I need help with the nitrate in my tank.

[saltwaterman5969]

I'm needing help with my nitrate in my 55 gallon saltwater aquarium. I did a 20% water change last week and the nitrate is still off the chart. So i went to petco and talked to the guy there and me told me to use Primer and i did just like he said. First i asked him would it hurt my fish and he said no. So i use the Primer just like he said and i loss all my fish but three. And so i checked the nitrate again and it is still high. S what do i do to help my tank.

 

[sawdonkey]

I'm needing help with my nitrate in my 55 gallon saltwater aquarium. I did a 20% water change last week and the nitrate is still off the chart. So i went to petco and talked to the guy there and me told me to use Primer and i did just like he said. First i asked him would it hurt my fish and he said no. So i use the Primer just like he said and i loss all my fish but three. And so i checked the nitrate again and it is still high. S what do i do to help my tank.

You need to give more detail on your setup if you want help. How long has the tank been running? How many fish? What type of filtration. Where are the nitrates coming from? The more info you give the better help you'll get.

 

[3Twinklets]

Try doing a larger water change. Continue to do water changes until your nitrates come down. Try to figure out if you are overfeeding or underfiltering. Im assuming that you do have a skimmer?
Toss the primer! If you need advice, ask here. Most salesclerks really do not know a lot about saltwater unless they happen to be in the hobby.
Good luck.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

It's been up and running for 3 and half years now. I had 7 fish, three snails, and two crabs. I have a FLUVAL 305 for my filter. A power head a heater. About 40lbs of live rock and two inches of sand.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

I don't have a skimmer. But I'm getting next week.

 

[sawdonkey]

It's been up and running for 3 and half years now. I had 7 fish, three snails, and two crabs. I have a FLUVAL 305 for my filter. A power head a heater. About 40lbs of live rock and two inches of sand.

No sump? How many gallons? It looks like you had some big fish? Tangs and angels. I'm guessing you were feeding a lot and not exporting enough nutrients. Were you doing sufficient water changes. You need to address the nutrient import/export imbalance rather than treat with chemicals.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

55gallon. Only two big fish. The rest are small.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

And yes no sump. I have been online this week looking at them and checking the prices.

 

[Bad Company]

Build a DIY waterfall scrubber. Probably cost you less than $80 if done carefully. No chemicals, minimal maintenance!

See here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/eq...-experience-5-months-no-nitrates-anymore.html

Good luck!

 

[saltwaterman5969]

Thanks

 

[Zero Nitrates]

You can siphon clean your sand. It will cause an initial spike in nitrates but over time it will bring them down.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

When I did the water change. I moved the rocks and sand around so I could clean it a little.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I clean my sand about 2 inches down to keep nitrates down. There are other methods but this works for me.

 

[saltwaterman5969]

Thanks

 

[Reefing Madness]

50% water changes 3-4 days in a row. Everytime you do a water change of 50% you knock the Nitrate number down by 50%. Now, if you have things in the tank, like your sand, that has detritus stuck in it, then your not going to be able to knock those numebrs down as easily. Vacuum out the sand before you make those big water changes.
Then you may think about carbon dosing, once you've gotten your skimmer up and running.
Dosing Vodka: Why? | Melev's Reef
Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com
Reefkeeping Magazine - Vinegar Dosing Methodology for the Marine Aquarium

 

[Naiad]

How often do you clean out the filter components.

 

[EW_Fish]

I'm guessing its coming from your canister filter. If not cleaned it can become a nitrate breeding ground.

 

[nept2n]

+1 on the canister filter. I am currently running a fluval 305 on a temporary set up while I rebuild my 265g system but I am running purigen in the canister to help reduce Nitrates. So far it's been working fine and keeping my nitrates in check. I do recommend getting a sump with a protein skimmer or at least an HOB skimmer for now. You can get the purigen here : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A5VK2/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Very in expensive and it comes bagged so you can just rinse and put it right into one of the media baskets. This not a cure for your problem but this alng with water changes every few days should help reduce your nitrates. Good luck

 

[beaslbob]

In order to get nitrates to zero you basically have to increase the nitrate consumers. I use macro algaes for instance.

I would recommend as the simplist and least expensive you try an in tank partition (egg crate) and add a light. So that macro can grow in the lighted partitioned area.

Finally with a mature balanced aquarium a nitrate spike can actually be a sign of the stability of the system. With macros or other plant life, when something goes bump in the night, the plant life consumes the resulting ammonia for nitrogen. That prevents dangerous cycles but nitrates can spike. Then as things settle down the plant life starts consuming nitrates again.


my .02

 

[zemuss]

How deep is this sand bed ? It might be releasing nitrates and the cause of the high nitrate issue?