Nitrate nightmare

[Heather w]

ATTENTION Fishie friends!!! I need your help. I have been battling nitrate levels for several months now and i believe this is why my corals, mostly my zoas began to die off. I am mixing my salt water in a barrel with Heat, oxygenating and circulation in a 32 gal food safe barrel. I removed 2 rocks from my tank and put them in there as well to get more access to the substrate so i could vacuum it out REALLY good and try to remove hidden detritus.
Here's the mystery. I tested every water source at every stage on its way to my tank and have found to my horror that the water goes from 0ppm in my RO to 40ppm!!!!!! in the mixing barrel. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY? obviously I need to dump the barrel. But managing buckets for water changes, trying to bring down the nitrates is a nightmare. I believe the barrel is the way I need to go. PLEASE someone take a minute and offer me some advice?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The rodi is zero from the unit and 40 from the bucket?

If so yes, dirty bucket.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If you have carbon run it , seachem prime might be good. A good bottled bacteria.
May be some gfo...

 

[eatbreakfast]

A food safe barrel should not be adding any noticeable nitrate, so something must be causing it. Is it covered or open? What salt are you using? If you put live rock in there, but it fills with fresh, there will be die-off from the live rock.

 

[Heather w]

I filled it with salt water. It is ventilated. Salt added and heated and circulated. I used instant ocean but I just bought live Aquarian. I noticed on the bucket of IT that is noted that there were "no added nitates" so I decided to test the instant ocean. IO says nothing about nitrates on the bucket so I tested the water. Are there REALLY brands of salt that DO have nitrates? The live rock went from my salt tank into salt water at the proper salinity and heat. Both match my tank

 

[Heather w]

I filled it with salt water. It is ventilated. Salt added and heated and circulated. I used instant ocean but I just bought live Aquarian. I noticed on the bucket of IT that is noted that there were "no added nitates" so I decided to test the instant ocean. IO says nothing about nitrates on the bucket so I tested the water. Are there REALLY brands of salt that DO have nitrates? The live rock went from my salt tank into salt water at the proper salinity and heat. Both match my tank

Here' the other part of the mystery. My fish are thriving! Growing, active, perfect color, no stress. And my anenome? Almost a foot across! It' just my corals faltering.

 

[Heather w]

Here' the other part of the mystery. My fish are thriving! Growing, active, perfect color, no stress. And my anenome? Almost a foot across! It' just my corals faltering.

 

[eatbreakfast]

French angels nip at corals and sometimes valentini puffers do as well. I think those are much more likely culprits.

 

[Heather w]

REALLY!!! When I researched the puffer it said they didn' like inverts. And the angel was "reef safe" I paid a ot for her too. I won' get nearly what I paid, but I paid a ot more for all my corals that are now dead

 

[saltyhog]

Here' the other part of the mystery. My fish are thriving! Growing, active, perfect color, no stress. And my anenome? Almost a foot across! It' just my corals faltering.

Not a mystery at all. Nitrates are well tolerated by fish. The anemone, not as much usually.

Why did you put live rock in your mixing container? I would suspect that to be the source of your nitrate (and it's not really that bad. Could you move the live rock to a separate container with a heater and powerhead and leave the mixing container only for mixing salt water?

What test are you using to check your nitrates?

 

[Heather w]

Not a mystery at all. Nitrates are well tolerated by fish. The anemone, not as much usually.

Why did you put live rock in your mixing container? I would suspect that to be the source of your nitrate (and it's not really that bad. Could you move the live rock to a separate container with a heater and powerhead and leave the mixing container only for mixing salt water?

What test are you using to check your nitrates?[/QUOTE


I wanted to take the rock out of my tank temporarily so I could vacuum the substrte better. And those are just the nitrates in my water change water. I use 3 tests for my nitrates in my main tank. All but the quick tests strips put my nitrates to be so high as to be immeasurable. The test strips say 50ppm, but Reef Sea and API are past the darkest dark.

 

[saltyhog]

Is Reef Sea really Red Sea? That's a good test kit but it only reads to 4ppm unless you dilute the sample 1cc to 15cc of RO/DI. Then it reads up to 64.

If you put the rock in the mixing tank after mixing the water no harm no foul but I would remove it before mixing any more water and clean the container thoroughly.

Options to lower nitrate are numerous. Simple frequent water changes (if you can correct the nitrates in the new water), carbon dosing and biopellets are all effective.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Put thick trash bags in barrel, prep water see I f any nitrates.process of elimination

 

[Fudsey]

Is Reef Sea really Red Sea? That's a good test kit but it only reads to 4ppm unless you dilute the sample 1cc to 15cc of RO/DI. Then it reads up to 64.

If you put the rock in the mixing tank after mixing the water no harm no foul but I would remove it before mixing any more water and clean the container thoroughly.

Options to lower nitrate are numerous. Simple frequent water changes (if you can correct the nitrates in the new water), carbon dosing and biopellets are all effective.

My Red Sea Nitrate tests up to 50, maybe your thinking of the Pro test?

OP are you testing TDS in your barrel before you are adding salt I hope?

Fish can survive a LOT higher Nitrates than 50. My old FOWLR tank was well over 160 as that was as high as the test kit would go and it was much darker than the test kit showed. Corals on the other hand can't tolerate that high. But I have heard that most can tolerate somewhat high NO3.

 

[eatbreakfast]

REALLY!!! When I researched the puffer it said they didn' like inverts. And the angel was "reef safe" I paid a ot for her too. I won' get nearly what I paid, but I paid a ot more for all my corals that are now dead

A french angel is most definitely not reef safe. Canthigaster species can be kept in reefs, but I have first hand experience with them nipping.

 

[saltyhog]

My Red Sea Nitrate tests up to 50, maybe your thinking of the Pro test?

Yep, that is the one I was referring to. Forgot they make a different one.

 

[Cnidoblast]

"nitrate levels for several months now and i believe this is why my corals, mostly my zoas" Zoa's iirc seem to like medium to slightly high nitrate - The fish is eating them

The French Angelfish are omnivores. in the wild they eat large amounts of sponges and algae, as well as some bryozoans, zoanthids, gorgonians, and tunicates. Due to their constant grazing nature in the wild, this specific angelfish should be fed four to five very small meals a day for best results. In a tank with abundant algae and sponge growth, three times a day would be acceptable.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

40 nitrates isn't a big problem for corals, the French angel or puffer is.

That said, you still need to find the source of nitrate in you new saltwater. Catch a 5 gallon pail right out of the ro hose, mix and test it. That will tell you if it's your bucket or salt.

Good luck

 

[PSXerholic]

Wondering here.

Is it a reef ready tank with a sump or do you run a canister filter on this setup.
Just a question?

-Andre

 

[Brew12]

What is the nitrate reading in your DT?

Next time you test your water in the barrel try testing for nitrites, also. Some plastic storage containers can leach nitrite. Having nitrite in your water will cause false high nitrate readings. If I had to guess, this is what you are seeing in your water barrel and that the coral issue is from the fish.