Mystery Nitrate problem

[JCannon]

Hello,
I have had saltwater aquarium setup for many years. Recently for a year I had been out of the hobby because of my work. All life had been removed from the tank but everything else was kept running in hopes of restarting. A few months ago I started to get back into my tank and found that my nitrate levels were extremely high. I instantly assumed that I had missed a fish or something and it had decomposed causing the high nitrates. From that point I emptied the tank, cleaned the sand and life rock as well as all filters. I then added water and allowed it to cycle. Almost immediately the Nitrates went incredibly high. Since that time I have tested the source water which was perfect, completed water changes regularly, and have even tried artificial Nitrate removers with no affect. I have a local aquarium store which their specialists are all now stumped at my problem. I have had various types of aquariums for many years and have never had a problem such as this that seems to not have a solution. I am happy to hear any ideas you may have.

John

 

[rodney]

I had a similar problem when I set mine back up a few Years ago . Lots of GHA I found a thread on here about carbon dosing vinegar and it cleaned up my tank with time.

 

[LesPoissons]

1. Have you tried more than 1 type of nitrate test?
2. Its coming from somewhere. Maybe a die off of all the life in the sand or the live rock. If nothing was in the tank and no food etc for a year, eventually everything died. I would empty the tank completely. Take out a your rock and rinse each piece. Rinse the sand in the tank and dump the water a few times. Take out equipment and clean each piece so theres no dead fish etc possibly stuck in side pumps etc and rinse. Then refill and test again.

 

[LesPoissons]

Have you added a new bacteria source when your cycled? What did you use?

 

[JCannon]

1. Have you tried more than 1 type of nitrate test?
2. Its coming from somewhere. Maybe a die off of all the life in the sand or the live rock. If nothing was in the tank and no food etc for a year, eventually everything died. I would empty the tank completely. Take out a your rock and rinse each piece. Rinse the sand in the tank and dump the water a few times. Take out equipment and clean each piece so theres no dead fish etc possibly stuck in side pumps etc and rinse. Then refill and test again.

Thank you.... I did empty the tank and scrubbed it. Even removed all the live rock and sand and cleaned each piece incase something dead was lodged somewhere. As soon as I refilled the tank the nitrate level returned. I have run tests using two different test kits and took a water sample to my local aquarium supplier. Results were the same. The owner of the aquarium shop stated he had never seen such high nitrate levels and is at a loss in solutions. The test turns dark red instantly.
Nothing has changed in the setup from the time I had great success with the tank till I started getting this high nitrate level. Definitely a mystery. The only thing I have not tried to do so far is replace the tank which I would hate to do because of money. I recently shut off the protein skimmer thinking that might be affecting my natural bacteria growth which would assist in eating away the nitrate levels.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

How did you clean the rock? While the tank sat fallow, did you keep the water circulating? Did you run the tank with the lights on? Did you ever add any food?

My guess is that the rock and sand had living organisms which died while the tank was fallow. If you only rinsed the sand and rock, it probably wasn't enough to get rid of the organic wast trapped inside and attached to the rock and sand. You may need to consider new sand, or going bare bottom and acid washing or bleaching the rock to get rid of all of the decaying organics.

 

[JCannon]

How did you clean the rock? While the tank sat fallow, did you keep the water circulating? Did you run the tank with the lights on? Did you ever add any food?

My guess is that the rock and sand had living organisms which died while the tank was fallow. If you only rinsed the sand and rock, it probably wasn't enough to get rid of the organic wast trapped inside and attached to the rock and sand. You may need to consider new sand, or going bare bottom and acid washing or bleaching the rock to get rid of all of the decaying organics.

All good points and a complete bleaching and new sand is my next step. I had kept water flow and filtration running the entire time the tank was empty but I kept the lights off most of the time. That could be a reason I have not developed/maintained a good colony.

 

[LesPoissons]

It has to be the sand and rock. Try scooping up a cup of sand and putting it in a container with a gallon of new water and test it.

 

[JCannon]

Have you added a new bacteria source when your cycled? What did you use?
[/QU
No I not. The only thing I added was some established live rock from the aquarium shop in hopes of encouraging the colony.