Someone help

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Hey guys so it’s 1 in the morning here and I’m freaking out so I’ve been having some nitrate problems for a couple months now and I’ve been wanting to get more coral and blah blah so I have coral coming the 25th of March on Wednesday and my nitrate is still very high like above 80 high it’s reads like dark purple and I don’t know what to do anymore I have some pics of my sump and everything I’ve been doing water changes almost every other day now and they just won’t go down like at all I’m running out of salt and don’t have money to buy any more I’m on my last legs here and if I can’t get it down to a safe level in 2 days I’m almost positive the coral will die anyways I have denitrate in there as well as phosphate remover I’m running carbon and biogen in the media reactor i don’t know what to do please someone help every fish in the tank seems fine as well as the corals green star polyps and pipe organs are the only ones not opening. Oh also I have sea lettuce in a breeder net in the sump so that it won’t go everywhere so it’s growing in there I have so many nitrate and phosphate removers in the tank I don’t know what to do.

Natescorals · Mar 24, 2020

What size is your tank? How many fish do you have? Are you using RODI water?

Natescorals · Mar 24, 2020

Also which test kit are you using?

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Natescorals said:
What size is your tank? How many fish do you have? Are you using RODI water?

200 gallon around 14 i believe and yes i am

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Natescorals said:
Also which test kit are you using?

red sea test kit

Natescorals · Mar 24, 2020

How much are you feeding?

Natescorals · Mar 24, 2020

What do you have for filtration?

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Natescorals said:
What do you have for filtration?

if you look at the pics you can see the filtration its 4 filter socks then a refugium then a skimmer then a filter pad as well as the media reactor

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Natescorals said:
How much are you feeding?

i feed pellets and switch to frozen foods every 3 days i feed once a day

DanConnor · Mar 24, 2020

If you are changing a significant percent of your water and nitrate isn't going down, then your testing is probably wrong

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

DanConnor said:
If you are changing a significant percent of your water and nitrate isn't going down, then your testing is probably wrong

but some of my green star polyps as well as my pipe organs arent opening and ive had it tested at the lfs and it red high as well i think it was around 50ppm at the fish store

Softhammer · Mar 24, 2020

Cancel your coral order if you can’t afford salt.....

DanConnor · Mar 24, 2020

How big is the tank and how big are your water changes?

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

DanConnor said:
How big is the tank and how big are your water changes?

200 gallons and there around 50 to 60 gallons sometimes a little less at 40 gallons

Triggreef · Mar 24, 2020

I know you said feed once per day... But how much? Regardless of your answer cut it in half. Fish will be just fine.

Filter socks and anything else that requires changing can become nitrate factories fairly quickly.

How is your refugium producing? You probably need about a 55g refugium growing a good amount to really function well on that size system with that many fish.

Anywhere detritus builds up that you can manually remove will help.

How much water are you changing at a time? You should really do 30 (min) to 50g at a time to make any real difference. Less than 30g or so and the nitrate will just build right back up to where it was next time you feed.

Pudge&Bubbl · Mar 24, 2020

Pictures of your tank as well?

Triggreef · Mar 24, 2020

Big water changes are much more beneficial than small ones if you were to change the same net amount of water. Simple math :
No3 at 100 for example. 30g change puts it now at 70.

10g change puts it at 90. Next 10g change puts it at 81. Next 10g change puts it at 73.

Both examples 30g was changed but the larger change was more effective.

This is worse when what your eliminating is also growing right back after.

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Triggreef said:
I know you said feed once per day... But how much? Regardless of your answer cut it in half. Fish will be just fine.

Filter socks and anything else that requires changing can become nitrate factories fairly quickly.

How is your refugium producing? You probably need about a 55g refugium growing a good amount to really function well on that size system with that many fish.

Anywhere detritus builds up that you can manually remove will help.

How much water are you changing at a time? You should really do 30 (min) to 50g at a time to make any real difference. Less than 30g or so and the nitrate will just build right back up to where it was next time you feed.

if you look at the pics you can see everything for my refugium underneath the blocks i can see what looks like detritus should i take the denitrate out as well?

Triggreef · Mar 24, 2020

MACHO said:
200 gallons and there around 50 to 60 gallons sometimes a little less at 40 gallons

That's a lot more than I expected. Check the water your using. I had a friend wondering why his po4 was so high at 2.33. I found that his water he was using for changes was about 1.8 already.

MACHO · Mar 24, 2020

Triggreef said:
That's a lot more than I expected. Check the water your using. I had a friend wondering why his po4 was so high at 2.33. I found that his water he was using for changes was about 1.8 already.

ive already tested the water i use tds is 0 phosphate is 0 and nitrate is 0 as well