nitrate spike????

rayraypico

rayraypico

Member
I have been running at about 80ppm in nitrates so I did a 33% water change today and I don't see much improvement. Am I being to impatient and do I need to wait a day or two to see the affects of the water change or should I see the results to the water change right away????
What could be causing the nitrates? I only have on sponge in the tank and I clean that little sponge (on the cpr overflow box) routinely every 3-4 days. In my sump I have bio balls. Do I need to remove a certain percentage of those and clean them??
:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
do you have live rock and or a deep sand bed? If you have say 1-2 pounds of LR per gal I'd get rid of the Bio balls and any other sponges you have.
Do you HAVE to use that sponge on the overflow?
 
dreeves

dreeves

Active Member
You should always clean your bio-balls...just rinse them out during a water change with the old water.
With 80ppm..a 33% water change probably wont show you to drastic of a change...do a few of those about 1-2 days a part if you are looking to lower them in that manner.
 
I

ivanfj

Guest
I agree. Bio balls tend to trap nitrate. Have you vacuum the sandbed lately??? If you did, you might vacuum up the nitrate that has been stored under the sandbed. Make any sense??? :thinking:
 
rayraypico

rayraypico

Member
Good suggestions! Thanks
I guess I will try to rinse off about half of the bio balls. Then maybe do another 33% water change.
I just rearanged my rock and coral and really stirred up the sand bed so I know that I am not trapping the nitrates their. That is probably the reason why they are so high now
 
clarkiiboi

clarkiiboi

Active Member

Originally posted by ivanfj
I agree. Bio balls tend to trap nitrate. Have you vacuum the sandbed lately??? If you did, you might vacuum up the nitrate that has been stored under the sandbed. Make any sense??? :thinking:
I agree (from what I read) that bio balls can trap trAtes also. But if you have a sandbed, vacuuming is out of the question--don't disturb it. :eek:
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by RAYRAYPICO
I have been running at about 80ppm in nitrates so I did a 33% water change today and I don't see much improvement. Am I being to impatient and do I need to wait a day or two to see the affects of the water change or should I see the results to the water change right away????
What could be causing the nitrates? I only have on sponge in the tank and I clean that little sponge (on the cpr overflow box) routinely every 3-4 days. In my sump I have bio balls. Do I need to remove a certain percentage of those and clean them??
:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:
are you using that sponge to stop the gurgle if so, toss it out and get some airline tubing and feed it down the center of the pipe. It will stop the gurgle w/o that crappy sponge. I tossed that sponge and the bioballs and dropped 15ppm in my trates.
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Good idea cleaning the sponge on your skimmer...and I'd also remove the bio-balls if you have enough biological filtration. At the very least clean them on a regular basis. Additional small percentage water changes will help too...but I avoid water changes of more than 10% or so myself.
 
sammyg

sammyg

Member

Originally posted by dreeves
With 80ppm..a 33% water change probably wont show you to drastic of a change...do a few of those about 1-2 days a part if you are looking to lower them in that manner.
If you do a 1/3 water change, and there are no nitrates in the new water, your nitrates should drop to 2/3 of the original, or ~53.3 ppm. That's why the first response asked about your new water. But obviously you have a nitrate problem, so they could quickly go back up to the equilibrium. I agree with all the previous posts, but I just wanted to point out the math - if your nitrates don't change immediately after the water change, something's wrong with your water or your test kit.
Sam
 
rbmount

rbmount

Active Member

Originally posted by condork12
nitrates aqumulate at the surface of the water next time you do a water change siphon it form the top
:notsure: How is that possible??? They are everywhere due to water movement.
 
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