HELP!! Nitrates 160

[cajundolphin]

Can someone please tell me what to do? My nitrates are at 160. They are showing the dark red which is the highest on my chart. I can not even imagine why they are suddenly spiked like this. I did a water change about 3 weeks ago and changed out my filters. At that time my nitrates where at 20-40. Nothing has died in my tank....which is surprising to me with those levels. My other levels are Amonia 0, nitrite 0, ph 7.8 and salinity 1.022. The tank is 75gal fowlr. I have a 3" porc puffer, coral beauty, a dragon goby, and a orange diamond goby. The tank has been up and running for about 8 months. It has a cascade 700 canister filter, maxijet 1200, and a coralife super skimmer with 60lbs live rock and crushed coral bottom. I am not sure what else you may need to know to help me so please let me know if you need more info. Thanks

 

[sharkbait9]

Are you over feeding? what foods are you feeding? are you using ro/di water? You need to find the source of the trates? If your using tap water that could be the problem.
Canister filters are normally the source of the trates, hence the reason why canisters are not a welcomed filter system on saltwater tanks.
test your water with out a mix then test with a mix.
Start to do water changes to drop those trates.

 

[cajundolphin]

I could be overfeeding, I am still new to this and not sure. I am feeding 2 frozen cubes a day of different things. I switch up everyday. I feed bloodworms, mysis shrimp, squid, krill, brine shrimp all frozen and sometimes pellets and then also those dried shrimp to my puffer a few a day. He loves them! I do use tap water. I don't have an RO unit yet.

 

[cajundolphin]

also, when doing a water change today, is it ok to mix the water and add straight to the tank without giving the salt 24 hours to dissolve. I usually schedule the water changes and have time to prepare the water but not this time.

 

[lexluethar]

How often do you do water changes? YOu said you did a water change three weeks ago? You should be doing water changes weekly (10%) or biweekly (15%).
I would still give your salt 24 hours to disolve, undisolved salt will cause more problems in your tank then just high nitrates.
Do you vacume your crushed coral bottom? If not you should be, this is where food (esp if you are overfeeding) can build up, eventually breaking down and causing a nitrate spike. I would suggest moving to aragonite or sand (not play sand) so you don't run into this down the road.
1. 15% water changes every three days until you nitrates are at a reasonable level (min are at <10)
2. Vacume that crushed coral and get all that food stuff out of there
3. Change out your filter media
4. Clean out your filter and all of your power heads
5. ONLY FEED WHAT YOUR FISH CAN EAT IN 2 MINUTES (probably the root cause of this issue)
6. Perhaps invest in some shrimp and hermits to eat the uneaten foods
7. Change crushed coral to sand
Good luck

 

[angler man]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
How often do you do water changes? YOu said you did a water change three weeks ago? You should be doing water changes weekly (10%) or biweekly (15%).
I would still give your salt 24 hours to disolve, undisolved salt will cause more problems in your tank then just high nitrates.
Do you vacume your crushed coral bottom? If not you should be, this is where food (esp if you are overfeeding) can build up, eventually breaking down and causing a nitrate spike. I would suggest moving to aragonite or sand (not play sand) so you don't run into this down the road.
1. 15% water changes every three days until you nitrates are at a reasonable level (min are at <10)
2. Vacume that crushed coral and get all that food stuff out of there
3. Change out your filter media
4. Clean out your filter and all of your power heads
5. ONLY FEED WHAT YOUR FISH CAN EAT IN 2 MINUTES (probably the root cause of this issue)
6. Perhaps invest in some shrimp and hermits to eat the uneaten foods
7. Change crushed coral to sand
Good luck
Wouldn't his porc puffer eat the shrimp and hermits?

 

[wishihadatank]

WEEKLY? U don't have to do a water change weekly or bi weekly. I have a 24 gallon aquapod and the only filter is a protein skimmer. I do water changs monthly and its full of thriving LPS corals and clams. For a fish only tank monthly water changes are plenty. I do agree that you need to limit feeding and vacuum waste.
Various crustaceans are a must for eating food that has fallen to the sand. If ur nitrate is that high there should be signs of stress on the fish. Mix up some saltwater and wait the 24 hours. Test it for Nitrates. That will tell u if ur source is the water. If its not that its almost guaranteed overfeeding. To much detritis

 

[bigarn]

I'd have the water tested at your LFS .... it could be your test kit. Nitrates going from 20 or 40 to 160 for no apparent reason sounds "fishy" to me.

 

[sharkbait9]

Originally Posted by bigarn
sounds "fishy" to me.
GET IT,....... OH THATS GREAT

had to do it

 

[sepulatian]

A crushed coral substrate in an 8 month old tank with a sifting goby would raise the nitrates quite a bit without proper vacuming of the CC. It takes a few months for the nitrates to build up. The goby is disturbing the nitrates caught up in the CC bed. Vacume it thoroughly when you do water changes.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
A crushed coral substrate in an 8 month old tank with a sifting goby would raise the nitrates quite a bit without proper vacuming of the CC. It takes a few months for the nitrates to build up. The goby is disturbing the nitrates caught up in the CC bed. Vacume it thoroughly when you do water changes.
I agree with this part!!! With the goby sifting, that's the main issue right there....You should get some RO/DI water through your LFS, most do carry them. Right now you need to do around 20-25% water change every other day, each time siphon your substrate. Wait a day, then re-test again to see where your levels are, then do another water change doing the samething until you reach your desired level which would be zero!

