Nitrates Sky rocketed over night what should i do?

[S.C.E.C.Reefer]

okay so thismorning i woke up and my female blue jaw trigger has died and my staghorn grab aswell. i checked all my peramiters and it seemed okay. well that wasnt the case my test kit was old and it was giving me mis-readings obviously for awhile now. and my nitrates skyed over 160ppm. i have done a 50% water change and purchased a new test kit. it has been over 8 hours now and still now change. idk what to do and im affraid im ganna loose all my coral and fish any suggestions? thanks

 

[warlock4x4]

After doing a 50% water change there was no change? It should have dropped in half right away. When mine was that high (or close) I did daily water changes of 30-50% and it broke it down quick. If it is not changing then you need to find the cause or source and continue to do major water changes.

 

[CJO]

What about your ammonia and nitrite levels? Those are more important in the short term. Water changes should do the trick for the nitrate.

CJ

 

[MyReefToYours]

I agree, water changes should help bring trates down. Check your water before making the change to assure that your new water isn't the issue.

 

[S.C.E.C.Reefer]

my nitrites and ammonia are all fine. i tested the water about 4 hours ago and my nitrates are at 80ppm so it is slowly working. i was also told by my lfs that i should wait a couple days and do another 10g water change. today i bought carbon and 2 mangroves. should i be using more mangoves? by the way the tank is a 55g rimless and my sump hold a little over 10g when running

 

[Lateral72]

my nitrites and ammonia are all fine. i tested the water about 4 hours ago and my nitrates are at 80ppm so it is slowly working. i was also told by my lfs that i should wait a couple days and do another 10g water change. today i bought carbon and 2 mangroves. should i be using more mangoves? by the way the tank is a 55g rimless and my sump hold a little over 10g when running

Mangroves are not going to bring your nitrate levels down overnight. It'll take much longer in fact to see any real difference with Mangroves. And to be honest, there are much better Nitrate exporters than Mangroves.

 

[bruno21447]

dumb some alpha in there double the dosage at least. I have a 225 gallon and put about 3/4 of the bottle in and I had trates,trites, and ammonia spike from something foreign in my tank. All I lost was a couple pieces of coral. Also know some others that used this and had great results with it.

 

[beaslbob]

When something dies you get an ammonia spike. Or ammonia spikes then something dies. Either way ammonia has spiked.

with normal plant life (even corraline algae but most definately macros in a refugium) what happens is that plant life actually prefers to get its nitrogrn from ammonia but in a mature tank nitrates are all that is available.

So what happens the ammonia increases, plant life consume that and less nitrates. therefore the only spike you get is with nitrates.

this is common and epexcted in an algae controlled system.

then as 1) the ammonia goes down or 2) aerobic bacteria expand and consume the ammonia, the plant life returns to consuming nitrates.

so all you get a temporary nitrate spike vrs the dangerous ammonia spike that could crash your system


my .02

 

[S.C.E.C.Reefer]

thanks guys for all the help. i am awaiting the arrival of my first daughter and have decided to tear the tank down and upgrade to a 112g tank with a 40g sump. keep on the look out for a new tank build thread.

 

[CJO]

Congrats! Good luck with your new aquarium too.

CJ

 

[robert]

If your using the API test kits for nitrate - you have to shake the crap out of em between each step (15 seconds) or you'll always read low nitrate...I know, this bit me too.