High Nitrates?

[buwanna]

Hi. I'm posting this for my dad. I just did Nitrate, Ammonia, Calcium, Phosphate and Carbonate Hardness tests for him on his relatively new reef aquarium. We are new to the hobby. His tank is a 55 Gallon with live rock, live coral and sand, invertebrates and fish. Tank was setup around the first of November. He used filtered tap water on initial filling and for a while after. Recently, he's been using reverse osmosis water to do water changes. Nitrates have been testing high from the very start and there seems to be no reduction in them up to date. As best I can tell from the test color chart, Nitrates are testing at 40ppm. Below are all test results:
Nitrate: 40 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Calcium: 380 ppm
Phosphate: 0.25 ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 179 ppm
We are wondering why we can't seem to get the Nitrates down to an acceptable level. Any help you can give will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[beth]

What is the nitrate level when you test the RO water? Also, what sand, filters, etc is your dad using?

 

[buwanna]

The filter is a biowheel and the substrate is a mixture of live coral and live sand. We haven't tested the RO water. That's a great idea. We'll test it next time we go get some to see what we are starting with. There is also a moderate amount of green algae coating some live rock and the substrate. Here is a picture of the substrate and algae.

 

[snookedsteve]

You need to get a clean up crew to deal with the algae but first you need to get your phosphate to 0 that will be the biggest problem with the algae. What king of tank are you planning? Reef or FO? What king of flow do you have in the tank? The nitrates will also seed the algae problem. How much water are you changing and how often? I change 10-15% a week not including topping off.

 

[sepulatian]

In addition to the algae problem, it also looks as though your sand bed is kind of dirty which will add to the nitrates. Get your phosphates to zero, and add detrivores to your tank. They will eat all of the detris before it becomes gunk in your sand bed. All of these factors lead to nitrates. In the mean time, do 30-40% water changes to bring those down to under 10-15ppm.

 

[dmc888]

What kind of fish are in the tank?
Are you siphoning the substrate?
sepulatian is right it is more effective to do a larger water change rather than ten percent for nitrate removal.
What model filter is it?
I would float the wheels in the tank and clean out the filter and pad.

 

[michaeltx]

looks like hair algae on the sand bed. I would also test your phosphate levels in the source water. with hair algae it will lock them in so they wont read in the tank water.
mike

 

[gmidd]

Green Hair Algea is a result of high Nitrates. I believe the only way to deal with Nitrates is water changes. Once at an exceptable level, to control Nitrates you should be doing 10% water changes every week.

 

[buwanna]

The algae looks worse in the photo than it actually is, ...a lot worse. Must be because of the proximity of the photo. This is a reef tank that has been up for a couple to three months. The filtration is currently a biowheel from a freshwater tank my dad had a long time ago. He said it has some kind of switch on it to select between fresh and saltwater use. I didn't see a brand name on it when I looked last night. I believe the filter needs to be replaced.
The Phosphate level was really hard to determine against the card. It could have been a zero level but just to be safe I picked the 0.25 color. But it was very hard for me to distinguish which level it matched best.
There has been a cleanup crew in the tank for quite some time now. There were quite a number of snails but the hermit crabs did away with a bunch of them. There are one or two coral shrimp in there, around 4 or 6 peppermint shrimp, 2-3 green little crabs, a couple of clams that stay buried all the time, 3 starfish that stay under the live rock, one clown fish (nemo), and an anthias. There are also some small starter Xenia Corals (4 stalks in separate locations) and one anemone (looks like a pink tip haitian as best I can tell from looking at the pics on this site). The fish and cleanup crew were in there to cycle the tank. Not sure if that process is complete yet. This is our first marine aquarium, ...we are newbies and have a lot to learn.
I believe it was Tuesday when Dad got an order of fish that went in. In that order was: one royal gramma, one coral beauty angelfish, one yellow tang, one lawnmower blenny, another blenny of some kind that is yellow and apparently buries itself sometimes, and another crab of some sort.
He's been doing water changes but perhaps not enough? Maybe we should increase the amount. 15% would be 8 gallons roughly. I don't think we've done that big of a change before at one time so perhaps that's the ticket. Basically from what I could tell from the test kit, all the parameters look fine except the nitrates.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by Gmidd
Green Hair Algea is a result of high Nitrates. I believe the only way to deal with Nitrates is water changes. Once at an exceptable level, to control Nitrates you should be doing 10% water changes every week.
There are other ways to lower nitrates. One of them is the use of a DeNitrator. Although it should not replace water changes using a DeNitrator works. It is a reactor with sulfur and coral (for calcium) substrate. My nitrates went from over 80 to nearly 0 in just over a month.

 

[hatessushi]

If you added that many fish all at once then your tank will probably start another cycle. Fish shoud only be added one at a time unless it is a paired fish like 2 clowns. Fish should only be added once every couple of weeks so the tank filtration can adjust to it. You might want to recheck your ammonia and nitrites.