Need some Help with Chemisty

[jkef2010]

I tested my water and the Nitrate and ammonia are a little high. My Nitrate is at 40ppm and ammonia at .25/.50 The rest of the levels are fine. My Phosphate is at .25 I can't get that to 0 I am about to do a WC and retest. Any advice is helpful

 

[Chameleon]

Well if your ammonia .25/.50 then you either aren't done cycling or something died. As far as the high phosphate and nitrate that is usually caused by over feeding, but if you aren't done cycling it could be because of that too. How old is the setup. How fast did you add fish and how many? How much live rock did you start with?

 

[Reefing Madness]

No need to do a water change as of yet. Let the system build up, then when the Nitrates are the only thing left, do a water change to knock that number down. To get rid of Phosphates, run GFO or Chemipure Elite in the system.

 

[jkef2010]

The tank has been up for about 4 months. I've stated with about 55/60 lbs of LR. My tank is 29g 40lbs of live sand. Only has 2 Clowns 1 Goby 1 GSP 1 Pulsing Xenia 1 Pistol Shrimp. Not a Big Bioload at all. Now with the Chemipure can I run that w/o a Media rack?

 

[glb]

In addition to the water change, you could use some Seachem Prime to detoxify any remaining ammonia as an added measure to protect your fish. I'm not usually a fan of additives, but any ammonia at all will stress your fish. Good luck!

 

[glb]

I forgot to mention that it's super important to find the source of the ammonia so you can solve the problem.

 

[mcarroll]

I would not say that's a small bioload - about right for a 29 gal IMO. Maybe even a bit much considering the age as well...but still close.

Sounds like a lot of sand (how thick?) and a lot of rock, so in lieu of a dead critter-find I'm going to guess there's a lot of poop and uneaten food that's gotten deep into both and that's your ammonia source. (Have you double checked the result with a different test kit? LFS, buddy, etc)

That much rock makes getting sufficient flow (which is extremely important) more difficult or even impossible. Insufficient flow makes everything settle out of the water - into your sand bed - quicker than it should be allowed to. Sand can be a pain for this and other reasons - the more the worse. Some people choose to have no sand bed for this reason.

-Matt

 

[jkef2010]

I would not say that's a small bioload - about right for a 29 gal IMO. Maybe even a bit much considering the age as well...but still close.

Sounds like a lot of sand (how thick?) and a lot of rock, so in lieu of a dead critter-find I'm going to guess there's a lot of poop and uneaten food that's gotten deep into both and that's your ammonia source. (Have you double checked the result with a different test kit? LFS, buddy, etc)

That much rock makes getting sufficient flow (which is extremely important) more difficult or even impossible. Insufficient flow makes everything settle out of the water - into your sand bed - quicker than it should be allowed to. Sand can be a pain for this and other reasons - the more the worse. Some people choose to have no sand bed for this reason.

-Matt

Okay, I thought I was a little low on LR to be honest. I will remove some and put it in a separate tank. I have about 4in SB. I have had is checked again and it was at 0. I don't know how it is a big bioload with only 3 fish. I was told b a lot of others that was light because that is what i'm trying to keep is a light load. Do u recommend getting rid of anything?

 

[nater]

you may need to boost your bacteria up. maybe add some bio-spira and use seachem stability with it so that your fish are out of harms way. sounds to me like you may have lacked proper build up of bacteria in the system possibly. just a thought.

 

[mcarroll]

I just think it's not a "small" bioload - simply wouldn't add more. Seems fine as-is though!

-Matt

P. S. Depending on your preferences, there's usually space for more coral.

 

[beaslbob]

I would add some macro algae to increase the ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate consumption.

Some test kits like api it is very hard to read 0 ammonia. I always read it as .25ppm. So it could be just a testing error.


my .02