Nitrates

[pick91]

How can i get my nitrates down if the water changes i'm doing isn't working. I have a 40 gallon breeder tank with a 20 gallon sump. I changed 12 gallons every week for the last to weeks. If anyone has any suggetion i would greatly appreciate it .


THANK YOU

 

[mytshall]

2 things

One if you have bio balls. Get rid of them slowly. Also a product called sea chem.

 

[josepy1]

add a skimmer, try doing 12g waterchanges every other day till you get target level. I use activated carbon, and stop feeeding so much. I will say this the 12g a week thing while feeding still is doing nothing. i did 200g water change in a week and a half in my 90g when i took it over three years ago for nitrates..

 

[pick91]

I use no bio balls and i have a skimmer up and running. can't figure why nitrates are the only thing high everything else is good this system was up and running when i purchased it and had been up in runng in his house for four years

 

[subielover]

Did you just recently obtain and move the tank? Is there a sandbed that could have been disturbed? We would need more details about your equipment as well as livestock to really find the issue of why your nitrates are elevated.

 

[pick91]

obtained the tank 1-25-10 so yeah just moved it lately have a tang,firefish, cardinal, basslet, goby have 50-60 pounds of rock skimmer hangs on back of my tank and runs with a 1200 maxi jet have two pumps moving water #3 and #4

 

[pick91]

also have several snails and crabs have few varieties of zo's, mushrooms, kenya trees think that is what you call them they all look healthy and are growing good i have been adding a product called B-ionic which is a calcium buffer

 

[beaslbob]

You have nitrates because the nitrate consumers have not kept up with nitrate production.

I would add macro algaes to your sump/refugium to consume the nitrates.

my .02

 

[pick91]

ok will try tha out i dont feed that often but how often should i feed my fish

 

[FishyFarr]

if you use activated carbon use the TRBC carbon that I use its so much better and in a week got rid of all my nitrates with the right now bacteria they sell.
its awesome stuff and not that expensive especially when you realize all those water changes are costing you money.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f130/hiatt-filtration-system-33853.html i have a small post on it here

 

[subielover]

It could just be from moving it, however you have a large bioload. I would recommend changing at least 10-15 gallons a week until they are down to 0. Also, think about adding some more powerheads.

 

[Phin]

What are you getting in your skimmer collection cup? What is your feeding schedule and how much? Definitley need to find out what the source is. In the meantime I would do 10 - 12 gallon changes every other day as previously suggested.

 

[AZDesertRat]

How much live rock? Macroalgaes like cheatomorpha help too.

 

[guppychao]

do you have any sponges (not the reef ones) sponges are nitrate magnets

Good luck

 

[pick91]

have no sponges have about 50-60 pounds of rock feed very small anount daily

 

[pick91]

getting a greenish colored liquid in my skimmer think i have figured out that i need to obtain a ro filter or get another job to by all the water i'm gonna need for all this water change but i know they will help my tank

 

[wicked demon]

I dont know why you were told no bio balls, the bacteria that lives on the surface of the balls, and live rock, and in the top cm of sand convert nitrite to nitrate, macro and mangroves will help, but not fast, skimming, feeding less, productive water changes, active carbon, sand in the fuge, even turf algae scrubber, if you have filter socks or foam filters clean them out every day or two-they are nitrate factories. Sponges and feather dusters and other cryptic zone filter feeders consume suspended organic particulate matter that will eventually decay and contribute to the nitrate chain. Balancing nutrient export will solve your issues.

 

[AlexStinson]

I dont know why you were told no bio balls, the bacteria that lives on the surface of the balls, and live rock, and in the top cm of sand convert nitrate to nitrogen

Now I may be mistaken but I believe the bacteria you are talking about convert nitrites to nitrates. Nitrates are broken down in anoxic conditions, such as the inside of live rock (something bio-balls lack, thus the problem).

To the OP: Try different test kits, I have seen nitrate kits vary widely in quality. Also consider looking for medias that absorb nitrates. I also run a 40b with a 20l sump, at any given time I run fresh carbon, GFO, and chemi-pure, with a very active refugium and a very overpowered skimmer.
17 fish, <1 nitrates

Lastly, it could have something to do with the tank being freshly moved... params swing widely till everything gets in balance IME

 

[jcom]

Just personal experience here. My 120 gallon tank was testing nitrates in the mid 40s and water changes were doing nothing at all, even though I considered my tank to be very clean, minimally fed, and well skimmed with activated carbon and lots of live rock. Then I added a refugium and algae turf scrubber and things began to happen. My refugium is a small, 20 gallon remote unit and my algae turf scrubber's screen is about 1 foot square. Within a month of putting chaeto in my fuge and getting some algae growth on my ATS screen, my nitrates began to fall. A month in, I was testing in the 20 - 25 level....2 weeks later in the low 10s. Then I went out of town for the holidays and when I came back I was testing at 2. 1 week later and ever since, my levels have been undetectable.

 

[xrayrider]

I had nitrate issue with a good skimmer, a lot of rock, and a refugium full of Macroalgae. What finally worked was a deep sand beed. The bacteria that consumes nitrates lives deep in the live rock, where the oxygen levels are very low. By adding a 4 - 6 inch sand bed, you provide a much larger area for this bacteria to establish, than the live rock can supply. The deepest part of the sand bed is low in oxygen, and light free, both of which the bacteria needs to survive. Use all the methods described, but also include a deep sand bed. I have never needed an Algae scrubber, and had 0 nitrates within 1 month of adding the 6 inch sand bed. I quit testing after a while because it was always 0. Now I just need a natural way to keep my phosphates in check without buying Rowaphos.