Input to resolve nitrate problem and discover source of the problem

[t00le]

Hi.
I work really strange hours and am constantly out of town. I have left it to my wife to monitor the tank and do water changes. I was cleaning the tank today and noticed that we were out of nitrate test powder for our kit. I went and bought some and was not happy with the results.
The tank is a well established reef tank that has been running for about 1.5 years with no real problems. The ammonia, nitrate, ph, salinity and ph are either perfect or about as perfect as one can expect to get in our micro-enviroments.
The nitrate's were off the scale. I protein skim 24/7 and do water changes weekly. I am wondering if I should increase the frequency and amount changed each time. Currently I remove 10% a week, which does not seem to be adequate. I have already changed 20% over a period of 3 hours and plan to change another 5% to 10% going into the evening.
I think another problem I had was my PM protein skimmer was needing a cleaning a while back and I never noticed anything out of the ordinary in the sludge it drops in the reservoir cup. After cleaning the protein skimmer and my pumps I was amazed at the color and texture of the stuff it was pulling out of the water. The water is a fluorescent green color, almost the color of green jello. I am assuming this is algae suspended in the water, although I am not 100%.
The really strange thing is the fact that all of my fish/creatures are not worse for the wear. have had nothing die or even look sick over the last year or so.
I have a Precision Marine Skimmer, a Sump /w Bio Balls, 60 pounds of LR, 10 pounds of LS and 5 small fish all residing in a 60 gallon tank.
So any input into the strange spike in nitrates while everything else is near perfect would be greatly appreciated.
[ May 28, 2001: Message edited by: t00le ]

 

[getinjr]

If you have lr you shouldn't need bioballs,they could be a direct result for the nitrates!I would slowly remove them.

 

[t00le]

I would have thought it would have happened sooner considering the tank has been running fine for 1.5 years. I will complete another 5% water change tonight and monitor the trate levels. I am only a little nervous considering I have no other problems with water quality besides my trate problem. I would hate to take the balls out and lose some of my trite eaters.
Will advise.

 

[t00le]

I am pasting a little overview I have always used in regards to troubleshooting my tanks.
Ammonia is a toxic substance which is produced by:
·Decay of leftover food
·Overcrowding of fish
·Inadequate filtration
·Fish converting protein to energy
As fish are introduced your aquarium, they produce Ammonia. Beneficial bacterias digest Ammonia and create another toxic chemical known as Nitrite.
The Nitrite is then broken down by another beneficial bacteria which produces Nitrate which is a relatively harmless substance.
During the cycle, beneficial bacterias absorb Ammonia as an energy source, and convert it into energy plus Nitrite.
Once the Ammonia concentration is low enough, other beneficial bacteria attack the Nitrite. The process of bringing the Nitrite to a safe level takes approximately six weeks in a new tank.
The end product of the cycle is Nitrate which is near harmless to fish.
The only way to remove Nitrate from your aquarium is to do a regular water changes.
Importance of the proper biological filter and cycle
Without the biological filtration, fish would be poisoned with Ammonia and Nitrite.
This biological filter requires time to develop. Fish should not be added too quickly or too many at a single time. Doing so breaks the Nitrogen Cycle and produces high concentrations of Ammonia which is toxic. To avoid disaster, monitor your water with a water test kit. The most common mistake when setting up the salt water aquarium is not understanding or waiting for the nitrogen cycle to complete.

 

[mr . salty]

The main thing that I see is that you only have 10lbs of live sand in a 60gallon tank.That must be a pretty shallow sand bed. So I'm guessing it is TOO shallow to perform denitrafication.I would suggest adding more till you have 3-4inches.This will then compleate the cycle and turn nitrates into nitrogen gas that will escape the tank in bubbles.The rest of the setup sounds good to me. Are you sure you are not overfeeding???

 

[t00le]

I do not overfeed.
If I had problems with that I would expect to have high ammonia or nitrite readings. All of my readings are as near to perfect as one can expect. The only issue I seem to be having is nitrate problems. I will just keep doing water changes through the next 2 weeks and see if I can come up with a water changing cycle that will get it down to < 5. Currently it is at 40 and slowly coming down. So I am assuming I need to get it down to a reasonable range and test different water changing times and amounts until I can start researching why it spiked after 1.5 years.

 

[burnnspy]

In an established tank, overfeeding will not produce measurable ammonia or nitrite spikes because the nitrification process is too efficient for you to measure it before they are both converted into the end product (nitrates).
The nitrate problem is one of concentration, at 40ppm you will have to do a 50% water change to reduce it to 20ppm. Not vert costr effective or practical.
I recommend the addition of a DSB(deep sand bed)5+" or a Plenum system. These will create a fourth process in reduction of waste from nitrates to nitrogen gas in your tank that does not exist there yet.
Water changes are the old tired way of reducing nitrates, BTW.
When you have sufficient gravel in the tank you will need to remove the bio-balls in steps as they are counter-productive in the reduction of nitrates by the sand bed.
BurnNSpy