Nitrates still 160 ppm

[Pete polyp]

I always get free shipping. You have a minimum purchase of about $200, but that's $40 towards something else.

 

[gemini9]

Dont have 200 to spend on fish that may not survive in my tank.

 

[Pete polyp]

Dont have 200 to spend on fish that may not survive in my tank.

At the time being I wouldn't either. You said in another thread your lfs is a good distance right? You may be in a similar situation that I'm in. By the time I pay for the gas to get to the lfs and back I will spend $40. After hitting a drive thru and everything else along the way I spend upwards of $75 for each trip. But I do drive 160 miles one way and hit 4 stores.

doctor foster and Smith also have a 2 week alive guarantee. If the fish or corals are looking bad on the 14th day they extend it another 14 days. That's 28 day guarantee! Every lfs I have been to have a live until they hand you the receipt guarantee.

 

[Pete polyp]

I just checked at doctors foster and Smith. For a regular ocellaris clown its $14, shipping is $35. That makes it $49 at your door with the alive guarantee...

 

[gemini9]

Thats not too bad. My lfs is about 40 minutes away. Not TOO bad. I was looking on liveaquaria ay fish. I want a clown that has relationship witj anemone tho. Ocellaris doesnt. .. right?

 

[Pete polyp]

Thats not too bad. My lfs is about 40 minutes away. Not TOO bad. I was looking on liveaquaria ay fish. I want a clown that has relationship witj anemone tho. Ocellaris doesnt. .. right?

All of them can host.... Yeah 40 miles isn't that bad at all lol. I drive farther just to get to work!

 

[gemini9]

40 minutes rather. They all host? Oh ok. I was unser the impression that only percilar clowns do that

 

[Pete polyp]

The anemone hosts the fish, but yes all types of clowns will. Other fish, like damsels, have been known to as well.

 

[Dalmatia]

Muriatic Acid or bleach

 

[gemini9]

Bleach? For the dry rock you mean?

 

[Dalmatia]

Sorry I'm so behind, that was for cleaning you lr

 

[Dalmatia]

LR from a tank with High nitrates... oooooo.... I think you hit a nail on that one. I visited my LFS this weekend and bought a pound of live rock and 2 blue leg crabs to see if they would survive. This is day two and cute little crabbies (named Poopsie and Sam) are still moving around! They hide allot but I can sometimes catch a glimpse of one of them. But I tested the water from the LFS that I brought it all home in and the nitrates in that LFS water was a flipping 320ppm. Has to be. My kit only reads up to 160 but this tested darker than the color on the card. It was more blood red than what I've seen in MY tank! No more LR from that place. I bet a handful of my nitrates came from there. The nitrates from my initial water wasn't too bad, but had some in it. But I think it's all a mixture of nitrates from the dry rock from BRS, the horrible LR from LFS and perhaps some of it from the initial water used for setup.

My skimmer is pulling out some crud so that's good. If crabbies are still alive by this weekend I'll probably purchase a couple more. I did, however, take a risk at something and I added the Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Reducer to my tank. I read some good reviews on it and figured I would give it a try and added some to the tank. I'll retest here in a couple of days. I'm gonna pick up some vinegar at the market next time I go.

Are you doing those test properly? That's a big difference and way off the charts?

 

[gemini9]

Yep. Testing in accordance to directions. Lfs nitrates were ridiculously high.

 

[Pete polyp]

It sounds like the rock is packed with bound nitrate that will leach for a very long time. When you do a water change it will go down for a day or two, then right back to where it was. You really need to start with the vinegar and it will consume the nitrate as its leached.

 

[gemini9]

Ill get some this weekend. How long before all that clears up? Im gonna bleach my new dry rock. How long should I soak it and should I dilute rhe bleach with water?

 

[Pete polyp]

I prefer to use vinegar on soaking rock over bleach. Let it sit for about 10 days in the solution (whichever you will be using). After that give it a good rinse and put it back in the tub with fresh water for a couple days.

I believe the live rock to be what caused the issue, not the dry.

 

[gemini9]

Better safe than sorry. High as my nitrates are now i cant afford to take any chances. I need to set up a quarantine tank too

 

[gemini9]

When setting up the quarantine tank cant I just use the water from my display? Should I ad some live rock too?

 

[Dalmatia]

When setting up the quarantine tank cant I just use the water from my display? Should I ad some live rock too?

You can, don't forget a qt is a qt and not ht.
Qt is just to observe your new inhabitants. If they are sick, you move them to a ht.
Running a qt, I like to have the same water as my DT just to get a better idea of how they do with my water and it's parameters

 

[gemini9]

Nitrates still lingering around 80ppm. Going to do another 20 or 30 percent wc tonight and probably throw some vinegar in there to see if that helps. Ordering some snails from reefcleaners and some plants. Hopefully the plants will help. My diatoms have pretty much gone through their phase. Shouldn't I be seeing some hair algae soon?