My Nitrate Levels!!!!!!!

[carlson905]

Ive had my 29 Gallon tank going for somewhere close to 2 months now. I have a lot of live rock, 2 clown fish, a sand sifter, 5 red foot crab, 1 blue foot crab, and 5 turbo snails. My live rock grows a little green algae, and some wierd bubble things, but the clean up crew gets most of it.
Getting to the point, I have been having some High Levels of Nitrate and have been having a hard time getting them down and getting my tank stable. The Nitrate Levels are I think around 100 or 120.....??
What can I do? I need help, I dont want to lose any fish.
Thanks
Brandon Carlson

 

[jtrzerocool]

do a 20%-30% water change every day until they are in check(10-20)

 

[jtrzerocool]

also if you are feeding everyday you should reduce feedings to every-other day.
HTH

 

[lexluethar]

Are you sure they are at 120? That seems extremely high, make sure you are reading the results correctly, if so get another test kit just to confirm what you found - or go to your LFS and test. I believe NA above like 80 would kill fish, so i don't see how 120 would support any fish.
How many LBS of LR do you have? You should have around 30 lbs IMO.
If your readings are correct, do a 40% water change, and cut back on your feedings big time. How much do you feed now? If the 40% does reduce, then every three days or so do a 10% change until you get them down to a reasonable level.
Also, how often do you change your water out? You should be doing around 10% every week, or 20% every other, without those weekly / bi-weekly water changes your NA will get out of control in a hurry (i've learned first hand

)
One last thing, what type of filtration do you use? If you use canister or HOB, change out those filter pads every week along side your water changes.
Good luck!

 

[usirchchris]

I had really high levels of nitrates in my new tank (established tank from another individual)...would not even register on the scale they were so high. After two weeks of countless water changes...125 gallon tank and I moved 2 to 300 gallons, and they still would not come down. Finally I cleaned out my canister filters, and they came right down. Now I clean out the pads weekly and do not have a problem.