Nitrate

[Damien]

I have a 30 gallon tank (my 1st marine tank) with a Fluval canister filter, which I clean ever month.

Nitrate keeps showing up in my tank. It has killed so many of my invertebrates so I didn't a 90%water change and the levels went to 0. I checked the tank a week later and the levels were high again, so I did a 30% and the levels were below 0.05. I checked the levels a few days ago and the levels were around 0.10. I when the a marine store and got "FritzZyme 9" nitrifying bacteria but no results.

My ammonia and nitrites levels read 0.

What should I do? I was thinking about adding a sand shifting goby to the tank to help.

 

[KorD]

besides water changes, do you vac/siphon the substrate when you do your water changes? The substrate holds a bit of bio-load within it.
What type of sponge/scrubber are you using inside your canister? do you have a skimmer and if so.... is it rated for the size of your tank, or meant for a larger tank.

 

[Jimbo662]

Canisters on a reef tank should be cleaned at a minimum of weekly. You'll hear many people refer to them as nitrate factories.

 

[Damien]

besides water changes, do you vac/siphon the substrate when you do your water changes? The substrate holds a bit of bio-load within it.
What type of sponge/scrubber are you using inside your canister? do you have a skimmer and if so.... is it rated for the size of your tank, or meant for a larger tank.

Everything in my canister filter is from Fluval except The carbon. The carbon is chemi pure elite. The skimmer is for a 45 gallon tank, so in the canister filter.

 

[KorD]

try using purigen for grabbing the nitrate from your water.... all you need to do is toss a bag or two into your canister and let it be until it needs cleaned. I do not use carbon in my tanks, and everything so far has lived a healthy life. BUT what works for me might not work for others.

 

[cu455]

The bottle of bacteria didn't do anything since your tank had the needed amount of bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrates. You know this since ammonia and nitrites were already at 0. The easiest and one of the cheapest way to get your nitrates down is to add biopellets to your cainster filter.

 

[Damien]

Canisters on a reef tank should be cleaned at a minimum of weekly. You'll hear many people refer to them as nitrate factories.

What sho

The bottle of bacteria didn't do anything since your tank had the needed amount of bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrates. You know this since ammonia and nitrites were already at 0. The easiest and one of the cheapest way to get your nitrates down is to add biopellets to your cainster filter.

I did not use the whole bottle. Should I? What type of bio pellets should I add ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a 30 gallon tank (my 1st marine tank) with a Fluval canister filter, which I clean ever month.

Nitrate keeps showing up in my tank. It has killed so many of my invertebrates so I didn't a 90%water change and the levels went to 0. I checked the tank a week later and the levels were high again, so I did a 30% and the levels were below 0.05. I checked the levels a few days ago and the levels were around 0.10. I when the a marine store and got "FritzZyme 9" nitrifying bacteria but no results.

My ammonia and nitrites levels read 0.

What should I do? I was thinking about adding a sand shifting goby to the tank to help.

I'm confused about what you are even claiming.

It is not very likely that nitrate is killing inverts unless it is super high (like 100+ ppm).

How high do you think it is? 0.1 ppm is definitely not high. Many would consider it undesirably low.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I discuss all about nitrate here:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Nitrate keeps showing up in my tank. It has killed so many of my invertebrates

I have never heard of that. I have done some dum things and not cleaned, and have never seen it.

 

[twilliard]

I'm confused about what you are even claiming.

It is not very likely that nitrate is killing inverts unless it is super high (like 100+ ppm).

How high do you think it is? 0.1 ppm is definitely not high. Many would consider it undesirably low.

I was just going to say this!
Thanks Randy

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

When the smart guys and the dum guy agree. You prob have another issue.
Where do you get you water and do you dip corals in RX or bayer. And are you adding LFS water are my first thoughts.

But Ill let the smart guys handle it.

 

[Damien]

I was just going to say this!
Thanks Randy

Thanks for the link Randy.

Maybe both of you should read what I wrote. I never stated how high it was, I just stated how much it is after each water change. And you're wrong about invertebrates Dying only above 100. Mines died at 80

I coral dip with RX. You are right I did add LFS. The reason being is, when I bought the bottled seawater the nitrate was 0 and jump to 80 the same week.

I'm new to the whole reef tanking or having marine water fish. So pardon me for not knowing everything there is to know

 

[twilliard]

Thanks for the link Randy.

Maybe both of you should read what I wrote. I never stated how high it was, I just stated how much it is after each water change. And you're wrong about invertebrates Dying only above 100. Mines died at 80

I coral dip with RX. You are right I did add LFS. The reason being is, when I bought the bottled seawater the nitrate was 0 and jump to 80 the same week.

