Omg nitrates

[Hilltopreef90]

My nitrates are reading 75.0 is this even possible?? I do weekly water changes I’m trying to get chaeto to grow in my refugium, there’s no fish because I’m in a fallow period and I only feed the inverts and corals a couple times a week
Aside from a water change any other advice to lower the nitrates ?
Phosphates are only 0.10 so atleast they’re not sky high

 

[brmc1985]

My nitrates are reading 75.0 is this even possible?? I do weekly water changes I’m trying to get chaeto to grow in my refugium, there’s no fish because I’m in a fallow period and I only feed the inverts and corals a couple times a week
Aside from a water change any other advice to lower the nitrates ?
Phosphates are only 0.10 so atleast they’re not sky high

What size tank? How old? What was in it before fallow? What is in it now?

 

[chipchipbro]

Maybe a skimmer issue?

 

[Hilltopreef90]

90 gallons 8 months old, it’s been in a fallow period awhile now over a month, I had 13 fish
I now have a couple dozen corals 1 cleaner shrimp 3 peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp a brittle star, variety of snails, an urchin ( about two weeks ago my other urchin died) a few emerald crabs.
I change my filter socks a couple times a week and keep the skimmer clean

 

[MaxTremors]

90 gallons 8 months old, it’s been in a fallow period awhile now over a month, I had 13 fish
I now have a couple dozen corals 1 cleaner shrimp 3 peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp a brittle star, variety of snails, an urchin ( about two weeks ago my other urchin died) a few emerald crabs.
I change my filter socks a couple times a week and keep the skimmer clean

Have they historically been high, or were they fairly low and are suddenly high?

 

[MNFish]

Check your newly mixed water for nitrates. I had my nitrates explode once turns out my ro filter had crapped out and I did not realize it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How do your corals look?

 

[Hilltopreef90]

How do your corals look?

Corals look fine

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Have they historically been high, or were they fairly low and are suddenly high?

They’ve always been high but the highest before this was 35.6 could the urchin dying a couple weeks ago caused a spike ?

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Check your newly mixed water for nitrates. I had my nitrates explode once turns out my ro filter had crapped out and I did not realize it.

I’ve been keeping up on my rodi filters and resins
Rodi water is fine

 

[Hilltopreef90]

I need to find ways to get the nitrates down, I’m doing a 20 % water change today, what else should I do ?
I got a media reactor for Christmas should I run it even though I’m trying to grow chaeto in the refugium?

 

[MaxTremors]

I need to find ways to get the nitrates down, I’m doing a 20 % water change today, what else should I do ?
I got a media reactor for Christmas should I run it even though I’m trying to grow chaeto in the refugium?

I would do a couple large water changes, like 50-70%, and then monitor, if they go back up or your chaeto isn’t adequately controlling themC you could try carbon dosing. I dose kalk saturated vinegar to keep nitrates in control (I also have to dose phosphates as I’ve always been phosphate limited and you need phosphates for carbon dosing to work).

 

[Logical_Plan]

It took a while for my chaeto to start growing on a new system. I had 60 ish nitrate and 0.03 phosphate. A Kessel H160 light.

It took almost a month with little movement on nitrates and slow growing chaeto. I did end up dosing a bit of phosphate and chaeto started to take off.

Now nitrates are dropping about 10 ppm per week and chaeto is really thriving.

I also started dosing 3mL chaeto grow per day on a 140 gallon system.

I would give it time and perhaps consider a small dose of chaeto grow since you have plenty of nitrate and phosphate. Also make sure you are using a high power grow light. Then wait a while and they should come down.

 

[Rmckoy]

Is it possible !
my old 90 gal after a few years , neglect and little water changes , nitrates reached above 160ppm which is top of api test .
whether it was accurate or not , I have simce started using salifert test kit for nitrates .

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Corals look fine

Don’t freak out and start doing something drastic like carbon dosing or some other water stripping media if your corals are fine. I would just start doing 30-50% wc’s every couple days.

 

[PlumbTuckered]

90 gallons 8 months old, it’s been in a fallow period awhile now over a month, I had 13 fish
I now have a couple dozen corals 1 cleaner shrimp 3 peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp a brittle star, variety of snails, an urchin ( about two weeks ago my other urchin died) a few emerald crabs.
I change my filter socks a couple times a week and keep the skimmer clean

You have a 90 gallon tank. You do 20% water changes. That means you are changing out 18 gallons of water per week. If not, then you are not doing a big enough water change.

Shrimp, starfish, snails and crabs are scavengers and do not need to be fed directly. If you are fallow, then feed the tank once a week and that is it.

 

[PlumbTuckered]

90 gallons 8 months old, it’s been in a fallow period awhile now over a month, I had 13 fish
I now have a couple dozen corals 1 cleaner shrimp 3 peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp a brittle star, variety of snails, an urchin ( about two weeks ago my other urchin died) a few emerald crabs.
I change my filter socks a couple times a week and keep the skimmer clean

The tank is 8 months old and already, you have to go fallow? And 13 fish in 8 months leaves me to believe you are not quarantining.

I feel like you are impatient and uncommitted to husbandry.

 

[Dom]

My nitrates are reading 75.0 is this even possible?? I do weekly water changes I’m trying to get chaeto to grow in my refugium, there’s no fish because I’m in a fallow period and I only feed the inverts and corals a couple times a week
Aside from a water change any other advice to lower the nitrates ?
Phosphates are only 0.10 so atleast they’re not sky high

75 requires some intervention, but I wouldn't freak out over it.

I once took home a huge Nem from the LFS. It was thriving in the display tank. I thought to myself... "what great water quality they must have".

So I tested the bag water to see how their numbers were in comparison to mine. Imagine my shock when nitrates were 180!!!

 

[jda]

Mature rock and a few inches of sand is sustainable, but takes a while to get going. Not everybody wants these, though.

Water changes are OK. Good skimmers help. Second skimmer helps.

Once you get them lower, macro/chaeto can work, but it does not grow very fast with high nitrates (or high phosphates) in a huge joke with nature laughing at us.

Go slow and be smart. I would lower them, but I also would rather have them really high than lower them too quickly.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

75 requires some intervention, but I wouldn't freak out over it.

I once took home a huge Nem from the LFS. It was thriving in the display tank. I thought to myself... "what great water quality they must have".

So I tested the bag water to see how their numbers were in comparison to mine. Imagine my shock when nitrates were 180!!!

lots of reasons a shop would run outside of nomal parameters. I used to grow out sps on a large scale and believe it or not part of my process involved running 30-40ppm nitrates, adding phosphates, etc. but all under lab conditions and with reasons for doing so. WOuld never try in my home setup. Having lots of water volume lets you go some things a small system cant do .