Nitrates in fresh RO/DI So frustrated

Jonathan Troutt · May 26, 2019

hey guys ive been chasing a high nitrate issue for almost a year now. A week ago i rebooted my tank thinking my sand and rock was the issue. Tore everything down replaced all rock with precooked liferock. Is soaked in a very reputable local vendors live rock pool for 2 weeks. I also bleached both sump and dt as well as all tubing and accessories.

Fast forward to today and my nitrates are back up to 50ppm....after a week. I feed once per day and only small amounts i have not added anything new besides a beautiful acid wash bubble tip that is doing fantastic.

I have 4 fish, shrimp a few emerald crabs, assortment of hermits and snails. Its a 40gal breeder display and a 29gal sump. Im running a reef octo int 110. I have 40lbs of rock in the main display. Im really at a loss here. Ive also been dosing nopox since day one of the reboot 8days ago. 9ml per day.

So today wife says well it has the be your water im like no its ro/di and my cartridges are still good but I tested it anyway. It showed it contained nitrates at 2.5ppm.

Is this my cause? I have a three stage, sediment, carbon, mixed bed. I dont see how 2.5ppm could translate to 50ppm in a week but i figured i would ask. Im really frustrated because i want to keep some sps corals.

I was running chaeto before the reboot it grew like crazy but nitrates never went down. I need some help here. I dont know what else to do.

W1ngz · May 26, 2019

Could it be the test kit itself? Or the procedure? Maybe having someone else test it with their own test kit. It would really suck to have torn it all down for something as simple as a test reagent that crystallized on you but it's worth checking.

You didn't mention what you did with the sand. Tossed it? Rinsed it? or bare bottom now?

Aardvark1134 · May 26, 2019

Replacing your water with water that has 2.5PPM will not get you to 50PPM. Have you tested your water for Ammonia and nitrite also? By chance does your city use chloramine ?

Get a gallon of your RODI and drop in some prime. Wait 2 days then test for Ammonia after the prime is no longer active.

Jonathan Troutt · May 26, 2019

Aardvark1134 said:
Replacing your water with water that has 2.5PPM will not get you to 50PPM. Have you tested your water for Ammonia and nitrite also? By chance does your city use chloramine ?

No ammonia no nitrite. I am on well water. Water has high iron.

Jonathan Troutt · May 26, 2019

W1ngz said:
Could it be the test kit itself? Or the procedure? Maybe having someone else test it with their own test kit. It would really suck to have torn it all down for something as simple as a test reagent that crystallized on you but it's worth checking.

You didn't mention what you did with the sand. Tossed it? Rinsed it? or bare bottom now?

Yes tested with a different kit and had others test it. I replaced the sand. Used 2 bags of the indo black sand looks great