I'm new to the whole reef tanking or having marine water fish. So pardon me for not knowing everything there is to know

I think you should go back and read Randys post.
Nitrate is not your leading factor.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My jokes were meant to be self effacing.
Some LFS use copper in the fish water not the pre mix.
. Itll kill bugs.

 

[twilliard]

My ammonia and nitrites levels read 0.

If your no3 is going to 80ppm with these numbers no3 is being introduced in mass quantity or this tank just got done cycling.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the link Randy.

Maybe both of you should read what I wrote. I never stated how high it was, I just stated how much it is after each water change. And you're wrong about invertebrates Dying only above 100. Mines died at 80

Yes, that is why I asked. We wanted to know because we wanted to help.

Many people ask questions with a premise that isn't correct, and I think this is a case, but we are still just trying to be helpful so there's no need for attitude.

What inverts are you talking about? Anemones, since this is the anemone forum?

Are you talking about 80 ppm nitrate ion or 80 ppm nitrate-nitrogen?

I do not believe that 80 ppm nitrate ion will kill most anemones that we keep. They may brown up and not thrive as well, but die? Not usually.

If you have 80 ppm nitrate ion, and things are dying, I think there may possibly be other causes.

That said, your numbers also do not add up. A 90% water change of 100 ppm water leaves 10 ppm, not 0.1 or 0.05 or whatever you think it was. So I'm not sure what exactly is going on with your measurements and/or levels.

 

[Lenny_S]

Remote assistance is difficult, trust me I know first hand.
So be patient as member ask questions or even get a little playful just to lighten the mood. We can all ge very frustrated with our aquariums when things go wrong after all the time and money we put into them.

That being said, a couple of observations and questions. First observation, I've used a couple of different test kits for nitrates, and none of them got to 0.05 level of detection. There are plenty out there though, so which one are you actually using? Another observation, you have a 30 gallon tank and a canister filter, didn't hear mention of a sump, so your system volume is at most 30 gallons and likely much less depending on what is in the tank displacing water. For nitrates to rise that high that fast, something dramatic must be happening. Question, could you have something dead and rotting in the tank hidden somewhere? Lastly, do you think you could provide more info? It would be helpful to know what has died and how long it was in the tank before it did. And aside from water changes and food (how much), do you put anything else in the tank?

 

[Damien]

Yes, that is why I asked. We wanted to know because we wanted to help.

Many people ask questions with a premise that isn't correct, and I think this is a case, but we are still just trying to be helpful so there's no need for attitude.

What inverts are you talking about? Anemones, since this is the anemone forum?

Are you talking about 80 ppm nitrate ion or 80 ppm nitrate-nitrogen?

I do not believe that 80 ppm nitrate ion will kill most anemones that we keep. They may brown up and not thrive as well, but die? Not usually.

If you have 80 ppm nitrate ion, and things are dying, I think there may possibly be other causes.

That said, your numbers also do not add up. A 90% water change of 100 ppm water leaves 10 ppm, not 0.1 or 0.05 or whatever you think it was. So I'm not sure what exactly is going on with your measurements and/or levels.

Zero attitude is given for me. I just thought you and the person that keeps liking your post was being disrespectful. I didn't say thank you for the link, it was helpful

Yes, 80 nitrate And again if you check what I wrote I never stated how high any of my nitrate was. I only stated what the nitrate level was after I change the water. For you to come up with these numbers out of nowhere I don't know what you're talking about. I never said my parameters were at 100 at all the highs it was, was 80 and that was after I changed it with the seawater.

And as I stated before I am completely new to having a marine tank, I just stumbled onto this forum and this is my first posting. I posted it in this section by accident but an anemone did die. A Rock follower anemone, A cleaner shrimp, a tomato clown fish, and a lot of snails.

 

[Damien]

Remote assistance is difficult, trust me I know first hand.
So be patient as member ask questions or even get a little playful just to lighten the mood. We can all ge very frustrated with our aquariums when things go wrong after all the time and money we put into them.

That being said, a couple of observations and questions. First observation, I've used a couple of different test kits for nitrates, and none of them got to 0.05 level of detection. There are plenty out there though, so which one are you actually using? Another observation, you have a 30 gallon tank and a canister filter, didn't hear mention of a sump, so your system volume is at most 30 gallons and likely much less depending on what is in the tank displacing water. For nitrates to rise that high that fast, something dramatic must be happening. Question, could you have something dead and rotting in the tank hidden somewhere? Lastly, do you think you could provide more info? It would be helpful to know what has died and how long it was in the tank before it did. And aside from water changes and food (how much), do you put anything else in the tank?

No I do not have a sump, I have a canister filter. And you may be right about something rotten in the tank. It may be snails because I started noticing the nitrate when I saw empty snail shells.

2 cleaner shrimp died, want to rock flower anemone, A tomato clown fish and snails