180 Gal. NITRATES OFF THE CHART! 120+

isebastion

isebastion

New Member
Can someone please help us. I have been working on my tank for a little over 2 years. I dont know much as I have had my receptionist taking care of it for me. We had a huge problem this week. We lost about 6 tangs and some other crabs and fish. Here are our problems.
Nitrate is off the chart.. 120+++
We did a 50% water change 3 days ago
we did a 25% water change 2 days ago
we did a 45% water change today.
Our Nitrate is still 120+++ ??????????????????
What am I doing wrong?
We have 2 fluval 404's and one fluval 204. I just replaced all the sponges and carbon ext in them. they are brand new now. Will that help?????
I have a lot of live rock.. Could that cause it? Will Nitrate kill my tangs or other fish? I heard it is not harmful. If it is what does nitrate kill?
I have read some other forums. Can someone please help me and explain what I should do to fix this problem? I have a very nice tank but they are dying. Its sad to see. I bought some treatmeant. Will this help? (Bio-Spira Marine Intrifying Bacteria) Very expensive. Will this help? please help everyone. I need some good information not guesses. Thanks Trevor
 
ssweet1

ssweet1

Member
What kind of cleaning crew do you have? Try to cut back on feeding too much, this can help. Do you have a skimmer? Bio Spira is to help a tank that is new, going through a cycle. It prevents ammonia, but if your tank is two years old you have an established bacteria already. A stocked refugium also helps keep nitrates down if you have room for one. Good circulation helps keep water cleaner. I would suggest running the Kent or Seachem denitrifier media in the Fluvals in place of the sponges and carbon for awhile until your nitrates go down.Good luck,Carrie
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Hey Trevor, I have several questions for you.
-What brand test kit are you using? How old is the kit?
-How many fish are in the tank (could you list them please)?
-How often do you feed?
-How often were you doing water changes before you noticed the problem?
The Bio Spira will bring down ammonia and nitrite, but not nitrate.
Nitrate levels of 120 ppm are very dangerous to fish if they are exposed to it long enough. This is probably what did the tangs in.
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
Thank you for your reply.
We have 5 tangs, 5 clown fish nemos, 1 star fish, 2 damsels, 2 clown puffers or something.
the kit we are using to check nitrate is Salt Water Master Liquid Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc
We did not change the water very often before the nitrate went crazy. Now that it did, we learned about it and we have sifted the sand with that filter to clean the sand and also changed the water quite a bit during this week when the nitrate spiked. I hope that this nitrate will not kill our fish. Hopefully with this information you can tell me what I should do. Thanks. All other levels are great.
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
We were also feeding them 2 or 3 times a day. Now I heard that that was way too much. If it is too much how much should we be feeding them? everyother day once?
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
The fluval style filtration would be a major contributing factor. Do you have sand, or crushed coral? Any other type of filters???
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
I was told my fluvals as long as you kept them clean were one of the most important factors to keeping a tank healthy with the flow and filteration. I have live sand or sand. It is a white and black sand that came with water i guess because it was alive i suppose. I have two blowers that move the water around the tank. It seems to keep the tank very nice the only problem is the nitrate is very high. I am afraid to loose the fish.
also is there anything you can do to treat ich? without killing my fish? thanks
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
What tempature should my tank be at for my tangs and other fish? Maybe that is a factor for the tank having the problems
 
rev

rev

Member
By taking out all of the foam sections in the fluval at the same time,you removed alot,if not all of your bio-filtration.Take out 1 section every other week,until all 4 are replaced.
You most likely will go through a bacterial bloom,and your water will be coudy for a week or 2.
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
Yes I did do a tap water change. I just ordered a reverse osmosis water package for my tank. I drained the water out of my tank via hose and then I let the hose run for about 5 min before adding my water to my tank. Then I added the water and salt at the same time until the selinity levels were at 1.021 . The water changes I did were not with the reverse osmosis as it is being shipped right now. Hopefully it is good for my tank?
 
greggti

greggti

Member
The way you did the water change may have killed a few fish. You should never mix salt in a tank that contains living things. All replacement water should be circulated and aerated for 24 hours before it is ready to go into the tank. For a tank that size you should also look into getting a sump and fuge. Most canister filters end up just being nitrate factories. Also you did not mention if you hve a protein skimmer. If not , you should get one asap. Until your ro unit arrives do some water changes with distilled water.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Yeah, the water change method sounds very bad. That is probably causing the fish a great deal of stress.
Always, always make up water chnage water 24-48 hours in advance and make sure that the temp and salinity is EXACTLY the same as your tank before you add it. You should aerate water change water with a powerhead, and put a heater in the bucket to match the temp of the tank.
Do you have sand or crushed coral? If you have crushed coral, are you vacuuming the crushed coral at all to get the nitrates out?
 
mcsd22

mcsd22

Member
Please dont take offense by this but you really need to learn about keeping a tank. What you are doing is looking for answers when there is major problems. I would suggest reading through all the post here and maybe a good book or two. As far as your problems. 1. you took all your good bacteria out when you cleaned your filters. 2. way over feeding the fish. 3. mixing salt in the tank (very bad) 4. tap water, never use it unfiltered. 5. the more chemicals you add the worse off you are, most just mask a problem and offer no cure. As far as your fluvals I think you will be alright with them but they will have to grow there bacteria back and until then you will be doing several water change for probably a cople of weeks. 20 percent at a time. Do you have live rock and if so how much. About 1 pound per gallon is what I use. Tank cleaners, crabs, snails if its not reef stars but stars will die with poor water quaility. Protien skimmer is a must as far as i am concerned. Regular tank cleanings and monthly water changes(20 percent). I only vacumm about 25% of my sand per water changes. Your phosphate level is probable through the roof so expect major algea troubles to follow. Reduce the lighting times to help with that. And dont do any of the things you have done. Good clean filtered water changes with premixed salt, no table salt, and correct temp might save the rest of your fish but dont expect any miracles. If you loose them all let your tank cycle just like if it were new and start back slow and educated and these things wont happen. Remember amonia, nitrite or nitrate can all be killers.
 
isebastion

isebastion

New Member
Thanks for you help guys. Looks like I have a lot to learn . I guess ill just try to stabablize it and do it right for now on. Any suggestions on which exact protein skimmer would be good for my tank? Thanks everyone. Guess i got in over my head on this one
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
Are you using sand or crushed coral? If you're using sand, you shouldn't really sift it clean. You'll stir up trapped nitrates that would otherwise gradually bubble off as harmless nitrogen gas. If you're using crushed coral, then you need to vaccum it regularly to get trapped detritus out of there.
 
robpsca

robpsca

Member
Originally Posted by uberlink
Are you using sand or crushed coral? If you're using sand, you shouldn't really sift it clean. You'll stir up trapped nitrates that would otherwise gradually bubble off as harmless nitrogen gas. If you're using crushed coral, then you need to vaccum it regularly to get trapped detritus out of there.
I have live sand or sand. It is a white and black sand that came with water i guess because it was alive i suppose. earlier post on this thread
 
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