Resolved nitrates out of control! BC14 - day 2

so my friends out of town and she asked me to keep an eye on her biocube 14. its been up and running since sept 09 and has an assortment of corals, a clownfish, a watchmen goby, a starfish, and a CuC of hermits/snails of various types. there is a "in-tank" 3 chamber rack in the center compartment in the back. one of the chambers has chaeto, one has mangroves, and the third has filter floss (which i already changed).

i tested the tanks nitrate level because she said she needed me to do a water change. i verified the test kits good by getting a second from the store. her tanks at 100 ppm of nitrate!

i can only change out about 10% of the water at a time without putting the liverock into the open air (which i feel would be bad and cause more harm than good by creating more nitrate from sponge die off).

how many 10% water changes am i going to have to do and how often can i do them to get this down? ive looked and with how open the live rock is theres no clumps of detritus that i can see. ill take apart the back section and clean that out and take apart the pump and make sure nothings decaying in there.

there is a oceanic biocube skimmer there which doesnt work too well. it skims, but not as effectively as it should. ill replace the wooden airstone in it and clean that up as well.

anyone have any additional advice? otherwise im going to start with 10% water changes every 2 hours with nitrate testing in between and before each to make sure its doing something. i fear that im missing something...

the tank params as tested 5 minutes ago:

Temp 82degrees F
PH 8.4
SG 1.025
KH 3!!!
NO3 100ppm
NO2 0ppm
NH3 0ppm
PO4 0.25ppm
CA 400ppm

obviously the alk is low, the ca is low, no mg kit and the no3 is friggin ridiculous. ph and sg are fine though.

i have about 30gal of water mixed up that i brought of RO/DI and instant ocean salt mix that im going to use. i tested it and its all 0/ppm and 1.025SG @ 80, im warming it up now to match her 82 degree water so there is no shock to the fish or anything.

i appreciate anyones input on this...

 

-Wooden air pump?..

-I would keep up with those WC. I'm not too sure on what to do either.
-Your friend didn't test the tank before she left?
-Check for blockage in the line to the skimmer, if it isn't in the water

 

Are there bio balls in the back still? Nitrates and PO4 are insane. Just seems like they must be coming from somewhere, unless this tanks has been badly neglected.

 

In theory a 10% water change should bring down the nitrate levels 10% as they are evenly distributed in the water column. so first would be 10 ppm, second 9ppm, etc. Hope that helps answer your question.

Jake

 

Jeez, talk about getting the short straw for which tank to help take care of.....

 

well you could do 2 water changes today. ( it would be like a 20% water change).

and anotherone the day after tomorrow
if you have a mechanical filter, you might want to replace the pads and stuff as they are nitrate factories

 

You should be able to do a 50% change without causing any die off since you have 30 gallons made up. I don't think anything will be affected in the very short time they are exposed if you replace the water before disposing of the old.

 

Agreed. Just make sure any LPS that will be exposed are retracted by waving your hand over them in the water (giving them a gust of water) before you do it. Otherwise, many corals live in areas that can be dry for short periods, so you should be fine.

 

inside of the oceanic biocube style skimmer is a air line from a airpump that connects to a wooden airstone

no bioballs. also has a brand new bag of chemi-pure elite which is currently not in the tank. would this help?

thanks.

indeed

alright cool. nothings dieing on my watch!

 

Certainly wouldn't hurt. I'd do as big of a WC as I could first though.