NITRATE PROBLEM!!! PLEASE HELP WITH SUGGESTIONS

[John Purcell]

I'M New to Salt Water. I have a 75 gal. that has been up for 4 months with a 10 gallon REF, 1 power head in the tank, HOB Protein Skimmer (reef octopus), about 40 lbs of live rock, 8 fish and 1.5-2" of sand at the bottom.

I cant get my Nitrate Level to stay around 5ppm. I used Dr. Tim's one and only and 5 days later my Nitrate Levels spike back between 10-20 ppm....I do 10% water changes every 2 weeks but as of lately its been 1x week. What am I doing wrong!

 

[lakes1985]

Nopox is the answer or maybe do 20% water change every week

 

[Salty1962]

Make sure your skimmer is running optimally. Especially if you use NOPOX or any other carbon dosing.

 

[John Purcell]

Will the Nitrates ever stabilize? Also Nopox is that just if you have corals?

 

[briancarterkc]

Will the Nitrates ever stabilize? Also Nopox is that just if you have corals?

Nitrates can stabilize if you have epically good control of everything that can import/generate it. But, as others have stated, dosing carbon (e.g., NOPOX, vodka, vinegar) can definitely help control it. I've been reefing off and on for 20 years and could never get my nitrates to stay at zero until I started dosing vodka. Also, no, NOPOX / other carbon dosing is for any tank that wants to control nitrates (and to an extent, phosphate), not just if you have corals.

All that said, I'd wait til your six month mark to see how well things stabilize.

 

[BoneXriffic]

I do 20percent every two weeks since my nitrate spike a few months ago. I vinegar dosed for a month and a half till algae growth got crazy. Really made the skinmer pull massive amounts of skim. Since the nitrates got under control i havent had to dose. I too was only doing 10 percent every 2 weeks...upping it to 20 is probally the answer. Or 10 percent weekly