Heeeeeeeeelp!!!!

How much and what are you feeding the tank?

 

I feed spectrum and aqueon flakes 2x's a day, and a cube of mysis shrimp each night...
yesterday I made everyone in the tank fast, which I heard is good for fish...is it??

How do I get nitrate levels down in my tank??

Also...Will the introduction of only slightly cured live rock cause nitrate levels to rise??

I tested everything else, and all is well, it's just the ridiculous nitrate levels...

 

it is fine to go a day or so without feeding your fish.
Best way to get nitrates down is to reduce feeding and perform a water change.
Yes, slightly cured live rock will in fact raise nitrates along with other water parameters such as nitrites and phosphates.
Remember that corals and other filter feeders will feed on nitrates so the reduction of nitrates to 0 is not as beneficial as other people suggest in my opinion. Oh yes Tridacna clams feed on nitrates as well. My tank is always around 10ppm as far as nitrates are concerned. Nitrates are not very detrimental towards livestock. In high levels nitrates will spur an algae bloom but they are in no way as deadly as nitrites and ammonia!

 

Seems to me that you're feeding too much. I only feed a pinch of flakes per day and usually skip feeding one day of the week. If you feed too much, your bristleworm population will get larger. What kind of fish are you feeding?

 

clownfish, damsels, engineer goby, and chromis...the shrimp is for the crab and shrimp...

 

The crab and shrimp will be able to eat very well by scavenging whatever flake food the fish don't get. If you reduce your feeding, you should see a significant decrease in nitrates.

 

Thank you all for the super advice...I'm gonna try it all!!

 

Leave them, biodiversity is the beauty of this hobby, the last thing you want to do is deplete your reef of variation.

Start thinking of him as a little friend

 

okay, but to make sure I stop overfeeding, I decided to give them shrimp only 2 times a week...Wed. and Sun.......So I hadn't fed shrimp in like 3 days and I did tonight, and out he popped...I just can NOT help it, he is so scary looking and I have no clue how long he is...tonight I saw a good inch of him...I decided to try the whole pantyhose thing, soooooo....hopefully tomorrow I will have had at least some measuer of success in removing the creepy crawly thing...if it doesn't work, I guess he was just meant to be in there...til my CB shrimp gets ahold of him

 

just imagine all the stuff in your tank that is smaller that you cant see.