Super High Nitrates

[richserpe]

Hello all:

I have been testing my water weekly in my Red Sea Reefer 300 G2 Plus and this is the third week that the Nitrate level has maxed out on my Hanna Tester. Flashing 75. Double checked with an API kit and got the same result. The rub is that everything in the tank is healthy and thriving. The Acans are puffy and displaying tentacles, the torches are long and flowy, the mushrooms have their mouths open and are having babies and the zoas are spreading like weeds and my Alien Eyes are splitting. My Elegance corals are spread wide with flowing tentacles and my hammers are puffy and happy. The fish:
2 Ocellaris Clowns
2 Purple Firefish
3 PJ Cardinals
1 Diamond Goby
1 Algae Blenny
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Lubbock Wrasse all eat like pigs. I have an extensive CUC consisting of:

1 Tiger Conch
2 Silver Lip Conches
Several Mexican Turbo Snails
Several Indo Turbo Snails
Many Blue Leg Hermits
2 Blood Shrimp
2 Peppermint Shrimp
3 Tuxedo Urchins
1 Biscuit Starfish
1 Emerald Crab
1 Pitho Crab
Several Red Leg Hermit Crabs
Several Nassarius Snails
Several Astrea Snails
Amphipods
Fuzzy Chitons

My LFS guy says the livestock simply adapted to the Nitrate Level which I find hard to believe since the new additions didn't go into toxic shock but started to eat almost immediately. What's going on here?

 

[Timfish]

How do you know the new additions weren't adapted to high nitrates?

There's a lot more going on in reef ecosystems than just N and P. Microbiomes play a huge role in determining the health of ecosystms and of corals. (It's easy to find aquarists that have "ideal" parameters but can't keep corals alive.) Unfortunately it's not something we can test for easily as aquarists. But nitrates do have negative impact even if corals have adapted so I would encourage you to reduce them.

 

[twentyleagues]

I have seen many differing opinions on this. If your corals/fish are happy and healthy which means they are growing and color looks good then I would not jump to extremes. Would lowering them to some extent probably be good? probably. I think high phosphates is probably more detrimental in the long run but what constitutes high? As I have seen beautiful thriving reef tanks with po4 over 1ppm. Have the corals adapted maybe is that a bad thing?

 

[JayM]

Nitrate isn’t particularly harmful until you reach a level considerably higher than where you’re at.

I personally would just keep up with maintenance (water changes, filter socks, etc) and bring them down slowly to a measurable level for reasons mentioned in the previous post.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Hello all:

I have been testing my water weekly in my Red Sea Reefer 300 G2 Plus and this is the third week that the Nitrate level has maxed out on my Hanna Tester. Flashing 75. Double checked with an API kit and got the same result. The rub is that everything in the tank is healthy and thriving. The Acans are puffy and displaying tentacles, the torches are long and flowy, the mushrooms have their mouths open and are having babies and the zoas are spreading like weeds and my Alien Eyes are splitting. My Elegance corals are spread wide with flowing tentacles and my hammers are puffy and happy. The fish:
2 Ocellaris Clowns
2 Purple Firefish
3 PJ Cardinals
1 Diamond Goby
1 Algae Blenny
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Lubbock Wrasse all eat like pigs. I have an extensive CUC consisting of:

1 Tiger Conch
2 Silver Lip Conches
Several Mexican Turbo Snails
Several Indo Turbo Snails
Many Blue Leg Hermits
2 Blood Shrimp
2 Peppermint Shrimp
3 Tuxedo Urchins
1 Biscuit Starfish
1 Emerald Crab
1 Pitho Crab
Several Red Leg Hermit Crabs
Several Nassarius Snails
Several Astrea Snails
Amphipods
Fuzzy Chitons

My LFS guy says the livestock simply adapted to the Nitrate Level which I find hard to believe since the new additions didn't go into toxic shock but started to eat almost immediately. What's going on here?

I'm experiencing similar issues with 1 coral in decline. I'm doing 2.5g water changes every other day, and I still have not had 1 nitrate test come back that wasn't flashing 75...what the heck? I'm going to continue the water changes, and have just built a fuge in the back of my AIO. Now I need chaeto...

 

[richserpe]

Trying Red Sea NoPox. 10ml every day in the am. Third day in. Will test on Saturday to see if anything changes. Corals and fish ok so far. Elegance looks a bit angry. The inverts are good as well. The only thing is my Lubbock Wrasse has been a no show for a couple of days. Saw him briefly yesterday. Hasn’t come out to eat during feeding time so I’m a little worried. Also recently raised my Radion 15’s to 60% from 40% power. Wondering if that’s making the elegance corals angry although they’re on the bottom of the tank. Stay tuned for updates.