Nitrates very High!

[jtfishman]

I have an on-going battle with nitrates. Right now the nitrates are off the charts and I can't get them down. I have done water changed before and it does not help at all, I have used liquids for re-moving the Nitrates and they do not lower them. I did a strip test just today on it and it was the brightest pink you could imagine, when it is suppose to be a cream or very pale pink color! The aquarium is set up in our Family restaurant, so it is kinda hard to maintain it perfectly with customers all day long. It is a 150 gallon tank too, so a 25% water change is not in the forcast, beings we go to the local carwash to get RO water. If a water change was to happen it would require a huge process, and distruption. Is there any chemical that can be added to take care of the Nitrate problem?

 

[kissypice]

I'm very new to this but i saw you had hardly anyone respond so i figured some advice is better than none =-) I was having problems with my nitrates but it is only 2 weeks old and i had lots of dead rock in it. I took all dead rock out and put 50lbs live rock. Also I am using a chemical called PRIME that worked and brought them down. Also a 25% water change (i know everyone hates water changes) will help. I also looked in one of my books and it said of course water changes but also anaerobic microbial decomposition and live rock. Hope this at least starts someone else posting and helps a little

 

[jayson417]

Hello,
Sorry to hear of your trouble. What type of filters are you using? Have you cleaned them recently? Perhaps all the food is stuck in there?

 

[salt210]

you have to be doing water changes of at least 25% a month. this is going to help remove any decomposing material that is in the tank.
as asked above what filters are you running on there, they should be cleaned regularly as well.
what type of substrate does it have? if it is crushed coral it will need to be cleaned often too

 

[meowzer]

What do you mean you go to the carwash to get ro water? they have ro filters on there??? (just curious)
Any way you guys can hire someone to come in after hours and maintain this tank......

 

[ophiura]

Definitely need to know everything about this system:
Stocking
Filtration
Feeding
Maintenance
No, there is nothing you can just put in the water to make it better. Even if you could, it would still mean that other things are out of whack and a problem that is just waiting to happen.
If you have a nitrate problem, please also post your alkalinity and pH, especially the pH when the lights have been off all night.

 

[jtfishman]

Thanks for All your responces. For filtration I have a 150 Pro Clear Wet Dry filter w/ built in protein skimmer. Instead of the Bio Balls I replaced it with Live Rock Rubble. Then I have a FLuval 404 canister filter hooked up which has in it: layers of filtering cotton throughout, bag of carbon, bag of amonia remover, compartment of Bio Rings ( the round white rock like cylinders), compartment of Pre Filter rings( these are the octogan cylinder shaped ones), and then the sponges that hang on the side of the compartments. I have two aerators hooked up on each end of the tank for water flow. I have about 150 lbs of Fiji Live rock in the tank and about 2 inches all accross of the saltwater gravel. As for the levels, I will need to check, I have just recently did the quick dip stick testers and they show all the colors are in the correct place, except for the nitrates. Salt level is always right around where it should be. temperature is always around 78-80 degrees. As for the stock of the tank it includes: approx. 70 hermit crabs, 6 x-large snails, 12 small snails, 3 Fire Shrimp, Emperor Angelfish, Yellow Tang, Pacific Blue Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Mandarin Dragonet - Tye Dye, 3 stripe damsel, Royal Gramma, 2 Clownfish, and a male square back Anthias. Feeding is about 2-3 times per day, with about 1-2 frozen shrimp squares a week. Maintenence is about once a month. I cleaned out the Fluval 404 filter tonight, and it was not that dirty, I was surprised. I think I have named most of the things, let me know what you think...

 

[novahobbies]

I don't know if this is going to help, but I see a couple things that could be happening here:
1st: DITCH the strips. They're easy. They're inexpensive. They're also highly prone to inaccurate readings!! Have you tried testing using another method...even if it's a new batch of strips? Dipsticks are very, very moisture sensitive, and even in a "sealed" tube they lose their effectiveness pretty quickly. That can and does mean they will report a false positive. Get a new test kit, a wet set this time, and try with the fresh kit. I use API Marine for my weekly tests, and it's pretty reliable. Less than 30 bucks for an entire Marine kit, and I've got Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and pH tests for 6 months or more. Good stuff.
2nd: After you've tested with a new kit, if it's still positive: Let's look at your substrate. You said "saltwater gravel." Interesting....you mean like actual pea gravel, or do you mean crushed coral? Either way, those kinds of substrates often become nitrate factories. I mean this literally: crushed coral is easily aerated, so you have a huge colony of ammonia and nitite-metabolizing aerobic bacteria, but nothing is munching on the nitrates that these aerobic bugs are churning out as waste. The bacteria that metabolize nitrate are anaerobic, and can not live in the relatively oxygen rich crushed coral. (plus, darnnit, gravel and crushed coral traps fish poop so easily!!) You may want to consider replacing this with either fine sand for the bottom, or removing the bottom substrate all together and going barebottom. I am of course referring to your tank, not your person, unless you're trying to startle your restaurant clientele...

Finally, although this might be reaching: test the water from your carwash (really??? carwash has good RO filters??) BEFORE you add it to the tank. For all you know, there could be weird goop growing in the carwash's water cistern that's inflating your nitrate levels before you even add it to the tank. Of course, test this water with the new test kit you now proudly own, not those bloody swizzle stick insto-meters.
Hope some of this helps. I for one hope it's just a simple problem of a screwy test stick, and hopefully you won't have to resort to drastic measures.

 

[spiderwoman]

What kind of skimmer do you have? How often, how much and what do you feed your livestock? You need to find the root cause for the high nitrates.
Once you have fixed all you can and the nitrates still don't came down, you may want to consider purchasing a sulfur reactor. It will slowly bring down the nitrates and help maintain it.