Need Urgent Water Advice!!

[CodyRVA]

Doing what? I don't know of any way that overdosing of organics leads to elevated nitrate.

That was my understanding? I've read oodles of threads about folks running too much carbon and having algae outbreaks??

 

[ScoobyFish]

Man setup an algae scrubber, easy diy. It'll help with the nitrates tremendously.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That was my understanding? I've read oodles of threads about folks running too much carbon and having algae outbreaks??

Too much organic carbon can have numerous undesirable effects, possibly including growth of more of certain organisms that can consume it, such as cyano, but not because it raises nutrient levels.

 

[CodyRVA]

Too much organic carbon can have numerous undesirable effects, possibly including growth of more of certain organisms that can consume it, such as cyano, but not because it raises nutrient levels.

I gotcha, so if there was an over dosing issue there would likely be algae issues from excess organics, which they feed from as well as bacteria; not related to high nitrate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I gotcha, so if there was an over dosing issue there would likely be algae issues from excess organics, which they feed from as well as bacteria; not related to high nitrate.

Yes, especially cyano, but when I've dosed very large amounts on vinegar, I did find, too my surprise, that green algae also grew a bit faster. It turns out that this is well known in lab experiments in the scientific literature.

 

[Squadir]

good news!! nitrates back to undetectable levels
just to monitor and make sure they don't get back out of hand and hope that all affected frags recover
thanks for all the help and advice.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That's good to hear!

Happy Reefing.

 

[jsker]

In your opinion what fixed this issue?

 

[Squadir]

I think it might have been my top off water source. Since I starting using bottled water for my ATO it started to go down but fluctuated a bit and then on Friday afternoon I did a 20 gallon water change with bottled water also and changed out my filter floss and bubble trap foam (black porous foam).
Saturday morning nitrates were down to 5ppm, by Saturday afternoon was back to undetectable and has stayed there. I'll continue to monitor it, if it starts to go back up then I know there is another issue at hand but I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that I have found the problem.