nitrate high.....

[glow=red,2,300]my nitrate and nitrite is high any way to lower them??,,,i already did a water change and the PH is a little high also.... sooo confusing.....plz asap![/glow]

 

How high? What type of filtration, etc..are you running...
How much of a water change did you do?

 

i used the dip strips and it said that they are "caution".......adn the filteration i have is a wet-dry and a fluval water changing unit....the water changer is going on 24-7 but i do have alot of algea growth do you think that would raise the trates?

 

Algae wouldn't raise nitrates, it will consume them.  Hold off feeding fish for a few days,  clean your filter media, keep up the aggressive water changes and try adding sea chem's prime.  What are your numbers is your ammonia high?  Do you have a dead coral or fish some where in your tank?  Is your skimmer working well?  Are you over feeding or do you have a DSB and have you disturbed it,  this can release trapped nitrates.  By the way, wet/dry's are nitrate factories should not raise nitrites. You might also want to consider marinelands Bio spira live bacteria for cycling your tank, it's possible you may have had a die off of your denitrifying bacteria, this happened to a freind of mine. Bio spira is one product that actually works.

 

[quote author=puffer_lover link=board=Water;num=1107582189;start=0#0 date=02/05/05 at 00:43:09][glow=red,2,300]my nitrate and nitrite is high any way to lower them??,,,i already did a water change and the PH is a little high also.... sooo confusing.....plz asap![/glow] [/quote]
How long has this tank been set up for? How often/how much are you feeding? Any animals in the tank right now?

 

Same thing is hapening to me

 

I have the same problem, 50ppm really confused, I have no algae problem, but some corals kicked, but my fish are all doing well. I presume I have a slight overstocking problem. 1 naso, 1 hippo, 1 yellow tang, 1 sailfin, 1 foxface, 1 marine betta, 1 angel, 5 barlets, 2 queen anthias, 1 perculia, 1 peach anthia, 2 manderin gobies, 150 snails, 40 hemits, 5 shrimp all in a 180g system. I feed a little zooplankton in am and major feeding at night. I also took a nitrite test and it said .5ppm which technically should kill everything so I'm really weary of these results. I resently purchased a sulphur denitrification unit but this will take time to take hold. I also think that my bacteria build up might not be up to par. I run a sump only (no bio-balls) but I'm seriously considering adding this to add the bacteria dinitrification capacity what do you think?

PS 360lbs live rock

 

Hi everyone, Before these questions get answered there are more questions, age of tank, how did you cycle, what are the contents of the tank? what additives, water changes and such have you done so far? what is the feeding schedule? My most hated question but have to ask...are you losing livestock and not finding them so you add to the problem? Any additions to a established tank like large livestock or live rock addtions? How old are the test kits? have you taken a water sample to a lfs to see how it compares? when adding live stock are you not adding the water from the bag just adding the livestock? Are you familiar with a tank cycle and how the steps work?

 

hey all, my nitrates are up there as well.. i just did a test today and they are at what seems to be 80 ppm!! maybe a faulty test, and i just threw away my old stick test. However i just fought a red slime attack. Live Stock is doing good. no signs of stress. The only new thing i added was a big chunk of LR from the LFS (two days ago), it was running in an established tank, so i didnt think there was a need for curing. I also bought some more LR the really old coral kind, but i didnt add that because it is really muddy so im gonna cure that, and make sure its good before adding. Anyways yea high nitrates, and ph dropped a bit its at 7.8, and Ammonia is at .25i also messed with the sand bed a little, I had to reorganize the rocks.

Do you think all the work ive been doing was just a little to much and if left alone the nitrates will drop? Crappy HOB Prizm running 24/7. and ive done abought 20% water change this morning after testing.

 

Definitely Questions that need to be answered before Help can be determined.

Jason