NITRATE problem again!!!

[jessica47421]

i had my water checked at a lfs today and it was between 40-80. i got water for a water change i will do tomorrow. but i need to fix the problem to keep it from continuing. i am now using ro water. they told me at the lfs to add liquid bacteria and that would help it balance it out??? i dont want to do anything that would cause more harm but i want to get it under control. is there anything i can do besides water changes all the time? bc that will keep them down for around 7 days then they shot way high again and i just dont get it. i have 5 power heads, and only 4 fish. one of my clowns died today and im not sure how come. everything else checks out good. what should i do? also i only feed my fish one every 2 or 3 days and not very much at all.

 

[brandan]

What size tank is it? Anything above a 55 with 4 fish should be just fine. You can add Bio-sparia from Marineland, but that is no way to fix the problem. I would guess that the clown could have died from the Nitrates. I would do a 30-40% waterchange, and see how much that brings it down. To fully diagnose the problem, we need a little more history on the tank.

 

[jessica47421]

when i do a water change they come way down to around 10 or so but then they go right back up.
there is a canister filter, a pleneum and that is it for filteration
what else is needed? i will be happy to tell all to get this fixed.

 

[michaeltx]

do you have flow going through the plenum ?
Mike

 

[jessica47421]

yes i have 2 powoer heads at each end with a tube down to the plenum

 

[michaeltx]

my guess us that there is probably a lot of detirous cought up in the plenum. can you get to the powerheads that creat the flow?

 

[jessica47421]

also i have 3 pepp shrimp, 2 anenome shrimp, emerald crab, 1 anenome crab and various snails will they take care of the clow?? i cant find his body any place.

 

[michaeltx]

I missed that part. yes they will the best idea is to find the body but alot of times with smaller fish after death the bistle worms and crabs go to work and you may never find anything of it.
Mike

 

[michaeltx]

how is your plenum setup>?

 

[jessica47421]

yeah they are sitting on top of the white pipe at the top of the water, i just went and took them out and stuck them back in the tube.
this didnt start till a few months ago i was cleaning my canister and i didnt know that when you clean them you should do it with old tank water and i rinsed it under the facet and then it sent my tank into a mini cycle bc i killed the bacteria. before that all my numbers was always sitting on 0 and then after that i have had a problem with nitrates

 

[jessica47421]

it is made in the bottom with white pipe then there is screen over that and then sand then another peice of screen then more sand then on each end there is two pipes that come out and go to the top with 2 power heads in them

 

[michaeltx]

ok so the the bottom of the tank is bare>?
if so do you have a open cabinet setup where you can look up under the cabinet and see the tank bottom?
Mike

 

[jessica47421]

no i cant see the bottom and yes it is bare. the stand is covering the bottom of the tank.

 

[michaeltx]

ok I was hopeing you had an open stand in the bottom.
do you have a reverseable powerhead?

 

[jessica47421]

what do you mean by reversable power head? i just got 2 power heads from walmart.

 

[jessica47421]

also i dont have a skimmer on the tank at this time but i just ordered a D&D typhoon for it today......hope this helps as well

 

[michaeltx]

well my though is to get one blowing in and one blowing out so you get more of a circulation flow under the plenum. just to see if there is a build up under there that might be contributing to the nitrates
Mike

 

[michaeltx]

yes it will help. but gotta figure out where and why they keep rising like this. or your going to continue to battle it.and once you get corals its going to be ruff cause they dont like high nitrates at all.
Mike

 

[jessica47421]

i have corals now.......how do i get one to blow in?? they told me with the two ph comming from both ends that it will make like a suction and pull water down under it then it will keep it moving under there and send water back out through the power heads. is this not right?

 

[michaeltx]

in general yeah I am just trying to figure out a way to see if there is alot of build up within the plenum system that could be a cause of the nitrates.
Mike