Nitrate problems in an already established tank

[casethekid]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I am looking for some good advice on why my water in my tank has high nitrates. I have done everything that I can think of to get readings into acceptable levels...but nothing has worked to this point. I have changed water, changed all filter media, removed bio-bale from my skimmer, tried RO and DI and RO/DI water, all to no avail. I never have had any trouble with this before, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Beverly]

There are lots of ways to help reduce nitrate:

1. Never use tapwater.

2. Make sure filters in RO of RO/DI unit are changed periodically.

3. Do larger and more frequent water changes. With an existing nitrate problem, I would suggest doing three or four 40% water changes over the course of two weeks. This should reduce current high nitrate levels quite a bit. However, without knowing how high your particular nitrate levels are, more water changes may be necessary. You want to get nitrate as close to 0 ppm as possible.

4. Once you have nitrate under control, make sure you do weekly water changes of at least 15%. Thoroughly clean all filter media in outgoing changewater weekly, too.

5. Understock with fish rather than overstock.

6. Make sure your fish are well fed, but do not overfeed.

7. Add non-invasive macroalgae to your system. Macroalgae will consume nitrate and phosphate, but macroalgae alone will not solve a high nitrate problem.

[TippyToeX]

casethekid
[welcome]

I couldn't agree with Beverly more!

[casethekid]

Thank you for the advice, Beverly. Unfortunately I have tried all those things, up to removing the live rock from my tank and soaking it in 0ppm nitrate, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite for a week. I have been doing this for a while and have never run into a problem like this one. Right now at 11:53 CST I just checked my water after doing a 60% change and up around 25-30ppm nitrate 0 nitrite 0 ammonia. Any other help would be greatly appreciated

[TippyToeX]

What is your bio-load like? How well is your skimmer performing? Can you add a refugium?

[moumda]

Skim very wet, continue water changes, blow detris off rock with power head or turkey baster and use some kind of mechanical filter sock to catch it, add macro algea if posssible. Keep at it and it will come down. Nothing good happens fast.

[casethekid]

My skimmer is getting very dark slimy skimmate out of it, I could add a refugium, as I have a 20L tank that I was going to use for that purpose. As far as my bio-load, I have 2 beautiful false perculas, a mandarin dragonet, orange spotted sleeper goby, a pseudochromis, a cardinal fish and a little goby that I really don't know what he really is. I have about 90lbs of fiji live rock, big piles of pulsing xenia and gorgonian, and the whisper 60 for mechanical filtration. So, my next plan would probably be adding a refugium or DSB to get some sort of plant growth.....grape caulerpa has always done very well for me in the past

[TippyToeX]

The addition of the refugium should prove to be a big help.

I'd stay clear of caulerpa. There are too many risks associated with it (noxious, can go sexual). A better choice IMHO would be Chaetomorpha.

[fishdr]

I would remove the whisper 60. Any kind of mechanical filteration will produce nitrates, unless you thouroughly clean it daily. Instead I would just remove the filter and let the live rock and live sand do all of the filteration for you.

[casethekid]

I've been reading a bunch on this forum and I have never run into anything like what people are talking about. I usually will just prune the caulerpa when I change water once a week and leave the cut pieces floating in the refugium. used to pull 3 to 4 lbs of the stuff out on a monthly basis, but I have still never run into the things that people have described (going sexual or whatever) But I will look into Chaetomorpha to see what I can benefit from it. Thanks for your help btw

[tjh]

have someone else test your water for you, your kit might be bad. least we can hope.

[fishdr]

you should not leave the cut pieces of caluerpa floating in the water. Some of them will get sucked into pumps and die, causing more organic waste. The reason most people grow caulerpa is so that they can prune it and throw away the organics that it has collected.