High Nitrates ??????

pbr309

pbr309

New Member
Last night i did tests on my water
ph 8.3
nitites 0
nitrates 30

amonia 0
sl 1.024
temp 78
alk fine
it has only been ten days since i did my last water change. is this typical or could i be feeding too much. i feed flake in the morning and frozen when i get home from work.
also i did a 20% water change after i saw the nitrates were high and now they are at 0

just want to know if i am going to be changing my water every 10 days or if i could do something to not have to change it so often.
ps. my tank has been running now for about a month and 1/2 and zero casualties all fish and inverts are doing great

any advise would be nice.
thanks.
 
pbr309

pbr309

New Member
i do have a green sea mat zoo and am going to be adding corals in the future the tests that i use are the red sea saltwater tests i bought at ***** it has all the test i listed in the package, i feel they are kind of hard to read, but i know red is not good and when i changed the water it was green and that is perfect.
 
N

n_sarno

Guest
I would test again, because its impossible to go for 30 to 0 just after one water change.. I've done a TOn of water changes and mine just goes does a tiny bit..
UNLESS the test got messed up the first time and maybe you didnt even have any nitrates 2 begin w/ :notsure:
 
b18c5hatch

b18c5hatch

Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Flake food is evil.
A lot of flake food brings up your nitrates that high or just food in general?
 
oceanists

oceanists

Active Member
I agree 30 for ates isnt bad , wouldnt worry to much about it ........ sea mats, Zoos and such can tolerate ates better than other corals, it gives them a nutrient to fight for .... im not saying throw in some zoos with 100 ppm but i wouldnt worry about 30 ...... if your keeping an anemone , or SPS I would do some water changes ...... generally with your water changes it is going to be more effecient to do small frequent than large non frequent ..... keep your water clean and filled with the minerals and calcium your inverts need to grow
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by b18c5hatch
A lot of flake food brings up your nitrates that high or just food in general?
Most of the nutrition you add to the tank will eventually end up as Nitrate and Phosphate, not all of it but just about. So, in that regard it doesn't matter what you feed. However, with flake food, a lot of the nutrition dissolves in the water in the couple of seconds before your fish can eat it. This means you have to put more nutrition into the tank with flake food that you would with something meaty like Mysis Shrimp. More nutrients = more Nitrate & Phosphate.
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
is mysis shrim a frozen food? i could not find it at my lfs i ended up just getting brine shrimp....
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by chadman
is mysis shrim a frozen food? i could not find it at my lfs i ended up just getting brine shrimp....
:scared:
Yes, Mysis is frozen.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member

Originally Posted by N_Sarno
I would test again, because its impossible to go for 30 to 0 just after one water change.. I've done a TOn of water changes and mine just goes does a tiny bit..
UNLESS the test got messed up the first time and maybe you didnt even have any nitrates 2 begin w/ :notsure:

exactly. a 20% change in water can only reduce nitrates 20% by itself or to 24 in your case.
 
oceanists

oceanists

Active Member

Originally Posted by Stanlalee
exactly. a 20% change in water can only reduce nitrates 20% by itself or to 24 in your case.

huh??
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by sufunk
Yes mysis is better than brine. Brine has almost no nutritional value.
I agree. The "enriched" frozen brine is OK I think but Mysis, chopped Squid, Scallops, etc. are a lot better IMHO.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by Oceanists
huh??
its quite simple. lets say you have a 100 gallon tank that nitrates read 50ppm. If you take out 50% of the water the nitrate concentration of the water left in the tank is still 50ppm, you havent diluted it yet with nitrate free water or changed the concentration. Now adding 50 gallons of nitrate free water to the tanks 50 gallons left you have the same amount of nitrates that was in 50 gallons of water diluted in twice the amount of water so the concentration of nitrates is cut in half or 50% to 25ppm.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally Posted by Stanlalee
exactly. a 20% change in water can only reduce nitrates 20% by itself or to 24 in your case.
This statement is technically true but there is a lot going on in a marine tank micro-ecosystem.
Consider this made up scenario:
Nitrate starts at 0ppm.
Bioload produces 200ppm of Nitrate per day.
Algae/Liverock/DSB, etc. removes 199ppm per day.
After 30 days the Nitrate level is 30ppm because the Nitrate removers cannot keep up with the Nitrate producers.
A 20% water change directly removes only 6ppm of Nitrate but it also removes about 20% of the nutrients in the water that would have resulted in Nitrate later on (Ammonia, DOCs, floating detritus, etc.). This means that the Nitrate production will only be 160ppm for the day after the water change. So, the Nitrate level is currently 24ppm, the production is 160 for a total of 184ppm and the system can process 199ppm so the Nitrate level the next day will magically be 0ppm even though only 6ppm was directly removed.
 
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