Nitrate prob... any one have any ideas???

So my tank is over a year old. My nitrate stays at lest 20ppm no matter what i do. All my other test is at 0ppm. Its a 75 gal and i have about 65lbs of rock. I'm running my skimmer as hot as I can and been Vadka dossing for over 3 weeks now. I've taken my rock out and have cleaned it. While I had all the rock out I cleaned the sand and removed about a quarter of it. As for fish I have a long nose tang, 2 clowns (small), 2 skunk clowns(small), and 3 small damsels. have a few mushrooms that arn't doing worth a crap also. I've done so much water changes that i'm arfaid and surprised that it hasn't gone into s cylcle. about 20% every 30 days for about 2 mounths. I don't have anything plastic or fals in it except for my over flow stuff for my sump. i'm also runing carben, live rock and bioballs in my sump and i clean at lest once a week. but they don't ever look durtie. I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Any one have any ideas???? please help!!!

 

Are you having issues with algae. Nitrates of 20 ppm is not that bad if you have a basic fish only system, the mushrooms should be fine IMO.

I would replace the bio-balls and rubble with a sand bed and chaeto.

Have you checked your water source for nitrates?

 

No algae realy to speek of. I have 4 or 5 small snails but realy my tank stays realy clean in that area. The bio balls and rock are new to my system. A local gave them to me to see if they would help. About 3 weeks ago. My sump is only a 10gal. Its as big as i could fit in my tank stand. but i will be adding some chaeto in the next day or two. And we have tested our water source for nitrates and it's 0ppm.

 

forgot to mention the snails are the little ones.. Don't have any turbos or anything like that. And we have 3 test kits we use. One is brand new. We thought it might have been the test kits getting old.

 

STOP! messing with it. let the live bacteria build. taking rock out and cleaning it is setting you back. it doesnt happen over night it takes a tank a while to really cycle.

oh and bio balls not a good idea. your better filling that area with rock

 

+1 this is good advice.

 

I wouldn't put live rock in the sump it acts just like bio balls in a sump. Cut back on your feeding and add GFO to your filtration. A reactor works best but a canister filter can work just fine as long as you clean it often. How much flow is going through your sump?

 

all the replacement of rock and you moving everything is disrupting your system leave everything alone and let your live rock do its job ;D

 

20 ppm nitrates is not that bad, unless maybe you're trying to keep SPS or something. If not, stop panicking over it!

 

The only thing you should do to the rock is blow it off with a turkey baster to get the add debris off so it can be added to the water column and the skimmer can pick it out.