insane nitrates

[hstac]

I just moved a 50gal reef recently and can't get my nitrates down below 20. I've been doing 5-10gal water changes daily for the past few days without any improvement. There are only 2 small fish in the tank at present. Lots of live rock and softies. The corals look good except for a hammer that didn't survive the move. Using plenty of lights. I don't have a skimmer but a simple HOB filter with new elements in it, nothing there to make nitrates thrive. Nitrates are zero out of my RO unit. I'm using the same Instant Ocean salt I have always used. No other additives in the tank. I'm not overfeeding. If anything, I may not be feeding enough because the nitrates are high. The only thing I can think of is the sand bed. I did get a new test kit to make sure the readings were true. I really don't want to go bare bottom. Any suggestions?

 

[mike007]

You need to get a skimmer and i am guessing you have hang on external filter with filter pads. Get rid of the pads. If you have sufficent live rock that will be your bio. filter. Also if your sand bed is old it can cause high nitrates. Always vacumn your sand bed when you do water changes. Water changes are temporary fixes you have to find the cause for the high nitrates. Most of the time i find that there are too many nutrients causing this problem. Overfeeding is the major cause i see. Also you want good water movement with powerheads etc. I had the same problem and tryed everything and discovered it was my sand bed so i changed it out and i also carbon dose and my nitrate level has been staying at 0 now for 8 months. 20 ppm is not all that bad but it needs to come down . Lighting has nothing to do with it.

 

[jtomasi]

I agree - I can't imagine having a tank without a skimmer, even if it only had a single hermit crab. Probably wasn't a good idea to take the old sand over. I had a 20g all through college that I moved a lot and always discarded the sand. Never had a single nitrate issue. Filter pads are terrible - replace with chemi pure or something like that. Couple water changes and you should be good.