I bought a 35 gallon saltwater AIO from a LFS used. Has about 3 inches of sand, probably 20 pounds of live rock, several coarse sponges. I've had it for a little over a month and the nitrates are still skyrocket. I've poured probably 10 ounces of Dr Tim's, half a bottle of pods, phytoplankton, 2 weeks ago and no matter what I do the nitrates don't drop. It's probably above 60-80 ppm Everytime I check it, before and after changing 30% of the water. I've sifted the sand to take out all the empty shells, left them in water for half an hour and tested the water and it was clean. I am running out of ideas and it's extremely frustrating, I don't want to give up but I just don't know what to do anymore. Ph is 8.1, nitrite 0 ammonia 0 nitrate is just high all the time. There is brittle stars in the tank that are just moving around like no big deal, but they are the only living things in there besides some bristleworms. I've never had this big of an issue cycling a tank, or even re-cycling a tank that lost its cycle.
Nitrates will not go down.
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mike550
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I had a similar issue on a 120G. Nitrates were always in the 20s even after 20-25% water changes. I ended up doing three 35G water changes in a row (one each day for three days) and was able to get the nitrates down to 5-10 range. Now I’m doing a very small dose of NoPox (about 50% of suggested amount) and things seem to be getting stable.
I also added Seachem matrix. So in 6-8 weeks I might taper the NoPox to see if I can hold the nitrates down without.
mike550
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I was changing 20% every two weeks but using a Salifert test for nitrate. So it was very hard for me to tell where I was between the 10 and the 25. For sure I was closer to 25 at the end of two weeks. If I had to guess maybe 5 ppm/week?
PoorReefer
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You may also want to try weekly water changes. That's what i did and it works.. slowly lol
I'm doing them weekly, every Saturday or Sunday. He supplied me all the water that was in the tank. After I put it in, I grabbed a saltwater test kit the next day and seen the nitrates were high, so I made some RO, changed about 5 gallons and noticed it wasn't really changing. The next day I changed 10. And the same the day after. Then I left it alone after pouring bacteria in for a week, changed water by 10 gallons again, and been doing it since.
SPR1968
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In a 30g system the easiest way to reduce nitrates is to just do a series of 10-20% water changes or if it’s fish only or empty maybe higher.
And I would stop ‘sifting the sand’ to much as that may be releasing nutrients back into the water.
Im assuming the tank is actually cycled from the last statement ?
And I would stop ‘sifting the sand’ to much as that may be releasing nutrients back into the water.
Im assuming the tank is actually cycled from the last statement ?
There's no fish currently in it. And I haven't personally cycled the tank, due to this issue, or I can't say that I've gotten it all down to 0 across the board, so I can't technically say I've cycled it. I don't get any readings on ammonia or nitrite, so I wouldn't think that it isn't cycled, but I could be wrong.
SPR1968
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Maybe check these out, they may be helpful as it’s sounds like the tank isn’t cycled or it’s ‘stuck’ especially if it’s basically empty
Cycling an Aquarium
Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...
www.reef2reef.com
The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium
The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is nowhere near simple. This task is going to take patience, a...
www.reef2reef.com
Johny Cash
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Hello,
i wouldnt carbon dose just yet,
What worked for me in a similar situation. I did 50% water changes every week, my situation was very similar to yours i bought a display tank from LFS last year, got it set up and then life happened and i had to let it go couldnt maintain it i was doing tap water top offs just so i wouldnt hear the sound of water being low i had 2 clown fish in it so couldnt just unplug it My clown fish are still alive (Champs).
Just about a 2 months ago I picked up where i left it from, my nitrates were off the roof over 100ppm, what i did was 50% water change, then again week after another 50%, and a week after 80% and did the trick for me i was able to bring it down to 10ppm, i used a Chemipure, activated carbon, and its been stable since. Nitrates takes longer to bring down via water changes but its better then dosing carbon since i would hate to introduce cyano bacteria in the tank which is common in new cycled tanks via carbon dosing cyano to be bloom. I must add that i made a diy detritus polisher, I ran that 4 hours every week, basically id stir up the water with turkey baster and then let the diy polisher do its thing.
bought a cheap water pump, one end with water bottle suction and the other end into filter sock to catch most of the detritus,
there are many ideas how to do that just pick the one fits you best.
i wouldnt carbon dose just yet,
What worked for me in a similar situation. I did 50% water changes every week, my situation was very similar to yours i bought a display tank from LFS last year, got it set up and then life happened and i had to let it go couldnt maintain it i was doing tap water top offs just so i wouldnt hear the sound of water being low i had 2 clown fish in it so couldnt just unplug it My clown fish are still alive (Champs).
Just about a 2 months ago I picked up where i left it from, my nitrates were off the roof over 100ppm, what i did was 50% water change, then again week after another 50%, and a week after 80% and did the trick for me i was able to bring it down to 10ppm, i used a Chemipure, activated carbon, and its been stable since. Nitrates takes longer to bring down via water changes but its better then dosing carbon since i would hate to introduce cyano bacteria in the tank which is common in new cycled tanks via carbon dosing cyano to be bloom. I must add that i made a diy detritus polisher, I ran that 4 hours every week, basically id stir up the water with turkey baster and then let the diy polisher do its thing.
bought a cheap water pump, one end with water bottle suction and the other end into filter sock to catch most of the detritus,
there are many ideas how to do that just pick the one fits you best.
What you need to figure out is why you have high nitrates. Then you will know how to fix the issue.
Change out 90% of the water. Be sure to measure the new water for nitrates to be sure you are not putting nitrate back in. Then after the change test the tank water. Wait 1 day and test again. If they climb and your not feeding, then your rock or sand is releasing them back into the tank.
If the sand is suspect you can take it out and rinse it.
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Opps sorry LC is for Phosphates. Long day on the bike - heat strokeIf the sand is suspect you can take it out and rinse it.
If its the rock you can soak it in water and lanthanum chloride
Scrub/ wash the rock . If that does not do it and the rock still leeches nitrate then you will need to strip off a layer of the rock.
