ladifysh
New Member
If your nitrates are at 20ppm and your fish are stressed in any way, it could be enough to push them over the edge. Nitrates are the third and final stage of the conversion of ammonia in our tanks. Not as bad as Ammonia or Nitrites but if 20ppm was the downside, it's not good news. My reef tank is at less that .5ppm.Getting rid of the nitrates is very important, but a couple of questions.
Is this tank F/O, FOWLR, Reef of a combo of the two?
Do you keep any Sea Apples? I was taking care of a 300 gallon reef tank and the guy put a sea apple in it...I told him if the fish started picking on it and it got stressed out, the toxins the apple would release would wipe out the whole tank. Of course, I didn't know what I was talking about and 2 weeks later he lost over $15,000.00 in livestock and corals, including a $500 Imperator Angel I had nursed back to health. All over a stinkin fifty dollar sea apple. When I walked in that day and saw the mess and he said "How come you didn't MAKE me take that thing out?" Cuz I'm not your mother, have fun, I QUIT!
Are your test kits up to date...old, outdated chemicals can give false readings, making us think all is well when it's not.
Have you recently added anything to the tank, rocks, plant, anything?
Has your R/O DI resin been changed lately...did you let it run a few gallons before you began using the water for the tank?
Make any changes to the house plumbing? Doesn't sound like much, but things can sometimes get knocked loose that doesn't bother us but gives our fish a hard time.
Do you have a sump with algae in it to use up the nitrates? If not you could get one of those breeder traps like they use with freshwater fish. Use suction cups or clips to attach it to the side of the tank. This only works if your running a pendant or a very tall canopy. Put some filter material cut to size on the bottom of the trap. Fill with coarse rock rubble, very coarse crushed coral and/or a mix of the two. Get yourself a mangrove tree and put it in place. If you want to go SUPER EASY get yourself a block of styrofoam, find the exact middle (draw a line from corner to corner across the middle. Where they intersect is the middle). Make a hole just large enough to put the mangrove in with the bareroots sticking down in the water. This will keep the mangrove at the right water level and you'll start to find all kinds of tasty goodies your fish will like taking up residence in the root zone.
Alternately use a large breeder trap filled with chaeto to aid in the export of nitrates.
If you have a sump but no refugium area, go to the dollar store and get a cheap plastic basket, one of the organizer kind, square is better. If it fits tight against the walls of the sump, all the better. Fill it with chaeto, grab a cheap clip on light and a twisted flourscent bulb, about 60 watts or so. Place the whole shebang into the sump so that it's covered with the flowing water. Turn on the light, leave it on 24/7 and presto chango, lowered nitrates. Make sure the light won't fall into the water or get splashed on, I'm sure you can figure out why.
Sorry for all the questions...just trying to figure out what went wrong so maybe we can help make sure it doesn't happen again...I've been doing this over 35 years and I still have days where I'm doing this.....
Is this tank F/O, FOWLR, Reef of a combo of the two?
Do you keep any Sea Apples? I was taking care of a 300 gallon reef tank and the guy put a sea apple in it...I told him if the fish started picking on it and it got stressed out, the toxins the apple would release would wipe out the whole tank. Of course, I didn't know what I was talking about and 2 weeks later he lost over $15,000.00 in livestock and corals, including a $500 Imperator Angel I had nursed back to health. All over a stinkin fifty dollar sea apple. When I walked in that day and saw the mess and he said "How come you didn't MAKE me take that thing out?" Cuz I'm not your mother, have fun, I QUIT!
Are your test kits up to date...old, outdated chemicals can give false readings, making us think all is well when it's not.
Have you recently added anything to the tank, rocks, plant, anything?
Has your R/O DI resin been changed lately...did you let it run a few gallons before you began using the water for the tank?
Make any changes to the house plumbing? Doesn't sound like much, but things can sometimes get knocked loose that doesn't bother us but gives our fish a hard time.
Do you have a sump with algae in it to use up the nitrates? If not you could get one of those breeder traps like they use with freshwater fish. Use suction cups or clips to attach it to the side of the tank. This only works if your running a pendant or a very tall canopy. Put some filter material cut to size on the bottom of the trap. Fill with coarse rock rubble, very coarse crushed coral and/or a mix of the two. Get yourself a mangrove tree and put it in place. If you want to go SUPER EASY get yourself a block of styrofoam, find the exact middle (draw a line from corner to corner across the middle. Where they intersect is the middle). Make a hole just large enough to put the mangrove in with the bareroots sticking down in the water. This will keep the mangrove at the right water level and you'll start to find all kinds of tasty goodies your fish will like taking up residence in the root zone.
Alternately use a large breeder trap filled with chaeto to aid in the export of nitrates.
If you have a sump but no refugium area, go to the dollar store and get a cheap plastic basket, one of the organizer kind, square is better. If it fits tight against the walls of the sump, all the better. Fill it with chaeto, grab a cheap clip on light and a twisted flourscent bulb, about 60 watts or so. Place the whole shebang into the sump so that it's covered with the flowing water. Turn on the light, leave it on 24/7 and presto chango, lowered nitrates. Make sure the light won't fall into the water or get splashed on, I'm sure you can figure out why.
Sorry for all the questions...just trying to figure out what went wrong so maybe we can help make sure it doesn't happen again...I've been doing this over 35 years and I still have days where I'm doing this.....
