Nitartes are too high

[kyleflahardy]

I have a 29 gallon saltwater tank with live rock, live sand, and 3 fish. I had a shrimp but it was killed by high nitrates. I have a protein skimmer which has been up and running for about 3 weeks now, a filter that is equipped with Deep Blue professional nitrate reducing pads, and I am doing frequent water changes. I have also added Kordon Amquel ammonia remover which supposedly makes the nitrates non harmful to the fish but even with all this I am struggling to keep my nitrate levels low. Any suggestions? PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[Elementalj]

What are your topoff and change water sources? Have you vacuumed the substrate during the water change? Are you using something filter wise that's churning out the nitrates? Have you thought about adding a refugium?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

What is high? How often water change? How long has tank been running? What type of fish?
Sorry to answer question with questions but a little more insight may allow for clearer suggestions. You're in the right place to find the answer. Let's see what we can do to help.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Cut back on the Amquel. It's great stuff but unnecessary. If you have some vinegar, add a couple drops each night, but get yourself some nopox. Read up on their stuff, works very well.
Nitrate is something you'll have to deal with eventually, but read all you can, there's more than a few methods out there and all of them will make you laugh about it later. (sorry for the death though, that always sucks; consider it a learning experience so you reduce the chances later)

 

[kyleflahardy]

please excuse me, I'm new realativly new to saltwater tanks. Could you please tell me what you mean by topoff

 

[kyleflahardy]

the tank has been running for about 3 months and I have 1 clownfish, 1 yellow wrass, and a blue damsel fish.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

When the water evaporates and you add water back into the tank. What are you adding? Tap, rodi, saltwater?

 

[kyleflahardy]

I am adding distilled water that I add instant ocean salt and a ph balancer to to make it saltwater.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

That may be a different issue as well. For top off, you should only be adding clear freshwater, preferably RODI. The water evaporates, however the salt does not. Over time this will cause the salinity to rise greatly if topping with saltwater. Only time to add saltwater should be during water change when replacing saltwater.

 

[kyleflahardy]

Okay. Thanks for the tip. Now what should I do about my nitrates?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

How often do you do water changes and do you vac the substrate? I recomend at least twice a week cleaning the pads as they can harbor unbroken waste that can cause nitrates to rise. What are your trates reading at moment? We can narrow this down.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Also, any other power heads for circulation?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

How long was the shrimp in tank after passed and did you do a water change after noticing? Any ammonia?

 

[kyleflahardy]

I don't have any power heads for circulation and I am having to change my water about once a week. By vac the substrate do you mean clean the sand with one of thows special siphoning things. I have never cleaned my sand. Could debris be building up there and creating nitrates?

 

[kyleflahardy]

At the moment my nitrates are at 80 but that's after I did a water change 3 days ago to bring it back down before then it was even higher. I also am having a large amount of algae growth on the sides which I keep cleaning off the walls of the tank.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Yes. Without anything to add flow to the tank and push the debris/waste into the column to be removed via mechanical or chemical filtration they will build up. It's possible to get away without vacuuming if you have enough circulation to remove debris. Also, more circulation allows the live rock to do its filtering thing (way more technical than that, but for the sake of this thread, that'll work).

 

[kyleflahardy]

the shrimp was only in dead in the tank for about an hour and I didn't do a water change after noticing it. my ammonia levels are at 0.07 and my nitrate levels are at 0.

 

[Squid]

I don't believe it was the nitrates (nitrates usually don't kill) that killed your shrimp but most likely high or fluctuating salt levels or ammonia....

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

How much water changed per change? If lean toward getting the Sandbed cleaned up a bit at moment. But, be careful, don't just stir it all up as it'll release to column. I'd recomend a good substrate vac and do it in 1/4-1/3 portions every couple days in conjunction with water changes. Just match the temp and salinity when adding new water.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Any ammonia is no good. Tackling that would be the first step.