Holy Nitrates Batman

andre0217 · #1 11/08/2007, 05:53 PM

In my 29 gallon office tank that's been up and going for 6 weeks or so now, i'm having a nitrate problem.

The only livestock are a few snails and about 10 crabs.

Water has been around 20 ppm for Nitrates until yesterday when it measured around 40ppm.

I did a 20% waterchange and today I'm still at 20ppm.

What else can i do to lower this?? I thought for sure the water change would have done it.

kaihonu82 · #2 11/08/2007, 06:10 PM

another water change...
i would suggest that something died...but you don't have much, but maybe a snail died and your tank's not quite ready to handle it..hows your ammonia level?

andre0217 · #3 11/08/2007, 06:11 PM

Ammonia is at 0
Nitrites are at 0

itsthesong · #4 11/08/2007, 06:16 PM

LOVIN' THE TOPIC TITLE! Fantastic!
Back to the business at hand, are you using bioballs? How much liverock, sand? Deep sand bed?

andre0217 · #5 11/08/2007, 06:19 PM

No maam.. no bioballs.

I have about 35 pounds of liverock. I am using aragonite sand about 2 inches all the way around.

zotzer · #6 11/08/2007, 07:14 PM

Is it an all-in-one with any sponge or ceramic rings in any of the chambers?

Tracy

bertoni · #7 11/08/2007, 07:20 PM

You might want to get a second opinion on the nitrate level. Sometimes, test kits have problems.

If there's no artificial biological filtration media, I would just do a series of 20% changes and wait. The tank is still very new, and that level of nitrate won't harm animals except possibly stony corals and other touchy animals. Fish, snails, soft corals, etc, don't care.

Piscator · #8 11/08/2007, 08:16 PM

Actually, that is pretty impressive. A 20% water change and a 50% drop in Nitrates.

Wish I knew your secret!

I'd say keep up with a couple more 20% changes, make sure you don't feed too much.

If you have a skimmer, run it a bit wetter for a while too.

20 aint bad if this is going to be a fish only system

Best wishes,

fishox · #9 11/08/2007, 08:29 PM

Piscator beat me to it, but there is something wrong with your measurement. A 20% water change can not change the nitrate parts per million by more than 20%. I'd advise re-testing. What brand test kit are you using?

m2434 · #10 11/08/2007, 08:41 PM

Kits can be finicky sometimes. Doesn't hurt to measure a few times and take the average...

Varkalis · #11 11/08/2007, 09:03 PM

What do you mean by running the skimmer "wetter"

Varkalis · #12 11/08/2007, 09:03 PM

Also what is a good test kit to use, because i am having the same problem

danch · #13 11/09/2007, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Varkalis
What do you mean by running the skimmer "wetter"

Turn up the air so that it pushes wetter foam (more stuff in total) into the collection cup.

andre0217 · #14 11/09/2007, 10:32 AM

The test kit i am using is made by aquarium pharmaceuticals, inc.

Vin7250 · #15 11/09/2007, 10:42 AM

salifert test kits are the best IMO