Nitrates

[Brian Treadwell]

Hey Guys , question been fighting nitrates last couple of weeks , Sunday did 15 gallon water change look for dead spots as suggested , added flow thru tank vacuumed substrate during water change , trimmed my cheato that was in refugium it was kind of out of control , I am getting hair alge on a couple of rocks , I do have a GFO reactor but don't have P04 test kit, also some bubbles in some alge on some rocks. Any suggestions please.

 

[Humblefish]

Need some background info...

• How high are your nitrates?
• How long has your tank been setup?
• How big is your tank and what is your bioload?

 

[Brian Treadwell]

90 gallon , 5 weeks old but was bought already established Broke it down and moved about 80 miles and set it back up , saved most of water and substrate , changed sump from a trickle to e-shops R 200 with refugium , GFO reactor , reef octopus skimmer , Nitrates are at 25 ppm

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Sorry bio load , 6 fish , some leather corals , mushroom , sun coral , feed fish once a day , coral frenzy couple of times a week.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You state substrate. Does this mean you reuse the sand?

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Yes I did , I know now that was probably not a good idea.

 

[redfishbluefish]

That's your problem....I'm sure your nitrates and phosphates are through the roof. I would consider doing large multiple water changes over the next couple weeks.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

I just did 15 gallon on Sunday and I have been doing weekly changes but only 10 to 15 gallons , how large should I do

 

[redfishbluefish]

As fast as you can make RO/DI....I'm thinking 25 gallon changes would work. Monitor your N and P to see them reducing and continue with water changes until they get down. I also have a 90 and just did a 50 gallon change when cleaning out my sump.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

I have Red Sea for testing Nitrate but I don't have and guess I need to get phosphate test kit. Thanks

 

[Humblefish]

Can you bump it up to 25-30 gallons weekly? 25 ppm isn't too bad unless you are trying to grow SPS.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

I can do that , no SPS yet but I do want to have when I get tank under control and stable for awhile. Thanks

 

[FishLover01]

Considering that you have a 90 gallon tank, in order to cut the nitrates in half means changing half the total water volume of the tank. If you want to be around 10ppm, then change 45 gallons. A better thing after doing this water change is learning why you're fighting this nitrate issue to begin with. Is your source water high in nitrates?

 

[Brian Treadwell]

I only use RO/DI water and IO reef crystals

 

[Diesel]

While you do a WC you can also do some minor bacteria dosings that will help bring down your No3's.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

I have ordered some bio digest as suggested , that should be here tomorrow.

 

[jsker]

So, you have made a bunch of changes. I would slow it down, since the total system is already stressed. What you should be concered about is what shape the fish are in right now , that is the first thing that is going to go. Then the corals next. Take a deep breath, run some carbon to clean the water and wait it out.

 

[Brian Treadwell]

The fish and corals I have seem to be fine , feeding time they are all out waiting for food , the few corals I have also seem fine , just have nitrate at 25 ppm and a little alge that is growing more than I think should but other than that all are feeding and acting normal.

 

[Justin D]

My nitrates was 160ppm i have 350 gallon aquarium 140 sump I was doing 2-120 water changes a week for 5 weeks I got it down to 80 ppm what someone told me to use no3 po4 by red sea now it is always 10ppm and bio pellets did not work for me

 

[Brian Treadwell]

Thanks everyone , it has come down some , I believe one of my problems was that I have a GFO reactor and have not change the media in for 5 weeks , I don't think it lasted that long I think I will start changing media every two weeks.