nitrates too high

[diana79]

This is my first posting so bare with me. I have a 40 gallon thats been up for about 7 months and doing great. The only thing I keep having trouble with is my nitrates. The amnonima and nitrites are at 0 and Ph at 8.3, nitrates at 80. So I am tiring to figure out if I have too many fish (2 clowns, 2 chornies, coral beauty, 2 fire fish; some hermits), feeding too much (once a day, flake and some clam 2xs per week) or am I not keeping up with the water changes?? Any experiece will be appricated; I gave up on the stores for help

Thanks

 

[bang guy]

Nitrate problems are almost always a combination of events.
Don't feed flaked food, find some good nutritious frozen food and rinse it before feeding it.
Do larger water changes, probably MUCH larger.
You're slightly over on your bioload but Clownfish usually keep to a corner so it's probably OK. I don't know what a chornie is though.
Are you using RO water for water changes?

 

[oniel21]

Hi Diana, and welcome. How often do you perform water changes? You should do them at least every other week. Do you have a sump, and if so a refigium? As for your bioload, you may be right on the verge with the amount of fish you have. I certianly wouldn't add more.
Right now you may want to do a series of large water changes to get the trates down. Maybe a 50%, then a couple 30%. Make sure that the new saltwater is mixed for at least 24 hours. Also, have you taken a sample of your water to your Local Fish Store (LFS) to have them test it?

 

[azfishgal]

Do you have any type of sponge filter/pad? My nitrates were running a bit high and I cut back on feeding increased water changes, still would not come down far enough. Light bulb went on and I realized it might be my sponge pad, so after only being in their two weeks I took it out and rinsed it when I did my water change (using the water I took out of my tank). This is 15 gallons mind you. My entire bucket of clear water turned dark dark brown.

HELLO!!! So now I rinse my sponge filter out every week and replace it with a new one every 3-4 weeks. My nitrates are now down to 10.

 

[socal57che]

Something else to consider is flow. If you have dead spots where waste and uneaten food accumulate (like barnacles) they can turn into little "nitrate factories".

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by socal57che
Something else to consider is flow. If you have dead spots where waste and uneaten food accumulate (like barnacles) they can turn into little "nitrate factories".
Good post, thanks!

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Good post, thanks!
I've learned so much here. It's nice to be able to reciprocate.

 

[diana79]

Thanks everyone!!
What kind of frozen food would you recommend? I did about a 10 G water change last night and cleaned the sponges too. I have a rotating power head, but I have benn thinking about getting a small one for the botton of the tanks also. I was doing real good with keeping up on the changes, but I did slack off for 3 or 4 weeks; I didn't relize it would jump that fast. When would you suggest I do the next change? Thanks for all the info, this is great!!

 

[oniel21]

Monitor your nitrates. They really shouldn't be above 20, if they are continue to do daily water changes. Then once you get them under control make sure to do 10-20% biweekly.

 

[turningtim]

I would try and do 10-15% every third day until they are below the 20 mark and then do 5 gals a week to keep them under control. The other thing to look at since you were feeding flake and lack of flow is to blow off the LR with a power head. You'll be surprised at how much junk keeps caught and locked up in the LR.
What do you have for a cleaning crew? Also what is the substrate?
HTH
Tim

 

[bang guy]

If it were my tank I would change about 30 gallons of water.
For frozen food I recommend whole frozen Mysis Shrimp and minced scallops. A variety of any small chunks of seafood will work.
The problem with flaked food is that many of the nutritional components quickly dissolve into the water column. Pellets are better but you can't beat frozen food in my opinion.

 

[ninjamini]

Things that increase nitrates:
bio balls
bio wheel
dirty filters
overfeeding.
To get rid of nitrates export them out of the system:
through water changes
using a marco algae like cheato

 

[diana79]

So I tested the nitrates and they went down to 60. I think I've come to some conclusions and need advise.
- Right now I have a crappy over the back filter, I think its time to break down and buy a good one. The only problem is I don't have anywhere to put a sump, so is there an over the back filter thats decent?
- I dont have too much of a clean up crew, I lost all my snails from the nitrates. I was thinking of getting about a dozen more hermits, 4 snails, a sea serpant star; what else would you suggest?
- I'm going to stop feeding flake; but is giving srimp and clam enough vitamins and stuff for them?
Sorry for all the questions, I've just been doing so good so far I don't want to see it all crash now!! THANKS!!

 

[turningtim]

diana, do you have a skimmer? What HOB filter do you have?

 

[mrextc]

I recently had the same problem...mine were up to 160 at one point...somehow all my fish/clean up crew survived. I've did massive water changes with little results. Removed my bio balls from my wetdry filter and converted it into a makeshift refugium, with chaeto and and just started using this product AZ-N03. I've only been using it for a week. I don't know exactly what fixed it, but last i checked, i'm down to 20-40 nitrates and probably lower now. Make sure you find the cause of your problem...bioballs are a huge producer of Nitrates so i would recommend removing them...there are lots of folks here that say to get rid of the bio balls and replace with live rock. It takes some time so keep at it and everyone on the site are awesome and very knowledgeable....so do a search for high nitrates on the site...lots of previous info on how to remedy the problem.

 

[diana79]

Right now I do not have a skimmer hooked up. I bought one, but it doesn't fit with my lid and I can't return it so I'm sort of at a stand still with that. Right now I only have a "cascade" 100 gallon filter on it. Its one of the basic ones, it was on my freshwater before I converted it over. I'm prepared to buy one, I just don't know what to go with? I very new to the filters so I'm not really sure of all the lingo....Thanks again!!!

 

[turningtim]

OK, well that skimmer will do you some real good. You need to get that running. What do you mean lid? Like the plastic/glass lids? You really don't need the lid at all and actually will slow down gas exchange at the surface of the water. SO bag the lid and get that skimmer working.
HOB means Hang on back. I run an Emperor 400 for carbon and phosban but most of the work is done by the skimmer.
I think you'll see some better results if you get that working.
HTH
Tim

 

[diana79]

This might be a dumb questions, but without a lid will any of the fish jump out? I heard fire fish can be jumpers? Is it ok to have no lid? Thanks, your really helping me out!!

 

[turningtim]

NOT a dumb question! Honestly I have had 2 jumpers in 4 years. But some folks get eggcrate to cover their tank. The stuff is in the lighting section of any Lowes or Home Dumpster. It used for drop ceilings to cover lights. Very cheap and easy to cut to the shape you want. So you could cut out the section for the skimmer and filters.
What is the make of skimmer?

 

[bang guy]

Firefish and Yellow-Headed Jawfish are the absolute worst carpet surfers. If there's a hole in the top they will find it.