Nitrates are out of control

jtfishman

Member
I have a 150 gallon saltwater aquarium that recently had extremely high nitrates, like off the chart nitrates. I added Amquel Plus to remove the nitrates. Instead of doing anything to the nitrates it actually made my Nitrites spike which killed my entire tanks inhabitants! I was so shocked when I came out and seen off of my fish dead in the tank, as well as the worms in the limerick coming out hanging there. I removed all the fish and drained out 90 gallons of water and replaced it with RO water. I then let that sit for a few days did tests and the Nitrites went back to zero again, Ammonia was at 0ppm and PH. was at 8.3 but the Nitrates were still off the charts at over 160 ppm.

After the 90 gallon water change, we did a 75 gallon water change which would have been a 50% water change. after that I tested and had the water Ammonia level up to 2.4. P.H. was at 7.8, Nitrites were at 0ppm, and the Nitrates were still bright red. We now did a 50 gallon water change and have tested it with PH coming out at 8.1, nitrite is at 0, Nitrates are still red but seem to maybe be on the last color on the chart at 160 ppm, ammonia is at 2.0 however which is really high.

When the water was tested right after the fish died the nitrate test water would turn from bright yellow to bright red after the first 3 seconds of shaking the test tube. Now after the water changes it takes it about 30 seconds of shaking the test tube and it turns into orange and then bright red, so it is still turning out bright red, however its taking longer while shaking the tube to turn red. Still very high but seems to be slightly better, sadly.

It is so hard because the water changes are not easy on this large of a tank and having to go to the grocery store with 5 gallon water jugs to fill with RO water at the machine.

Would I be able to put Ammo Lock in the tank to get the Ammonia level down, or just give it a few days to settle down and let it cycle more. Do I just have to keep doing water changes to get the Nitrates down? It just seems like all this RO water going in the tank is not doing anything for the Nitrates as they are still at 160 ppm or higher. Its crazy.

Anyones input here would be nice on what I should do to get these nitrates settled down and drop the ammonia back down to 0 like it was.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
You should probably check the so called RO water that you're getting from the machines. If it tests high in nitrate then stop buying it and pick yourself up your own RO unit. Sounds like a lot of trips to the machine anyway and would be cheaper.

Nitrite isn't really harmful in saltwater like it is in freshwater. So that probably wasn't the killer in and of itself. Something else must have happened to cause a crash.

If hold off on adding any chems for a little bit and let the tank re balance on its own.
 

jtfishman

Member
I tested the nitrate level of just the water from the RO machine from the store and it tested at 0 because we wondered the same thing. The test came back with a 0 reading so its not that. We have stirred up the gravel/substrate in the aquarium so that maybe caused the Ammonia spike as we have not had that problem before, but the Nitrate level just does not seem to be dropping.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
If it was an aggressive cleaning of the gravel/sand bed there's potential for a large release of hydrogen sulfide.

Many a tank has been crashed from disturbing to much substrate at one time. Usually the more mature the sand bed is the higher the risk for significant exposure from the release of HS into the water column.

HTH
 

jtfishman

Member
Yes, there was major disruption to the gravel/sand bed lately. We moved the aquarium from our restaurant to our home about 3 to 4 days before the crash and so the gravel was definitely mixed up and messed with significantly. That may definitely been the cause of the crash. do you think this is whats still causing issues with he nitrates and the ammonia?
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Yeah most likely. The bio filtration (bacteria) needs a little time to re establish and things should come back down.

Nitrates aren't as much of concern as the ammonia. That's the important one to keep down.
 

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Agreed with 2quills. My trates are generally high end. I do fowlr, my fish are fine. Ammonia is a killer tho
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Everything dying in the rocks is also likely a contributor to the ammonia and end result would be high nitrates. You will just have to ride it out.
If you ever move a tank again I'd recommend purchasing new sand and tossing all but a very small amount of old sand.
 

jtfishman

Member
Thanks for the reply's everyone. I will let the tank sit for a little bit and regroup from all the chaos lately. The nitrates were extremely high when the fish were in the tank too however they were doing fine up until the move, so now I am under the assumption things went haywire after the moving with the gravel/ substrate getting mixed up. Thanks for the tips everyone.
 

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Yup thats probably what did it. High nitrate is usually over feeding or a filter needing to be cleaned
 
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