need help...nitrates very high

I just recently replaced my nitrate test kit and oh my god the nitrates were very high, somewhere between 60-80ppm from the colour chart. So I immediatly started doing water changes, vacuuming the substrate and blowing my rocks.

For the history nothing has died, I clean my carbon and sponge for the filter weekly, I use ro water and feed once a day. My nitrates after the first water changed went to 40ppm but after the second water change it didn't move. Now I am trying to be patient but I am also very concerned for the welfare of my livestock.

Has anyone ever used nitrate media by kent or seachem and would this be beneficial to use while doing water changes?

If anyone has any help they can give I would truly appreciate it. I buy my ro water as I can't put a unit in my apartment do to the plumbing(you have to shut the water off in the whole building to do any plumbing) I tested the ro water and it reads 0 for nitrates so that's ruled out.

Anyone ever had this problem?

 

I just got done dealing with a similar problem. I just did a huge water change and had to wait for my fuge to do it's thing. I used Kent's Nitrate sponge before I had a fuge it works it's just not very fast at reducing the nitrates.

 

How long has your tank been up and running for? Do you have any live rock in the tank?

 

My tank has been running since june 26th 2006, that's why I am concerned. I don't have a huge amount of LR but I am somewhere aroung 35lbs LR and I have 20lbs of tufa rock which I used as base rock and it has coraline on it and feather dusters, not totally covered but I'd say seeded. I have aragonite crushed coral for a substrate(ya I know should have gone sand) I use ro water. Have you ever heard of seachems de-nitrate?

 

nemo79, like milesm4, I tried the nitrate sponge. It may have made a little difference, but nothing drastic. I reduced feedings, and that also helped a little. My nitrate levels seems to hang between 10 and 20ppm, even with 10% water changes each week.
You've got a lot of creatures in your tank. The tank's nitrifying bacteria are doing their job and changing ammonia to nitrite to nitrate.
Are you having algae problems, too?

 

Lord! I'll say! I mean I got you beat on corals, but I have an entire TWO fish and a couple snails (mostly cause my tang died completely unexpectedly) and my tank is 10gal smaller. I'd say your nitrate problems are because you are quite overstocked and don't have enough LR. Adding LR uncured would probably just worsen the problem. I could be wrong though. I definitely think you need more but only add a couple lbs at a time. Either that or lighten your load. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for saltwater isn't it 1in of fish per TEN gallons? Giving you room enough, in your case, for 5.5in of fish? Slow down there, cowgirl! ;D

 

Wow I didn't think I had a high bioload because my jawfish, watchman,firefish and blenny are all tiny. but I guess I will have to get rid of the tang.

 

Oh I also wanted to know, when will I know for sure when my tufa rock is considered seeded? I want to get more LR but getting cured stuff out here is next to impossible, it's always full of dead stuff which would definitly cause a problem. So is it 1.5 inch of fish per gallon? How about corals, do they count on bioload?

 

I don't think the rule is that restrictive is it? I thought I remember figuring this out one time and I could have around 20-22" of fish in my 55 gallon. I'd like to get verification though because I am far from an expert .Anyone?

 

Most food ends up in the filters,

HI,
If your feeding while running your filters my guess is this more of the food is in the filters than the fish, this increases the bioload on the water a lot.
I usally try to power down the marinland filters they are closed system , the sump to the snails get enough to eat, if the fish don't clean up in 5 mins I reduce the feeding amount the next day, do you have a sump with a DSB or algae.
Has you sand looked a little dirty is the clean up crew gone ..SOme fOOdS are hard on the system my LFS expert told me flakes are really high in phos and take a long time to break down. So i feed mostly frozen now .the fish really feed more aggresively I avoid that brine shrimp except as a treat mostly that krill and squid , and that green food..

I find snails do a much better job than hermits, and those peppermint shrimp seem to alway be eating ..
Doug

it never hurts to get the LPS to check things, I would check phos, nitrite, and any other item that your worried about. many kits can go bad ..