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by wishihadatank
WEEKLY? U don't have to do a water change weekly or bi weekly. I have a 24 gallon aquapod and the only filter is a protein skimmer. I do water changs monthly and its full of thriving LPS corals and clams. For a fish only tank monthly water changes are plenty. I do agree that you need to limit feeding and vacuum waste.
Various crustaceans are a must for eating food that has fallen to the sand. If ur nitrate is that high there should be signs of stress on the fish. Mix up some saltwater and wait the 24 hours. Test it for Nitrates. That will tell u if ur source is the water. If its not that its almost guaranteed overfeeding. To much detritis

IMO, there is a big difference between a 24g reef tank, and a FOWLR with a porc puffer. So what works in one tank is not going to necessarily work in another.

Reef tanks tend to be lightly stocked and fed relative to their size, compared to a FOWLR (esp with aggressives).
I have worked with systems over 200ppm nitrate with no signs of problems with fish. So that is not always apparent. For a FOWLR I would keep on top of the water changes, feed more appropriate food (small particulates are not good for porc puffers and I bet there is a lot of waste). Any prefilters or sponges need to be rinsed regularly (eg every few days).

 

[nrr15]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
A crushed coral substrate in an 8 month old tank with a sifting goby would raise the nitrates quite a bit without proper vacuming of the CC. It takes a few months for the nitrates to build up. The goby is disturbing the nitrates caught up in the CC bed. Vacume it thoroughly when you do water changes.
sepulatian is right i had the same thing happen to me on an old set up cc sucks because it traps bad things with out under gravel filters and even under gravel filters will trap them eventually. uh.....they just suck

 

[swalchemist]

Huge difference in a 24 and a larger tank, apples and oranges IMO. You need to insure your filtration and skimming are at top quality. I will also bet your water flow is not adequate and that one reason for the build up is that waste and non-eaten foods are settling into your substrate, they should not settle at all. Kick up flow, do 25% water change every 2 weeks. You can let new water sit for 24 hours or 24 min, makes little difference as long as the salt is 100% dissolved, so step up those changes.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by SWAlchemist
Huge difference in a 24 and a larger tank, apples and oranges IMO. You need to insure your filtration and skimming are at top quality. I will also bet your water flow is not adequate and that one reason for the build up is that waste and non-eaten foods are settling into your substrate, they should not settle at all. Kick up flow, do 25% water change every 2 weeks. You can let new water sit for 24 hours or 24 min, makes little difference as long as the salt is 100% dissolved, so step up those changes.
The chemistry is the same in a 350 gallon or a 10 gallon nano. The same things happen just on a different scale and need more monitoring as the tanks get smaller. We don't know the water flow of the system in question. It does make a BIG difference of how long the water mixes. It must be 24 or more hours. Just because the crystals or salts look disolved that does not meen that they are thoroughly mixed. There is a gas exchange that takes place. The salt mixing lets off a lot of carbon dioxide. That has to be replaced with oxygen. The water needs a strong flow while mixing to release the carbon dioxide and replenish it with fresh oxygen. You must have a powerhead mixing the water to be used for a change.

 

[swalchemist]

Definetly dont have to let water sit thats an opinion not a fact. Chemistry is not the same as volume and animal load will dictate the chemistry. Been doing it for years with no problems. My results speak for themselves.
As for how to mix the water check a recent thread on how I do my water changes. I use a 2000 GPH pump to mix then pump the water back into the tanks.
You will find many people have there own techniques and ideas some are learned through experience, some will work for you, some won't. Take the advice or not makes little difference to me. All I know is I have had 0 problems.

However I will guarantee that this tank does not have enough water flow (just have a feeling from what I have seen.) Lets see how close I am.

 

[sepulatian]

Definetly dont have to let water sit thats an opinion not a fact.
We were not talking about water sitting. It was about water MIXING for 24 hrs or more. I would like to hear from the OP as far as what the flow is. This post is about nitrates. He has a CC bed that is eight months old and a sand sifting goby that is stirring it all up. The flow realy doesn't have much to do with it at this point. The CC should be either vacumed or slowly removed. The main concern is the water changes at this point.

 

[swalchemist]

Vacuum the CC and you kill any functionality that the bed has left. You may also release trapped gasses if so lets just say I have seen what can happen in the worst case scenario. The flow is 295 GPH not enough. Plus we need to know how often the canister filter is changed.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by SWAlchemist
Definetly dont have to let water sit thats an opinion not a fact. Chemistry is not the same as volume and animal load will dictate the chemistry. Been doing it for years with no problems. My results speak for themselves.
As for how to mix the water check a recent thread on how I do my water changes. I use a 2000 GPH pump to mix then pump the water back into the tanks.
You will find many people have there own techniques and ideas some are learned through experience, some will work for you, some won't. Take the advice or not makes little difference to me. All I know is I have had 0 problems.

However I will guarantee that this tank does not have enough water flow (just have a feeling from what I have seen.) Lets see how close I am.
When I said that the chemistry is the same I was talking about the numbers that the tanks need to be at. No matter what size the tank is the parameters or chemestry of the tank need to be the same. The bioload will dictate the chemistry if it is overloaded. The chemistry should always be the same in a healthy system. The ammonia and nitrite should be zero, the nitrate should be under 20 for FO and under 10ppm for a reef. PH at 8.2. Temp at 79, SG depends on what you have in the tank. Same goes for trace minerals.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by SWAlchemist
Vacuum the CC and you kill any functionality that the bed has left. You may also release trapped gasses if so lets just say I have seen what can happen in the worst case scenario. The flow is 295 GPH not enough. Plus we need to know how often the canister filter is changed.
If a person has a CC bed then they MUST vacume it or the detris will build up and cause uncontrolable nitrates. Release trapped gasses? What are you referring to? The more you allow anything to build up the harder it is to remove.