Cant get rid of Nitrates

timberwolf15

timberwolf15

New Member
Hey all,
Brand new to the boards AND to this hobby so please take it easy on me.
I have a 40 gallon FOWLR tank thats been up for about 3 months. I have a false perc, flame angel, two blue yellow tail damsels, 6 hermits, 2 emerald crabs, and 4 turbo snails.
I cant seem to get my nitrates down at all. ever time i do a water change, at best, they go down to about 15 but within a week they are back up to thirty. any suggestions or answers to why are welcome
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
Welcome to the board

What filtration do you have? What substrate and how much LR do you have? Are you using RO/DI or RO water? Have you tested the nitrate level of your change water?
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
You are saying that you put in more waste than the LR and LS will remove
It may not be done cycling
The new water may have nitrates to start
The food you feed may have large amounts of nitrates or you could be over feeding
You may not have enough live rock or a big enough filtration system
 
kjr_trig

kjr_trig

Active Member
Some good questions and advice above me....I will say though, 30 ppm of nitrates in a FOWLR is not the least be harmful, that shouldn't affect your fish in the least, even your clean crew should be fine.
Overfeeding, IMO this is the biggest cause of nitrates.
 
kjr_trig

kjr_trig

Active Member
Originally Posted by GeoJ
http:///forum/post/2746680
Yep but with OCD that 30 is a puzzle to be solved

Agreed, plus there is nothing wrong with striving for 0, just didn't want the OP to be worried about the health of their critters.
 
timberwolf15

timberwolf15

New Member
I have a hang on, bio-wheel power filter that filters 400 gallons per hour, im not sure about the substrate (like i said, im new at this) but im pretty sure its about 2 inches of fine sand. forty lbs of live rock, and i use filter water that has zero nitrates when i do water changes
 
timberwolf15

timberwolf15

New Member
and i have no clue if i am overfeeding. it doesnt look like too much food to me. i feed a pinch of flakes in the morning and half a cube of frozen spirulina mixture at night
 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
It sounds like you are doing things right. You could have something rotting in the tank like a couple dead snail or crabs.
Have any fish die that you never found? That will spike ammonia and nitrate?
I would cut back on the amount of flake you are feeding. Any food that is uneaten will turn in to nitrates. Only feed as much as they will eat in a few minutes you dont want to leave stuff flaoting in there. Stand there and watch them eat for a few days. Start with a small amount and watch if they finish it and are looking for more add a bit more till you find out how much they need.
Also you dont need to feed everyday. Once a week dont feed at all and maybe one or 2 days a week dont feed the flakes. Something like that should cut back on nitrates.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
I don't worry at all about nitrates in your range in a FOWLR tank. Getting them down wont hurt and is good "practice" if you want to do a reef down the road, though.But, a good place to start would be getting rid of flake food altogether. IMO, its strictly for goldfish. There are so many frozen and pellet foods that don't have all that waste. Cleaning your bio-wheels when they slow down may help too. Don't scrub them, just give them a quick swish in some used tank water when you do water changes; they should be a little slimy. Its also that your LR just hasn't time to culture enough anaerobic bacteria. One last bit of my drivel; nitrate test kits are notoriously inaccurate, you may want to compare your results at a GOOD lfs.
 
t-bone

t-bone

Member
I have two tanks with biowheels. On one the wheels were removed when I bought it. Haven't had to add them back as the LR and LS are doing the work fine for amonia and nitrite. The tank with the bio-wheels has given me nitrate problems. Slowly started removing them so as not to shock system(I have 3wheels, removed 1 a week, 1 left to go) It hasn't been long enough to be able to say that the wheels were causing the high nitrate, but should now in a couple more weeks. Anyway, without 2 of the 3 wheels I am still seeing 0's for nitrite and ammonia, so don't seem to need them long as you have decent amount of rock/sand.
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by t-bone
http:///forum/post/2748374
I have two tanks with biowheels. On one the wheels were removed when I bought it. Haven't had to add them back as the LR and LS are doing the work fine for amonia and nitrite. The tank with the bio-wheels has given me nitrate problems. Slowly started removing them so as not to shock system(I have 3wheels, removed 1 a week, 1 left to go) It hasn't been long enough to be able to say that the wheels were causing the high nitrate, but should now in a couple more weeks. Anyway, without 2 of the 3 wheels I am still seeing 0's for nitrite and ammonia, so don't seem to need them long as you have decent amount of rock/sand.
True. Nothing gets rid of nitrates like LR. But, power filters of any kind are not "nitrate factories", as is so often heard, if they are kept free of excessive detritus build-up. No power filter (or skimmer) will reduce nitrates directly; but both can help with removing stuff that will lighten the load on your whole bio-filtration system.
 
t-bone

t-bone

Member
Look at the thread on mega powerful nitrate removal. People are getting real good results with home built algae turf scrubbers(sounds complex but super simple idea). I have been tempted to try and turn a biowheel into a algae scrubber. Just shine enough light on it to turn it into an algae wheel instead of bacteria wheel. Then occasionaly remove most of the algae.
 
salt210

salt210

Active Member
I have been fighting high nitrates in my tank for a very long time. after getting some advice from fellow members I decided to add a fuge and it seems to be slowly dropping the trates.
 
timberwolf15

timberwolf15

New Member
I also read that nitrates can build up in the sand. is that correct? Because im pretty sure none of my cleanup crew goes in the sand
 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
Originally Posted by timberwolf15
http:///forum/post/2749405
I also read that nitrates can build up in the sand. is that correct? Because im pretty sure none of my cleanup crew goes in the sand
If the nitrates are in the sand they will stay in the sand unless unless the sand is stirred up. Which happens alot. Even if you dont have inverts in there you will eventually have copepods and such in your sand bed...
Go find some nassarus snails they will keep your send bed stirred up and clean
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Nitrates are a water chemistry problem that exists everywhere in your system. Nitrate is an invisible compound that can't be filtered out; it can only be used up (chaeto,mangroves, etc), converted to nitrogen gas by anaerobic bacteria, or removed via water changes. The stuff you see in the substrate might eventually become nitrate (after aerobic bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite then nitrate), but it isn't yet. Vacuuming, or stirring your substrate (to get the gunk to the filter) will help long-term; but won't result in any immediate lowering of nitrates.
 
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