High Nitrate I dont understand

[vac man]

I have two tanks both have high nitrate.
All the other levels are normal. I have read the posts and don’t quite understand some of the advice. I feed a little flake in the mornings and a block of frozen brine shrimp or seafood mix every evening. The first tank is a 55 gal. I have a Penguin 170 with a bio wheel and a canister filter magnum brand. I also have a protein skimmer. I change water about every three weeks. Fifteen gallons most of the time. I have about fifty to sixty pounds of Fiji live rock and when I rescued the tank a few week s ago from home that had been hit by a tornado, It had a lot of algae growth. It has a few spots of growth of what I think is coralite. A hard calcium like, light pink purple growing here and there. A mushroom and some feather dusters are growing that I did not even know where there. The tank has
About 5 damsels,
A clown,
A blue tang
Purple star
Mandarin
An anemone
Some red mushrooms
A few snails
Flame scallop.
All appear to be doing OK but I do have a light green algae growth inside the tanks around the edges.
I have these questions. What to do about nitrate. I tested using strips. I am almost blind so these are the easiest to use. It appears to be about 40.
Why do some of you not like damsels?
And how to judge how much to feed?
I will ask about the other tank later. It has a s sump and I am adding a light to the sump to grow some algae.
Thanks Vac Man
:help:

 

[claire_r]

Hi, Vac Man! I had the same concern about high nitrates. I tried all the suggestions from this site, but they never went down. Finally, I took a sample of my water to my LFS. It turned out that my test for nitrates was not accurate and my water was perfect! h*
Don't know if this will help you, but if you haven't tried yet you may as well.
Claire

 

[bang guy]

Think of Nitrate as smog. It's not all that harmful but it can cause problems if other parameters are not perfect.
Nitrate is the end product of the nitrification process. Unless something is actively exporting Nitrate then it will continute to accumulate. Water changes will help but their effect is limited. Other ways of reducing Nitrate:
Live rock with a diversity of internal animals plus high waterflow.
Live sand with a diversity of infauna plus a high waterflow.
Chemical nitrate reducers.
Feeding less.
An algae scrubber.
In your case I have some questions.
1 - Are you using tap water for waterchanges.
2 - are you rinsing your brine shrimp before feeding them to your fish?

 

[sinner's girl]

Feed what they will eat in a few minutes. Watch thier growth, if they look thin, feed more. I feed once a day, 6/7 days a week. You don't want any food to be left, if you have creatures you could let some fall to the bottom, but not too much. A cube sounds like way to much to me, but maybe we have different size cubes.
40 isn't that high, it's not deadly, not that it's good. If you're feeding too much that can cause nitrates. Get more lr. Too many fish? Have you tried hermits or crabs to clean up?
Also, do have your lfs or a friend test your water. Results can be wrong. I tested once, got nitrates of about 120-140, blood red. I flipped, did a water change, stressed everyone out, only to have my water tested the next day and find out my nitrates were under 20.

 

[mrmaroon]

What kind of skimmer are you using? I would change water, using RO/DI, a little more often than every three weeks. I change 5 gallons per week out of my 55g. Also, that seems like quite a few fish for a 55g.

 

[larrynews]

i used this stuff to kill hair algae, and my trates went of the charts....everything lived but it's been 2 or 3 months now and i have finally gotten back down to 40, and before the hair algae stuff they were at the most 10, so it may take some time to get it down...just do the right things and not rush it....hth

 

[vac man]

Yes i am using RO water. No i dont rinse but i will start. What do i use a little collunder. They are frozen in half inch cubes. Do you think i am crowded. I am wanting to add some crabs and a couple of shrimp..
PS YOU GUYS ARE GREAT I SURE ENJOY THE SHARING. I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE SW FISH BUT I SURE AM HAVING FUN>>
Vac Man

 

[sinner's girl]

5gl a week='s 15fl every three weeks. Just thought I'd point that out.
When you do a water change, how low do your nitrates go? And how long till they are up again? 15gl might not be enough to bring them down, try doing more, or do 15gl twice a week then test and see if your nitrates are down.
I had two fish in a 55gl, so I don't really know if your crowded, I'll have 3/4 in my 75gl. I like to give them lots of room to play.
What should he rinse? The frozen brine? :notsure:

 

[mrmaroon]

Yes, 3X5=15.

My point was that if you only do water changes every three weeks, you may be allowing things to build up and your water parameters will fluctuate more. Smaller, more regular changes will mitigate this IMO.

 

[vac man]

Imo ???

 

[sinner's girl]

in my opinon

 

[drea]

had mine tested by lfs, a good one, i had the red sea test kits, they suck, i knew my levels were perfect!

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by Vac Man
Yes i am using RO water. No i dont rinse but i will start. What do i use a little collunder. They are frozen in half inch cubes. Do you think i am crowded. I am wanting to add some crabs and a couple of shrimp..
PS YOU GUYS ARE GREAT I SURE ENJOY THE SHARING. I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE SW FISH BUT I SURE AM HAVING FUN>>
Vac Man

This hobby is very fun when thigs are going right. This board helps keep people (myself included) heading in the direction to keep things going right.
For rinsing food I'll first mention that I don't believe Brine Shrimp are a very good food. For something like frozen Mysis Shrimp I thaw them in the fridge and then add RO watter and pour through a mesh screen material before feeding. This removes any packing preservatives or water from the food that can add to Nitrate and Phosphate levels unneccessarily.

 

[sinner's girl]

Ah, I've only used brine shrimp and I never rinsed, good to know.