Nitrate Issues

Trueno22 · 05-14-2008, 02:48 PM

I have a 72g tank with 75 pound of live rock and 70 pounds live sand. Rena Xp3, Emeperor 400, and seaclone skimmer, and a bunch of stars crabs and snails for a cleanup crew.

For the life of me I can't get the nitrates down. Nitrite is at 0 has been for weeks if not months. PH, Alk, Calcium are all good. I took my water to the lfs and they said it was perfect that the nitrates though not 0 Were fine. But darn it I want it at 0-10ppm range.

I tried water changes with RO/DI water from the LFS and it actually made the levels go higher. I guess i stirred up the sand bed and debris fro the live rocks the first time. And the second time who knows why they went up. Went rom feeding the fish 3 times a day to 1 time a day still no change. Added those algone packets and although they made my water super duper clear no lowered nitrates. Even bought some mangroves waiting to see what effect if any they have.

Any suggestions???

Trueno22 · 05-14-2008, 02:50 PM

OH just in case the fish are all fine swimming happily around without a care.

HORTON16 · 05-14-2008, 02:50 PM

What are your nitrates at?

Trueno22 · 05-14-2008, 02:51 PM

They are at at least 40ppm the shades of pink it uses suck can't tell the difference lol!!! Though not as dark pink as 80ppm on the strips so maybe tween 40- 60

edit: just tested the water with the strips let a minute pass and its at abotu 80ppm

Tangster · 05-14-2008, 03:26 PM

Might want to cut back on the feeding and not use any frozen meat types they are full of NO3's like Brine and Mysis shrimp are loaded as most meats are. And it just stays in the system unless you have a way to deal with them I use a coil dennitrater myself.. DSB and L/R do not now or never had taken care if this problem as advertised . Even with a few fish .. Then they went to adding Vodka and or sugar carbons to feed the bacteria to consume the Nitrates .. I' don't suggest this and would never apply the goofy idea myself But then I also won't use a DSB either (:

Trueno22 · 05-14-2008, 03:30 PM

adding vodka??? does it affect the fish??? wonder what proof the fish would prefer??? smirnoff??? belvedere???

Tangster · 05-14-2008, 04:24 PM

I'm serious there are many who dose their systems with Vodka to lower NO3's that their DSB can't handle , To me it rates right up there with the vinegar in the kalk mix. No body as a certain dose and to mix and I guess they just hope its good to go ? I have seen the Bacteria go ut of control and then tanks water turn milky white then everything dies right along with the bacteria that ran rampant .. I myself just use a simple low tech coil myself.

Stingray · 05-15-2008, 05:11 AM

If you have any ro/di water left from the lfs test it for nitrates, you may be adding more to the tank, also 3 times a day feeding is way to much, cut this down to once every other day for now untill you get reduced nitrates, and using a external cannister will not help they are nitrate factorys, clean the filters out or even replace them at least once a week, would also suggest doing some back to back water changes, hope this helps ....

One other thing if you say the lfs has tested the water then ok, thought your test kits may of been out of date???

Stingray...

Trueno22 · 05-15-2008, 08:34 AM

I was thinking the water from the LFS had high nitrates because water changes have no effect on the nitrate level. Last week I did 3 water changes one every other day. And it had no effect on nitrates.

If I feed the fish once every other day will they be ok?? They won't starve will they?

They tested the water they nitrates were over 20 but they said it was ok that I was worryng too much. They also said if I had been using Bacter Boost it would show false postive but I haven't used the stuff in weeks.

Stingray · 05-15-2008, 09:41 AM

As i take it the fish can live in very high amounts of nitrates if risen slowly, but adding another fish straight to the tank could be lethal to it, would of thought if the lfs water did have high nitrates in it then yours would be riseing even more so, maybe i'm wrong, maybe there are no nitrates in the water from the lfs, which would leave us to concentrate on something else, also the fish will be fine with one feed every other day, just while your sorting this problem out then i would recommend feeding them once a day,overfeeding will knock your phosphates up as well as nitrates. and this in turn could give you unwanted algae blooms...