My nitrates will not go down.

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

I have a 29 gallon corallife biocube and my nitrates will not got down, I have done water changes, vaccumed the sand, changed the filter out, put in the biocube skimmer,wich I know isn't the best but better than nothing and started carbon dosing with vodka.

buckroe07 · Feb 25, 2017

Give this a try and watch it go down!

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

Okay I will look it up.

Masomaniac · Feb 25, 2017

How big and how many water changes?

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

It is a coral life biocube 29 gallon, I do a water change every other day so I dont take out all of the beneficial bacteria.

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

And the water changes are about a 5 gallon bucket.

mcarroll · Feb 25, 2017

How much are you feeding the tank?

How many fish? (What kind?)

How many corals? (What kind?)

You live rock and sand should be denitrifying NO3 to nitrogen gas all the time, so if you're seeing NO3 accumulate in the water, it's because you're adding food faster than the tank can handle it.

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

No fish or coral just 3 small hermit crabs that eat the alage. I took put the one damsel that I had in there and put it into a different tank.

Johniejumbo · Feb 25, 2017

Have you tested the new water before you add it to the tank? thats an awful lot of water changes to still have high nitrates

mcarroll · Feb 25, 2017

So you are not feeding the tank?

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

Yes the nitrates are zero in my tap i am baffled by this also.

Aidanwolf · Feb 25, 2017

No i am not feeding anything.

mcarroll · Feb 25, 2017

How old is the tank? Are you sure the biofilter has actually cycled?

You shouldn't be carbon doing or skimming a new tank.....and you shouldn't have a nitrate issue.