Nitrates in a fishless tank

[lil.guppy]

What would cause nitrates in a tank with no fish, only a couple pieces of coral and a couple snails? Set up now for 4 months and used established sand to begin with.
I have read alot about how its caused by over feeding or stocking but there are no fish in there and I dont feed the tank

I have never had this issue and it baffles me

 

[blackjacktang]

could be dying or living oransims in the sand or rock.

 

[lil.guppy]

and that means................

I did a partial water change 2 days ago and the numbers didnt change by the way

 

[blackjacktang]

lol im not totaly sure what your asking here

 

[lil.guppy]

Ok I just tested and I also have a slight read of ammonia
I have a 29 gallon that I used established sand from another tank that I had running for a year. That tank also had no fish in it just coral, snails, crabs and so forth
This 29 has been set up for 4 months and has a slight reading of Nitrates and Ammonia but there have never been fish in the tank and I dont put food or anything in the tank so I am unsure as to how in the world the nitrates and ammonia are getting in there.
I did a 4 gallon water change a couple days ago and obviously the numbers have not gone down

 

[blackjacktang]

Corals can also produce waist but very small amounts. Also things that live in live rock and the live sand will also produce waist.
Anything that produces waist will increase those number, but at the same time, (especially the ammonia) should not be going up. If it is then this means
1. Things are prducing waist but it isnt being processed corectly
2. Things are dying and there is no way of processing that either.
This is were the nitrogen cycle take role.
When waste is produced, it turns to ammonia. The ammonia is then transformed into Nitrites by organsims in the sand. Nitrites are then made into nitrates by organisms on the rock The nitrates then create algae and other things that are then eaten and are turned back into waist. This is why it is called the nitrogen cycle.
If something is not doing its job in the this cycle, number, deadly numbers, will go up.
Do you have a skimmer on your tank?
And if your reading some ammonia then that has to go away, as this is a killer.

 

[meowzer]

HEY.....since when do you have a new tank?

 

[lil.guppy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/383725/nitrates-in-a-fishless-tank#post_3358114
HEY.....since when do you have a new tank?
I got 4 tanks now MUA HA HA HA
no skimmer on it
when you move the rocks quite a bit of grey ploom poofs into the water. I took the sand and rinsed it really well with a hose in a bucket before putting it in there becuase it was pretty dirty from the previous use.
Im going to do another 5 gallon water change today and see what that does.
I MIGHT not have amm but I am using one of those popular saltwater test kits where the 0ppm looks very similar to the 0.25 If you hold it to the light it looks 0ppm but if you hide it from the light it looks 0.25 so I dont know. I am just shocked because I have never had issues like this before. I guess some could say, ''welcome to my world'' LOL

 

[lil.guppy]

ok NITRITES are 0 ....hmmm so what would that mean?
I cant believe this I have 4 tanks and I am asking about the cycle stuff

 

[lil.guppy]

ok I tested my other tan and it had off the chart nitrates insane!
So I did a 4 gallon water change on the 29 and a 4 gallon change on the 45 and tested them. There were no difference in the results. This morning I am making 5 gallons up for the 45 since it has it the worst. I tested before the water change and the nitrates are at a comfortable low level 0.25 and the 29 has no nitrates.
So did my water changes last night fix it or are they spiking during the day? i will be testing again this afternoon to see if there is any change.