Nitrates went up 5x overnight

[Bam327]

And I have a dead firefish. What would cause this? I have been battling high nitrates on a new tank (3 mos old) and was vinegar dosing and got them down to 10 ppm as of yesterday but when I tested today they are over 50. This morning my firefish was missing from his spot and later found him on the bottom dead. I don’t know if these two situations are related. I can’t bring the firefish back so I’m trying to fix the nitrate problem. Why would they go from 10 ppm yesterday to 50+ ppm today?
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH 8.2
SG 1.026
120 gal tank, ~150 gal TWV

 

[Bam327]

Oh and I should mention all other inhabitants (Midas blenny, 2 clowns, cbs and mushroom coral all seem fine

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Evening

Sorry to hear about your fire fish. The nitrate issue would not have caused the loss. How long did you have him, any changes or new additions to the tank?

As for the nitrate change, that sounds more like a testing error. I would test a few more days to see if you get consistent test numbers. What kit are you using and how is your dosing routine set up?

we should be able to figure both issues out. 50 on a new tank sounds very high.

 

[Bam327]

Thanks for responding.
I had the firefish for about a month. My most recent additions earlier this week was 12 turbo snails, a coral banded shrimp and a mushroom coral.
Unfortunately I don’t think the testing was an error. I’m using Red Sea test kit. I tested twice yesterday and it was over 50. I tested today and it’s between 20-50. I pulled out a full cup of skimmate today and I just emptied it yesterday. Granted it’s wet but that should be the case with carbon dosing.
I’m using a dosing pump and dosing vinegar 6 times a day for a total of 60 ml

 

[Bam327]

I should also mention that the firefish has no markings on it. Definitely wasn’t attacked by anything and all the inhabitants were getting along. He wasn’t being bullied. I took this picture of him last week because ro noticed to spots on him but the next day the spots were gone. Might be hard to see under the actinics but zoom in if you can

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

You are right about skimmate on dosing. There has to be something driving that nitrate though. That is a high amount to be dosing depending on tank size.

Wondering what size tank you have? I’m glad the other fish are ok and you are running a skimmer. Watch your water quality. All that dosing could lead to a bacteria bloom and cause a low O2 level. Also are you feeding excessively. we need to track where the nitrates are coming from.

 

[Aqua Man]

Where they big turbos? Are they all still alive? Maybe a few passed, that could spike Nitrates. Turbos are meaty snail!

 

[Bam327]

Tank is 120 DT with a 40b sump. I was dosing manually, 60ml at a time and did get a bit of a bloom but when I went to the dosing pump that went away. Plus the bloom was never that terrible. Slightly cloudy. I am feeding about 1/4 cube of my sis shrimp 1x a day

 

[Bam327]

I did have a dead turbo with the fish but it hadn’t started to decompose so I ruled that out. I don’t know, the fact the nitrates did come down some today makes me think I just need to be patient. I am going to do a water change tonight and retest again tomorrow

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If there was a little nitrite, that may be falsely detected as a big nitrate spike. I'd just watch it.