Nitrates at 80 PPM!!!

[Robert Fowler]

Recently moved the tank and stirred up the sand pretty badly.

Needless to say ill be using NoPox to get levels back down how much should I dose daily in my 75 gallon system? Im gonna guess my system is exactly 75 gal.

I know this stuff is dangerous to over dose so thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

80 ppm wont hurt the fish. Might wipe half of the population of inverts. Corals maybe mad for few days but eventually it will all settle. I would do water change as large as you can do and keep using nopox as normal

 

[BluTang85]

Just follow the instructions on the bottle, keep checking levels every few days I believe it’s 2-3 ml every 25 gallons.

 

[Uncle99]

Recently moved the tank and stirred up the sand pretty badly.

Needless to say ill be using NoPox to get levels back down how much should I dose daily in my 75 gallon system? Im gonna guess my system is exactly 75 gal.

I know this stuff is dangerous to over dose so thanks in advance for any input.

Water changes and settlement first, fish won't care, corals in the short term will just be a bit unhappy.

Always follow the manufactures dosing reccomendations, but as reference, I gave the same size and dose 10ml per day. After a week, test, see where you are, it took a couple of months at the beginning to lower to 5ppm. If after two weeks there is no change in nitrate, you may increase by 1ml.
Always go slow with this stuff, if you miss a day, never, double up.

Once in two years, my nitrate increased from 5-20ppm over a month or so, I increased to 11ml for one week and back to my target of 5ppm.

Like this stuff, cheaper than Vodka in Canada, dosing two years now, nitrate 4-5ppm, phosphate .02-.04 very stable

Hope that helps, REDSEA had a great NoPox video on you tube

 

[mcarroll]

I'm with Dr Fish.

There's no cause for overreaction unless you forgot to mention that your corals are dying.

Stand pat and continue assessing the situation.

What are the rest of your current test results?

 

[ZoWhat]

80 ppm wont hurt the fish. Might wipe half of the population of inverts. Corals maybe mad for few days but eventually it will all settle. I would do water change as large as you can do and keep using nopox as normal

Yesterday I posted a question and people came out of the woodwork saying they have NOT done a WC in years. Dozens and dozens of nonWC posters. In fact it seemed like a majority+75% of the posters were nonWC reefers

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...-the-highest-reason-for-reef-problems.425409/

What would you say to them, Dr Reef?



.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

To do or not to do a water change is a very debatable subject.
In OP case he not in normal circumstances OP have a high nitrate problem that will wipe out your inverts and corals at those levels and if they continue to go over 200 or so will also hurt fish. Under those circumstances water change is a must unless you want to sacrifice some of your corals and inverts waiting on nopox to work.

And it's Dr. Reef not Dr fish

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

There are many tanks and hobbyists that do wc and that dont do wc.
Personally i have done it both ways will no negative effects.

Under normal circumstances where somebody has a reef tank that is not used to doing water change. The livestock is adjusted to those conditions.

In this case livestock is not used to high nitrates because it was stired up and is an unusual event which will hurt the livestock because they're not used to those levels.

So the key factor is consistency.

 

[jda]

Was the tank handing the Nitrate before the move? If so, just change some water and be patient and the anoix zones that you disturbed will re-develop fairly quickly and take care of the Nitrate again. If they tank had high nitrate before, then you need to decide if you want to let nature take care of it, or if you want to - this is usually because of a young(er) tank.

 

[mcarroll]

And it's Dr. Reef not Dr fish

I swear I was thinking Dr Reef when I typed it!!

OP have a high nitrate problem that will wipe out your inverts and corals at those levels

Effects of a nutrient increase or decrease such as a spike in nitrates, tend to be neutral, at least on corals and fish, unless specific coincidental circumstances are present. There's nothing too unnatural, generally speaking, about corals getting exposed like this....probably happens with every storm, if not more often than that.

Under otherwise balanced, healthy circumstances, the worst you would expect from a big nutrient increase is some algae growth. Maybe some coral darkening. In the long term is should amount to nothing, or even a growth spurt.

