy said a week later his tank got brook from the puffer. I did have 3 fish die over several weeks a clown a blenny and a cardinal but I never saw any signs of sickness in tank. Definitley not brook which from what I have seen looks pretty obvious and would be hard to mistake. My 3 fish that died went from fine to one stuck in filter sock, one dead on bottom and one missing in action with never one sign of illness.

There is no doubt I went to fast at the start. I have a solid understanding of how the cycle works and am learning the rest of the chemistry involved.

I appreciate the help. I just need to find out my ACTUAL nitrate levels. All my inverts and the 3 corals I have in the tank are doing fine as well as the final clown. We will see what happens and I will probably start a build thread.

the issue with your fish could have simply adding too many too fast. i dont know how fast you added them, so thats just a guess. it could also be that the onset of brook in the other persons tank was coincidence. brook is one of those that you would generally recognize if you saw it, so if you didnt see brook signs on your dead fish, perhaps that was just coincidence.
if you have nitrate levels that dont match between multiple tests, i would take the average of what the results were. chances are, you are significantly lower than the 80 rreading you got initially. i wouldnt freak out too much at the moment. if you get a different test kit, and the result comes back insanely high, then i would worry. on a side note, i will say that the red sea color chart for nitrate is good for the low end, but anything over 20, youre going to have a hard time determing the color to match. i find that anywhere between 0 and 10 is easy enough, but if it gets toward 20, it becomes hard to tell what color of pink it is. i dont know if salifert color charts are any better

 

[Brit’s Fish]

the issue with your fish could have simply adding too many too fast. i dont know how fast you added them, so thats just a guess. it could also be that the onset of brook in the other persons tank was coincidence. brook is one of those that you would generally recognize if you saw it, so if you didnt see brook signs on your dead fish, perhaps that was just coincidence.
if you have nitrate levels that dont match between multiple tests, i would take the average of what the results were. chances are, you are significantly lower than the 80 rreading you got initially. i wouldnt freak out too much at the moment. if you get a different test kit, and the result comes back insanely high, then i would worry. on a side note, i will say that the red sea color chart for nitrate is good for the low end, but anything over 20, youre going to have a hard time determing the color to match. i find that anywhere between 0 and 10 is easy enough, but if it gets toward 20, it becomes hard to tell what color of pink it is. i dont know if salifert color charts are any better

Another good test kit for Nitrates with a color chart is Nyos. It’s a two vial match - one with plain water and one with the reagent in it. Like I said before, I ultimately went with the Hanna checker but Nyos was easier for me.

 

[Lasse]

The reason why I recommend the two NO3 tes can be read in the end of this post

All hobby tests I know (with exception of the upcoming ION director from GHL) are based on the same principle. A metal salt is in use to reduce the nitrate into nitrite. The test reads nitrite but after a certain time when x % of the nitrate has been converted into nitrite. The colour chart translates back the nitrite reading into mg/L nitrate with a certain conversion factor. This factor is depended on brand and metal salt in use but vary from 50 to 100 times. It means that if there is nitrite in the sample from the beginning – you will have a too high reading. The brand I use for the moment (Tropic Marine PRO nitrite/nitrate test. Fauna Marines PRO seems to be the same type) have 100 as a multiplying factor. It means that if I have 0.02 mg/L of nitrite from the beginning – my nitrate readings are 2 mg/L too high. 0.05 ppm nitrite from the beginning -> 5 ppm too high nitrate reading. As I have seen – it is rather normal with these nitrite readings in mature reefs and if I want to have Nitrate levels below 5 mg/L I must analyse my nitrite concentrations in order to get a decent (and right nitrate reading)

IMO even nitrate readings up to 10 mg/L can be very wrong if you do not know your nitrite readings.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Rmckoy]

Another good test kit for Nitrates with a color chart is Nyos. It’s a two vial match - one with plain water and one with the reagent in it. Like I said before, I ultimately went with the Hanna checker but Nyos was easier for me.

I’ve tried the Hanna nitrate kit . Absolutely dislike it .

salifert seams to be the easiest so far . But haven’t tried nyos .

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I’ve tried the Hanna nitrate kit . Absolutely dislike it .

salifert seams to be the easiest so far . But haven’t tried nyos .

I have only used the Hanna High Range Nitrate kit, which sounds like it’s a lot more user friendly than their other kit. If I come across a salifert kit in the wild, maybe I’ll give it a shot. I use their calcium, mag, Alk and a couple others and they’re the best, IMO. So I’m picking up what you’re putting down.

 

[Rmckoy]

I have only used the Hanna High Range Nitrate kit, which sounds like it’s a lot more user friendly than their other kit. If I come across a salifert kit in the wild, maybe I’ll give it a shot. I use their calcium, mag, Alk and a couple others and they’re the best, IMO. So I’m picking up what you’re putting down.

Back in the old days . Api was easy to use and cheap .
Salifert is affordable like all their other kits . Matching to the colour chart can be a little tricky but not as bad as others

worth it in my opinion.

 

[fishRus]

My nitrates are 50 ppm and my phosphates are 0.5 Are my phosphates to low for no pox to work?

Update on my nitrates nopox seems to be working my nitrates are down to 20 ppm PO4 is 0.12

 

[Rmckoy]

Update on my nitrates nopox seems to be working my nitrates are down to 20 ppm PO4 is 0.12

Keep a eye on nutrients .
even though they are down to acceptable range , the bacteria will continue lowering them even without dosing as the bacteria is still building .