high nitrates...help

[jsab]

I need some advice.
I have a 55g non drilled tank. Been running for 9 weeks. Went slow at first like I should. I placed about a two inch live sand bed. Placed about 50 pounds of live rock. Bought a clown the second week. Next week bought a six-line wrasse. Two weeks later placed a cleaner shrimp. Next week added two chalk bass. Two weeks later placed two emerald crabs. Next week added a camel back schrimp. Also added a cleaner crew consisting of about 15 hermit crabs and 15 turbo snails with some nassarius sanails too.
Okay, that is it. No more bio-load.
I do have some corals too. Two leathers, some zoos, and yelllow polyps, and green stars. Also have some culerpa plants.
My nitrate tests always are testing in the 5ppm range. This past week, I added some more live rock from lfs. I was wondering if it wasn't cured enough from the store and my nitrates have shot up. Corals aren't doing so good and my tests are at 10 ppm. I am doing 10-20% changes about three times per week because of this and it isn't going down. I have a fluval 404, and today cleaned it top to bottom with a 20% change and tonight when I test, it still didn't bring it down. I am using RO water for the changes. I have a hang on skimmer that is on a timer to run only at night. I will admit that I am frustrated and actually questioning what is going on with my tank? I am trying not to feed to much, but is there something that i am missing? I am afraid that my leathers are stressed from all of the nitrates.
I would asppreciate some advice and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

[reckler]

how long has your tank been up and running. did you cycle your tank properly. you are most likely adding things to fast. do atleast a 25% water change and don't add anything else until it is under control.

 

[auntkaren]

I agree with you it sounds like your new live rock wasn't cured long enough. What is the nitrate level after the water change? You probably need to wait like a month between adding things to your tank, sometimes the bio load doesn't show quickly and that may be what you have now. Try a 10- 15% water change every day for awhile. Test before and after the water change. When your trates go down to the level that is acceptable for you and stay there for a few changes you will have a happier tank and you won't have to do so many water changes. It probably will take 3 or 4 straight days and you will see the difference in your levels.
Where in the tank are your corals? Are they too high or too low in your tank or are they getting too much or too little water flow? IMO 10ppm on trates isn't high enough to bother your corals but I am no expert by any means! Isn't less than 25ppm acceptable for trates? Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, please!

 

[bsd230]

Just to let you know your nitrates are low. In general anything under 20 is considered acceptable. It is very difficult to stay at 5 or below, not impossible but very difficult. My nitrates usually get up around 20 before my water change and lower to about 10-15 after. I usually feed my fish well because I have a very large cleanup crew. I keep several corals and all are thriving.
It might be a light issue or water flow, try moving them around the tank at different levels with different water flow and see if they do better somewhere else. I have had several corals that I had to move around the tank to find a place where it would thrive. Also depends on your light setup. Corals also do better with supplements for trace elements. I don't know what supplements you are using but reef plus, reef complete, and DT's are what I use.
You can usually tell if live rock is not cured by the smell. If it smells real bad it's not cured. In general with your size tank or larger you can add an uncured rock as long as it is no larger than a softball, as a general rule. It's not the ideal situation but at that size or smaller shouldn't cause too much of a problem.

 

[jsab]

Thanks for the replies. I will do another water change today. I agree, that I need to change the corals in the tank around. I understood that the corals needed a little more llight than the stars and polyps, so I placed them towards the top. Right now I am running 65 x 4 power compact lights. I have a mh orbit system on the way, but won't be here till next week (didn't want to pay $100 for overnight shipping). I thought about a deep siphon water change this time by moving around all of my live rock and very efficiently cleaning the sand bed.
I thought that nitrates should be around zero, but from the archives that I have read, quite a few struggle with this, and maybe I should be happy with 5-10. As long as my tank is happy, I am happy. I wasn't planning on adding any more bio-load for quite a while. I am almost maxed out on fish for the size of the tank. I did think about some more corals in the near future with this new light coming, but I think the tank needs to settle down and get in a "groove" before I do.

 

[dmjordan]

i would not disturb the sandbed. vaccuuming it will suck out the bacteria and micro organism that are living within it. stirring it by hand or rearranging rocks that are on the bottom of your tank will cause your trates to go up a little more. i would just let the cleaning crew take care of cleaning your sandbed......its their job....lol
and as for your nitrates less than 20 is fine and i don't think there are many people that can keep their trates a 0.

 

[bsd230]

Originally Posted by jsab
Thanks for the replies. I will do another water change today. I agree, that I need to change the corals in the tank around. I understood that the corals needed a little more llight than the stars and polyps, so I placed them towards the top. Right now I am running 65 x 4 power compact lights. I have a mh orbit system on the way, but won't be here till next week (didn't want to pay $100 for overnight shipping). I thought about a deep siphon water change this time by moving around all of my live rock and very efficiently cleaning the sand bed.
I thought that nitrates should be around zero, but from the archives that I have read, quite a few struggle with this, and maybe I should be happy with 5-10. As long as my tank is happy, I am happy. I wasn't planning on adding any more bio-load for quite a while. I am almost maxed out on fish for the size of the tank. I did think about some more corals in the near future with this new light coming, but I think the tank needs to settle down and get in a "groove" before I do.
Unless you see something on the bottom that you want to get out, I would stay towards the top. Your highest levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are usually in the top 1" of water. That is why a surface protein skimmer is more effective.
Also make sure you change your flow around, I do it when I do water changes just to make sure I don't get any dead spots in the tank. Wavetimers work excellent to eliminate this.