Nitrates levels keep rising

[kyleflahardy]

I have a 21g saltwater aquarium with 2 clownfish, one blue damsel fish, one yellow wrasse, and no coral or anemones. In the tank there is a live sand bed and some live rock. I am doing extremely frequent water changes (about every 4 days) and on top of doing this I have a protein skimmer and nitrate removing pads helping to keep my nitrates down. Despite these efforts my nitrates keep climbing very quickly (about 40ppm every 4 days). I need help determining the source of these nitrates and I would appreciate any suggestions anyone has as to how to keep the nitrates down. Thanks

 

[120reefkeeper]

Well I have a few questions. First is how long has this tank been setup?

Number 2 would be how often and how much are you feeding?

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

How big are your water changes?

 

[kyleflahardy]

How big are your water changes?

My water changes are generally about 5g at a time.

 

[kyleflahardy]

Well I have a few questions. First is how long has this tank been setup?

Number 2 would be how often and how much are you feeding?

My tank has been set up about 3 and 1/2 months and I generally just sprinkle some food in for the fish. I'm not measuring it out or anything.

 

[njtiger aquariums]

Well I have a few questions. First is how long has this tank been setup?

Number 2 would be how often and how much are you feeding?

These are some good questions.

Go with the questions above

What are you feeding them?

 

[Legendary Corals]

It sounds like it might be the live sand or rock leaching out. Did you buy your live sand new from a bag? And was your live rock cycled and cleaned before use?

Is your nitrate spikes before or after the introduction of having fish?

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Assuming you trust your test kit, you would want to do much larger water changes to get the no3 down. then work to maintain. you might be feeding too much and/or not removing the fish waste when doing your water changes.

 

[kyleflahardy]

These are some good questions.

Go with the questions above

What are you feeding them?

I feed them Sera Martin GVG-Mix Marine treat mix

 

[kyleflahardy]

It sounds like it might be the live sand or rock leaching out. Did you buy your live sand new from a bag? And was your live rock cycled and cleaned before use?

Is your nitrate spikes before or after the introduction of having fish?

I bought my live sand new out of the bag. To my knowledge my live rock was never cleaned before use. I bought it out of a massive tank at the fish store and brought it home but I never personally cleaned it. My live rock was cycled before adding fish to aquarium.

 

[kyleflahardy]

My nitrates started to spike after the introduction of fish.

 

[120reefkeeper]

Nitrates are caused by introducing a load on your system. This load is either food excess ,food introduced to the tank that's not being properly removed ,or excessive fish waste . Not having enough good bacteria to break it down.

Your system is relatively new and with that your support system is still developing ( bacteria). The type of food you feed plays a role. Flake foods and pellet type foods have a lot of nutrients in them.

You will have to do some larger water changes to get a handle on it.

Once you get it down to say below 10ppm then you'll need to watch your feeding habits closely. This is usually the case. Eventually your system will develop better to handle the load.

 

[kyleflahardy]

Nitrates are caused by introducing a load on your system. This load is either food excess ,food introduced to the tank that's not being properly removed ,or excessive fish waste . Not having enough good bacteria to break it down.

Your system is relatively new and with that your support system is still developing ( bacteria). The type of food you feed plays a role. Flake foods and pellet type foods have a lot of nutrients in them.

You will have to do some larger water changes to get a handle on it.

Once you get it down to say below 10ppm then you'll need to watch your feeding habits closely. This is usually the case. Eventually your system will develop better to handle the load.

I use distilled water in my aquarium so every time I do a 5 gallon water change it cost me about $5 (I also have to go to the store to buy water) so I don't always have the luxury of doing large frequent water changes. Is there anything else I can do to help lower my nitrates?

 

[ArcKatana]

Are you using Ro/Di water or just tap? If it is tap, check that. More often than not, nitrates in the tapwater. No matter how many Water Changes you do, if you're just replacing nitrates with nitrates, it will never go down fast enough.

If you're using RO/DI then I'd look into everything else.


Edit: Add some macro algae, they will sop up some nitrate as well.

 

[kyleflahardy]

Are you using Ro/Di water or just tap? If it is tap, check that. More often than not, nitrates in the tapwater. No matter how many Water Changes you do, if you're just replacing nitrates with nitrates, it will never go down fast enough.

If you're using RO/DI then I'd look into everything else.


Edit: Add some macro algae, they will sop up some nitrate as well.

I don't use RODI water or tap water. I am using distilled water that I buy in one gallon jugs from the store.

 

[120reefkeeper]

I use distilled water in my aquarium so every time I do a 5 gallon water change it cost me about $5 (I also have to go to the store to buy water) so I don't always have the luxury of doing large frequent water changes. Is there anything else I can do to help lower my nitrates?

Well that's a tough one my friend. You have a couple of choices.

1 keep buying water

2 invest in an RODI setup

3 remove a couple of fish and take them back to the LFS .

This may sound extreme but when I add fish to my systems I add 1 per month max.

Oh and try feeding every other day. But the only way for you to get a handle on it is either change water or lower the load.

 

[120reefkeeper]

I am a believer in using bacteria to process waste. That being said there are products on the market that will remove ammonia. As we all know ammonia breaks down to nitrite.... Down to nitrate..... So if you deal with the ammonia then you'll deal with the nitrate.

Like I said I'm NOT a fan of chemicals . I AM a fan of patience [emoji16]

 

[reeferfoxx]

How old is the tank?
Salt Gravity?
Temp?
Ammonia?
Nitrites?
PO4?

Yellow wrasse will grow to 5". Still a little big for a 29 gallon. His bioload isn't helping. You had this issue 15 days ago and you had salinity problems?

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I'd say tank size is playing a huge role, accompanied with the fish food. Your bacteria is processing the waste well but the nitrate byproduct is usually taken down by water changes, which in your case isn't working. The distilled water is questionable too, ever test it? With all this nitrogen you must have a fair amount of algae, am I correct?

 

[reeferfoxx]

My theory is you bought the rock, tank and sand. Set everything up. Improperly mixed the salt with an inaccurate hydrometer(or user error). You put the water in the tank. As some point you added salt directly to the tank. You've inadvertently killed most bacteria if not all. Began another cycle with existing fish, and the cycle never completed. You are most likely stuck with nitrites. In other words, new tank syndrome. Start with a 75% water change + bio-spira(live bacteria). Then for the next 7 days dose MB7 or stability to get the tank back to where it needs to be. And take a fish back to the store.