Making a complete assessment of the current situation (as possible) is very important since we don't know much about the OP's situation yet.

Bombing a new/stressed/recently moved tank with carbon dosing or even water changes may not be advisable at all, for example.

On the other hand, if test numbers seem balanced (if high) overall and if no aminals in the tank seems too out of whack, then it's very possible that doing nothing extra is the right call.

In that case I'd proceed with weekly water changes, testing, etc. If algae blooms anywhere, stay on top of it. Monitor for changes.

@Robert Fowler had you been tracking phosphate and nitrate levels prior to this event?

 

[Robert Fowler]

So before the move I was able to hold them below 5 ppm with my algae reactor. When I moved I dropped my algae reactor and cracked it so I have been growing cheato in the sump and my nitrates have been stable at around 80 for the last 6 weeks. I think that between the move and stirring up the sand along with the loss of the reactor it has caused them to get to suck a high level. With the advice of some of you guys I'm gonna start dosing 10 ML daily until I see them get down to a reasonable level then ill slowly back off the Nopox and allow the algae to take over again.

 

[mcarroll]

If it's been stable for that long and things are fine, then it's hard to argue for changing things too much.

Whether dosing organic carbon will help is still an open question.

If nitrates aren't getting used up at all not even by algae growth, then that can indicate a bigger problem that carbon dosing can actually exacerbate.

Let us know about those other test results!

 

[SPR1968]

I wouldn’t panic and do anything rash and as said above if you want to bring the nitrate levels down maybe do a few water changes and that will help.

NoPox is or can be very powerful and the maximum dose in the instructions is 3ml per 100l/25g but I’ve been as high as 4ml per.... in accordance with guidance from Red Sea, but you have to monitor things closely to avoid bacterial blooms etc.

Assuming your not loosing corals, in which case I would do water changes, I would go slow use the Nopox as per the instructions and just make small adjustments up or down depending on test results.

 

[WVNed]

I would do a 50% water change and do another one 2 days later. The stuff you raised out of the sand isn't going to go back.

There are 3 ways to run a fish tank. Like a fish bowl, like a swimming pool and something in between.

With a fish bowl you change the water to export the crap that accumulates every few days. How often depends on what is in the bowl and how fast it accululates.

With a swimming pool you dose chemicals to keep the water quality intact. You never change the water if you dont have to. You do ICP tests to measure everything you can so you can add it back.

Most of us do something in the middle. We take steps to prolong how often we have do a water change like skimmers and refugiums and dosing simple stuff like 2 part.
But the water changes are used to keep all of the trace stuff in the tank and dilute nitrates and keep them in check.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Please check for nitrite. Every nitrate test also shows nitrite and usually with 50 to 100 times higher indication than with nitrate. This means maybe you have just 1 ppm nitrite and your nitrate test shows 50 to 100 ppm nitrate. I don´t think it is such extreme as in this example but maybe most of your nitrate indication comes from nitrite. To me this seems more logic since I wonder how so much nitrate can be released from the sand, only 1 ppm or less of nitrite seems more probable to me.

Don´t panic if you find nitrite, it is quite harmless in saltwater!

 

[ZaneTer]

Please check your PO4 level.

You may find that you have very little phosphate, especially if you have such high nitrate. As @mcarroll said dosing nopox in a situation where we don’t quite know everything yet may have bad results.

Nopox requires phosphate to work. Without it you will potentially just be adding to your problem.

The test takes 15min, let us know what your PO4 level is.

 

[Langolian]

Please check your PO4 level.

You may find that you have very little phosphate, especially if you have such high nitrate. As @mcarroll said dosing nopox in a situation where we don’t quite know everything yet may have bad results.

Nopox requires phosphate to work. Without it you will potentially just be adding to your problem.

The test takes 15min, let us know what your PO4 level is.

Zaneter_ I am having the same issue, nitrates suddenly at 80 and my phos is at zero. Corals look happy even though I don't know how they are not dead. Help