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

What and how much do you feed the fish?

 

Everybody's tank is different with different bioloads and equipment, I personally never got below 10 nitrates on my tanks until I started using bio pellets.

just because other people achieve undetectable levels in there tanks don't necessarily mean you will without making modifications, such as upgrading or adding a fuge or carbon dosing(I prefer biopellets as my form of carbon dosing). Many forms of carbon dosing take a while to kick in, like the OP mentions hes done it for 3 weeks. that is probably the minimum time it takes to just begin working with vodka.

 

sostoudt, I took a quick look for invert references. Most of the references I was thinking of, seem to only provide anecdotal accounts though. For example, Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook By Robert J. Goldstein states that levels over 40mg/L may be "stressful" to inverts, but there is "no particularly dangerous level of Nitrate for all organisms, although it's removal cannot but benefit the reef aquarium."

Honestly the most convincing just seems to be the shear number of hobbyists running tanks at seemingly exceedingly high nutrient levels without observed mortality. I can't find any primary source articles that have done experiments, or at least do not have access to journals that may contain such articles though. I'll let you know if I do find something more definitive though.

 

I thank some of you guys are right on track. I never said anything cause i thought i was nuts. But we had our nitrate spike over 100ppm and our fish where just fine. I can't tell the difrance between when it was 100 to now at 20. I put a few mushrooms in thare. I'm going to let it all set and see whare it goes and how the mushrooms do. Then I'll go from thare.

Oh with the 9 fish we feed one frozen food square a day. Half in morning half at night.

 

Thanks all for you ideas and thoughts. We really apresate it. keep them coming!!

 

9 fish could be a lot for a 75g... You can do it, but I don't think underfeeding is the best solution. You can get nitrates from underfeeding as well as overfeeding IME. The problem is if you have established LR and sand, there is going to be die off if there isn't enough input into the system to sustain the biomass. You are better off getting a better skimmer running a fuge with macro algae and feeding more, in this situation. However, do not feed big meals, feed more small meals. This will ensure the food is consumed before it has a chance to break down.

 

all my live rock and such look realy good. I havn't noticed any die off at all. We are going to thin out our fish and try some things you guys have been sugesting. i'll post agine in a few days to keep you guys updated. Thanks alot for the help!!!

 

ok.. so i have it figured out and your not going to belive it!!!! I last posted on the 6th with nitrate at 20. the 7th it went up and agine on the 8th. Well i said a few choice words and was setting thare looking at it. all this time i didn't do a thing to the tank and feed very little. So i decided to get ride of it. Now here is whare it gets good. I decided to change it to a freash water tank right. Well this tank has a built in sump that is placed like 3/4 of the way acrost the back and all the way down to the bottom of the tank. well i decided to tank it out. so after i removed it( with every thing still in it) i turned the lights on and saw nothing but crap in the tank! Then the light bulb came on!! i cleaned it all up and let my sump pull the rest out. Now its only been 12 hours and my nitrates has droped from about 40 to 10!! it hasn't been 10 in about 8 mounths. I thank with the overflow being so deep in the back and whare they had it was what was doing it. I did have a hose from my return going to the bottom of it but i gess it wasn't anof to move the crap out. And since all my outher stuff is in my sump i didn't use that big thing. So i'm going to keep a close eye on it and post agine later.. and yes .. i tested it 3 times with 2 difrent test kits because i couldn't belive it. and i couldn't belive that i had over looked that part of my tank eather.... leason learned.. and thanks agien for the help and ideas!!