What NO3 test do you use and how old it is? Have you double check your nitrate with another test?
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
Nitrates will not go down.
- Thread starter Tainum
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Thespammailaccount
2500 Club Member
Yes pictures would be good with blue lights turned off.
It make no sense - no livestock - high NO3 in spite of heavy WC. Try with Red Sea Pro or Salifert instead.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
Thespammailaccount
2500 Club Member
If you take a water sample to the LFS have them test nitrate and phosphate. Since there is no livestock in the tank I would first try and do almost a complete water change. If after changing all the water and your nitrates and phosphates again are high it the rock leaching nitrate and phosphate. If that is the case I would either pull the rock and do a bleach cure and/or lanthanum chloride then completely recycle the rock or buy 20 pounds of live gulf rock. If you go this route you can bypass a lot of problems that you will have from starting with dry rock and you will be able to keep coral faster if you want coral
Thespammailaccount
2500 Club Member
The high nitrates could also be coming from the sand which makes me start to wonder since the water is rather cloudy which could mean that the sand is loaded with detritus and who knows it could possibly be 10+ years old. Sand is easy to remove and replace as well
The issue is: the tank was used. Came with the rock and sand. The sand and rock maybe was never cleaned before it was moved or after. We dont know how long it had high nitrates before the OP purchased it. When i see dust cloud after a water change , my thinking is, a lot of junk in the sand. If thats the case I'll bet the rock is in the same shape. This could be the source of the nitrate problem since the OP has changed the water and has not produced good results.
Thespammailaccount
2500 Club Member
Hopefully the LFS did not sell a tank to a new reefer knowing it has problems needing to be attended to without telling them what the problems are or how to fix them
Nitrates can't be stored in rocks or sand. Nitrates in aquarium is always a product of the nitrification process.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
DaddyFish
“5 percenter”
My first suggestion is reduce the depth of sand. Get it down to 1-2 inches max. My experience with sand beds is they either need to be close to 1" or go DEEP with a full 4-6". Each sand setup has its unique maintenance requirement.
I can't tell what you have for filtration?
If you are moving more than roughly 50 gph across the Seachem Matrix, it's not going to do much for nitrates. Matrix is excellent for hosting both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, but the anaerobic bacteria need to thrive deep inside the Matrix pieces in absence of well-oxygenated water. If you are pumping a high volume of oxygenated water across the Matrix media, then it's not going to be very effective processing Nitrate.
I would be very tempted to suck out ALL that old sand and start over with some brand new sand at 1" depth. Be sure to "feed" the tank with some source of Ammonia (a fish, fish food etc.) and keep dosing bacteria daily for a period of 7-10 days. You should be able to watch the nitrogen cycle move through from Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate, then watch the Nitrate levels to see if they ever drop, or just sit there and slowly climb.
I can't tell what you have for filtration?
If you are moving more than roughly 50 gph across the Seachem Matrix, it's not going to do much for nitrates. Matrix is excellent for hosting both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, but the anaerobic bacteria need to thrive deep inside the Matrix pieces in absence of well-oxygenated water. If you are pumping a high volume of oxygenated water across the Matrix media, then it's not going to be very effective processing Nitrate.
I would be very tempted to suck out ALL that old sand and start over with some brand new sand at 1" depth. Be sure to "feed" the tank with some source of Ammonia (a fish, fish food etc.) and keep dosing bacteria daily for a period of 7-10 days. You should be able to watch the nitrogen cycle move through from Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate, then watch the Nitrate levels to see if they ever drop, or just sit there and slowly climb.
This i understand. They can store waste which is then converted to nitrate, is what i should have said.
Sort of like the old saying "canisters are nitrate factories"
Aardvark1134
Well-Known Member
I see you added seachem matrix. In my experience it takes that about 4 months to truely get going well.
I am just using powerheads at the moment. I have a CAD lights skimmer without a pump and they don't reply back to their customers it seems to try to send me the right pump for a PLS 50, so I'm tempted to just buy a brand new one, I just don't know exactly what to look for that would fit. The AIO area is 4 and a half inches depth, 16 tall and 29 wide with 3 dividers. Ive found mostly HOB's that will fit, I just don't know what's good and what's bad except that a lot of people really dislike SKIMZ nano skimmers lol.
I also have sponges I've stacked to the top of the tank in the refugium section where water falls into. The main problem I have as well is the water isn't moving fast enough for me to feel comfortable in the refugium, it's nearly still and makes me thing the water isn't being cycled through the tank enough, I just don't know how to fix that.
DaddyFish
“5 percenter”
If you are comfortable with a HOB configuration, I personally and highly recommend the Seachem Tidal series. The flexibility of these HOB units is awesome! I would probably do a Tidal-75 in a 35-gal tank.
And if you are going for the ultimate in HOB setup, use two Tidal-75. Set one to max flow and the other to very low flow <50 gph with Matrix in both. The high flow rate unit should have more mechanical and less Matrix, with the low flow rate unit just the opposite using minimal mechanical and as much Matrix as the bag will hold. One unit handles Ammonia-Nitrite-Nitrate while the other primarily processes Nitrate.
I planned on using a skimmer and chaeto combo, I don't really see people use traditional filters in saltwater, it seems skimmers are more efficient and ideal, but Im just going off observation.
