high nitrates

the nitrates in my tank are really high (between 80 and 160) that is the last two colors on my test kit card. but nothing in my tank seems to be doing bad, actually the mushrooms in my tank are doing better than they ever did before. along with the mushrooms i have a kenya tree, spaghetti finger and button polyps that are all doing well. the fish are very active and i have purple coralline growing all over the glass on the tank. my question is do i keep doing water changes to bring the nitrates down or let the tank try to take care of it over time. the tank is two years old and i have battled with nitrates ever since they started showing up after cycling the tank. i am drawing a blank and really getting upset every time i check the nitrates and the color starts changing red before i even get finished shaking the test tube. any help would be greatly appreciated. and sorry for such a long post

ps: glad to be a part of 3reef, thanks for all the help

 

Are you using tap water by any chance? Not overfeeding are you? A little info on your tank (filtration, fish load, skimmer info, feeding regimen, refugium info, etc.) will help us to help you figure out where your problem lies.

 

Hey dbyrd, before you do what amcarring said, first look at the tester that you have, it might be expired. If not, then start typing all the info that amcarring said.

 

I had the same problem. My nitrates sat at zero from the beginning and I replaced my test kit and low and behold they were 80ppm. Well everything was doing great in my tank, would have never known that my nitrates had exploded. If your test kit isn't expired you need to take action because high nitrates will cause algae blooms and may cause your livestock, especially inverts to suffer. I immediately started doing small water changes every few days, I only use RO water. Some wikk recommend 50% water changes but it wasn't possible for me to do this and some believe that large water changes are stressful to the tank. I vacuumed my substrate, blew off the rocks with a turkey baster, cleaned out my filter, skimmer, powerheads and changed my media. Once my nitrates lowered to a reasonable level I incorporated the kents nitrate sponge which worked great, I also started doing weekly water changes. Now that my nitrates are at 0 and my bioload is lower I have maintained my tank by:

Doing a water change every 2 wks, I blow the LR with a turkey baster to remove detritus, stir up substrate, clean filter media regularly and change it ever few weeks. I also only feed every other day.

 

A water change is a quick fix to lower your nitrates, but you need to determine the cause of these excess nitrates. Having said this though, my nitrates are about 10ppm in my reef tanks but because of the many filter feeders(Tridacna's, Coral, Dusters,) my tank is very healthy. Nitrate as a whole is not very toxic to livestock, no where near to that of nitrites and ammonia, you may get an elevated algal bloom or cyanobacteria because of the elevated nitrate reading is all.

 

i cant't find the expiration date on my test kit and i use bottled water from wal mart for top off and water changes.the tank is a 46 gal with 4 fish, birdnose wrasse, yellow tang,damsel, and tomato clown. i have a pro clear aquatics wet/dry filter in place now without the bioballs while i reconfigure my fuge. the skimmer is a cpr bak pak 2r with a mj 1200 powerhead. i feed the fish every other day with a flake food and about once a month i put half a block of thowed cyclops. i keep the filter pad changed about 2-3 times a week and i dont use any pre filter sponges on my powerheads.
i hope this helps

 

I would test the water from WM first and then have your LFS test a sample of you water to ensure the test kit is not bad. I would also check for Phosphates in both the WM water and the tank. High levels of phosphate will translate to higher levels of Nitrate.

If everything is happy and health I would imagine things aren't too bad.

How about Algae growth in the tank are you fighting any outbreak?

J

 

i have tested my top off and make up water and phosphates are undetectable i also checked the phosphates in my tank and they too were undetectable. my lfs doesn't test water so i can only rely on my test kits. my phosphates test kit is new. i do have hair algae but it doesn't consume the tank. i also just bought a new tetra test nitrate test kit and checked my water it too said the nitrates were around 100.

 

Wow! Hate to neglect the rest of your post but, maybe it's time to find an LFS that does!!

 

Actually all the soft corals you mentioned do better with higher nitrates. I have heard of tanks that don't use a skimmer and have a bed of xenia to export nitrates.