Nitrates through the roof - sand bed, CUC, or bio-balls to blame?

[mr. limpid]

Ok, if your nitrates are still high, you'll need to start doing water changes I recommend 20% weekly. Also get yourself a bag of chemi pure and think about a protein skimmer this will help in the long run. Did you ever rinse a 3rd of your bio balls yet? If not wait till you get that bag of chemi pure. Also don't use that aquadine food frozen much better.
Good Luck

 

[flower]

60+ is deadly to inverts and coral, fish don't seem too affected by it.

• 
  Time for daily water changes to get the nitrates down if you have corals or inverts still alive.
• 
  If you don't have a skimmer, you need one. get the best you can afford. I recommend the Octpus or Tunz brand.
• 
  If you feed frozen foods, rinse it in a net under RO water before feeding the fish.
• 
  If you use pellet or flake food stop using it.
  If you can hook up a refugium it will also help.
  An in tank refugium, or a in a mesh/egg crate protected area in the tank for macroalgae
  Turf scrubbers work if you are handy enough to build one...you might have to change the sump design for that.
  Last ditch..Aquaripure nitrate filter does seem to work. (supposed to be a safe version of vodka dosing)

 

[kiefers]

you may have posted this already and if so sorry to bring it up again..... How many fish/coral do you have in this tank? You seem to be lacking biofiltration in this tank. The bioballs can indeed be an issue but if you have rinsed them as you stated you should be okay. do you have LR or base rock.

 

[irish1985]

No corals and about 70 lbs of live rock. I have a little bit less than 1 inch of sand. Live stock includes 1 medium sized yellow tang, 1 smaller clown, 1 medium sized lawnmower blenny, 2 anemones, and a CUC which consists of 1 large banded shrimp, 1 small camelback shrimp, 5 large turbo snails, 3 small margarita (I think?) snails, and 4 small hermits.
Since my first original post, a couple of the margarita snails have died...not sure if it's related to the nitrates...I've noticed the blenny picking at the snails, so he could've killed them? The margarita's were also relatively new from the LFS, and I've had other snails (and most of the other live stock) in there with no issues for several months...even the anemones have been in the tank for a couple months and seem fine (from what i understand they need pristine water to survive...so far, no issues with them, but i obviously want to get things in a better place instead of playing with fire).
flower - i'm hoping to get a turf scrubber which from my understanding would eliminate the need for carbon + fuge + skimmer (things i've been considering adding/researching). i stopped feeding the pellet food around a month ago...did a 50% water change, and a couple of smaller changes since then...still showing crazy high nitrates, unfortunately.
thanks for the input guys
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///forum/thread/386173/nitrates-through-the-roof-sand-bed-cuc-or-bio-balls-to-blame/20#post_3395759
you may have posted this already and if so sorry to bring it up again..... How many fish/coral do you have in this tank? You seem to be lacking biofiltration in this tank. The bioballs can indeed be an issue but if you have rinsed them as you stated you should be okay. do you have LR or base rock.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/386173/nitrates-through-the-roof-sand-bed-cuc-or-bio-balls-to-blame/20#post_3395589
60+ is deadly to inverts and coral, fish don't seem too affected by it.

• 
  Time for daily water changes to get the nitrates down if you have corals or inverts still alive.
• 
  If you don't have a skimmer, you need one. get the best you can afford. I recommend the Octpus or Tunz brand.
• 
  If you feed frozen foods, rinse it in a net under RO water before feeding the fish.
• 
  If you use pellet or flake food stop using it.
  If you can hook up a refugium it will also help.
  An in tank refugium, or a in a mesh/egg crate protected area in the tank for macroalgae
  Turf scrubbers work if you are handy enough to build one...you might have to change the sump design for that.
  Last ditch..Aquaripure nitrate filter does seem to work. (supposed to be a safe version of vodka dosing)

 

[luvmyreef]

So after a large water change, there was no change in your nitrates? Have you tested your saltwater after you have mixed it for nitrates? If I remember correctly, someone awhile back had this problem and found out they had a bad batch of salt mix....... just a thought...

