Local emergency reef services

[nldemo]

Hello!

I am wondering if there are any recommended service providers that can show up in a pinch. I have a 300g tank with a nitrate problem, everything was fine for years but I just lost two fish in a week, and now i'm making water as fast as I can but really hard to make a meaningful dent in a tank that size.

Any advice would be great.

thanks,
danny

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Nitrates have to be super high to cause fish deaths. What side of town are you in? And would be nice to know some parameters and what fish died??

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water change is first recourse. If fish only, focus on ammonia level rather than nitrate. Add carbon to the sump for source of water flow, preferably like chemipure elitE which will lower ammonia and nitrates
Are you using RO WATER or tap water from faucet?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water change is first recourse. If fish only, focus on ammonia level rather than nitrate. Add carbon to the sump for source of water flow, preferably like chemipure elitE which will lower ammonia and nitrates
Are you using RO WATER or tap water from faucet?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Echo...echo...echo. if you're on the west valley side let me know

 

[nldemo]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'm in the south mountain phoenix area. Tested water params and nitrites/ammonia were 0 (or near 0), and nitrates were showing up as > 160ppm. I know, that's really high and I don't know how it got so bad.

This has been an established tank for ~10 years now and I've used vodka dosing to keep nitrates and phosphates down. I guess I got too comfortable with success and stopped testing, now the fish are paying for it.

I am working on a water change now, but the best I can do is ~50gallons at a time with the big brute 25g trash cans. That's only about a 16% water change though , and it takes time to make that much water...

I use RODI only, definitely no tap water.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm west valley 303 and 10, I always have 55 gallons made up if you're up for the drive I can provide more rodi water.

 

[nldemo]

thank you. I'm going to hit up LE Corals (I think they are open today) with a water sample and hopefully have a better plan of attack after that.

 

[WhoaTangs Clan]

Have you tried microbe lift special blend water cleaner? I had my nitrate go up to about 90ppm and my LFS guy told me to use that and it worked pretty quick. Smells like sewage but it did the trick quick.

 

[nldemo]

No, I have not. Usually don't have much faith in the chemical solutions.. but I will look into it. Thank you.

 

[nldemo]

Update : even after the separate 50gallon (sand vac) and then 150gallon water change, the nitrates are still reading as high as my test kit will go.

I don't know what else to do except upping the vodka and continuing to sand vac on weekends.