 

[irish1985]

yup, i always test the salt water before it goes into the tank, and it always measures 0ppm for nitrates, and everything else. thanks for the tip though!
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmyreef http:///forum/thread/386173/nitrates-through-the-roof-sand-bed-cuc-or-bio-balls-to-blame/20#post_3395789
So after a large water change, there was no change in your nitrates? Have you tested your saltwater after you have mixed it for nitrates? If I remember correctly, someone awhile back had this problem and found out they had a bad batch of salt mix....... just a thought...

 

[luvmyreef]

Your welcome. it was just something that I had remembered from before.

 

[flower]

I had the same problem and it was bad test kits. A big water change should do something when you retest. So keeping such a high number on nitrates even after a big water change tells me it isn't a right number. Even with a bad test kit...my nitrates dropped to 20 from 40 for at least a day.

 

[btldreef]

Can you post a picture of your anemones? I just want to see their health. Them doing fine in a tank with such high nitrates just doesn't add up.
Margarita snails usually don't survive long in our tanks, so it's not surprising that they're dying on you.
Do you have room in your display to try growing some macro algae?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/386173/nitrates-through-the-roof-sand-bed-cuc-or-bio-balls-to-blame/20#post_3395908
Can you post a picture of your anemones? I just want to see their health. Them doing fine in a tank with such high nitrates just doesn't add up.
Margarita snails usually don't survive long in our tanks, so it's not surprising that they're dying on you.
Do you have room in your display to try growing some macro algae?
+1 anemones and shrimp are very sensitive to bad water

 

[irish1985]

i finally finished cleaning all of the bio-balls last week. with each round (broken up into thirds) i mixed them in clean salt water pretty heavily, but not as much crap came off as i thought. nevertheless, they're done. after a test last week, the nitrates still didn't drop down, so i just did a huge 50% change today and i'm finally seeing results on my seachem test kit. the api kit still looks off the charts. you decide:
seachem test results:

api test results:

also, i finally got some pictures of my anemones, and they don't look like they're doing too well as of late (and my crappy camera certainly isn't doing them any favors). i'm not sure what kind the first one is, but it's supposed to be bright white with purple tips on the tentacles...second one is a condylactis anemone. both were inexpensive and from *****.


they're certainly both alive, but their health has definitely gone downhill over the last few weeks. i've been doing weekly 20-25% changes, and again, just today did the big 50%, which is when i noticed the drop in nitrates on my seamchem test...crossing my fingers that after another day or so, it will still test with low nitrates (or go even lower?)...probably wishful thinking...
still haven't amped up my CUC, but that's next on the list.
i looked into the turf scrubbers by santamonica, and they were definitely out of my budget...they were $600+ if i remember correctly. too bad i'm not handy enough to build a turf scrubber on my own...anyone want to make a few bucks? lol
when people say i'm "lacking bio-filtration" does that mean my tank equipment (i.e. sump) isn't sufficient for the live stock? again, i'm a newbie, so i'm still learning. i assume this means i need bigger/better equipment like a skimmer, fuge, carbon but just want to be sure i follow...
and in case it's missed from my original post i'm running a 75 gallon tank with overflow box that runs down into a wet/dry sump with bio-balls. roughly 70 lbs of live rock. I have a little bit less than 1 inch of sand. Live stock includes 1 medium sized yellow tang, 1 smaller clown, 1 medium sized lawnmower blenny, 2 anemones, and a CUC which consists of 1 large banded shrimp, 1 small camelback shrimp, 5 large turbo snails, [strike]5[/strike] 3 small margarita snails (i had 5, but 2 died since the original thread), and 4 small hermits. aside from nitrates, all my other levels are reading fine, and i'm using R/O water for changes, which tests at 0ppm for nitrates prior to going into my tank.
thanks everyone