Nitrates Won't Lower!

twenty12

twenty12

Member
Ok.. so my cycle finished and I had 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite. I have a 30 gallon bio cube. I have done six 4 gallon water changes over the last two weeks... and my nitrate readings have not changed. I have nothing but a cuc in the tank. How much water do i need to change out before it will drop?
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
Originally Posted by twenty12
Ok.. so my cycle finished and I had 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite. I have a 30 gallon bio cube. I have done six 4 gallon water changes over the last two weeks... and my nitrate readings have not changed. I have nothing but a cuc in the tank. How much water do i need to change out before it will drop?
Have you checked your new water before adding it to the tank?
 
twenty12

twenty12

Member
No food. Checked my water going in. TDS 0, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0. Only item in the tank is live rock, sand, and cuc. My reading is close to the 80 readnig. I tried another test kit and same results, so I feel its accurate.
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
what brand of salt are you using? if instant ocean switch never could get nitrates lowered with that salt and others have had that problem
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
Reef Crystals is instant ocean, but it shouldn't be causing a nitrate problem. Have you blown off your live rock and stirred up your sand to make sure you don't have any nitrate trapped in your substrate?
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
With a tank that young I too agree there is significant die off coming from something. Did you rinse your LR off before adding it to your tank? I have found that LR can trap a lot of garbage in the cracks and crevises when you purchase it. I have always throughly rinsed mine off in a bucket of mixed SW to get rid of any build up decay etc that might of gotten trapped in there.
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
Originally Posted by Scopus Tang
Reef Crystals is instant ocean, but it shouldn't be causing a nitrate problem. Have you blown off your live rock and stirred up your sand to make sure you don't have any nitrate trapped in your substrate?
I wouldn't stir sand. You could blow off rocks though. What is your filtration? do you have a skimmer. Don't understand where it is coming from. Please give as much info on setup as possible.
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
Mcbdz is right, My Bad! Guess it does depend on your sand depth?! If you have under an inch of sand its not going to hurt anything to stir it a little (other than you will suspend some of it temporarily in the water). Otherwise only stir the top portion. But I agree with Perfectdark on this one - live rock is probably your culprit. You said your cycle finished - define finished?! Cycling typically isn't complete until all three readings hit zero. As organic substances break down, they convert from ammonia, to nitrite, and then to nitrate. Each step takes additional time, as each step requires different bacteria. If nitrates have never been zero in your tank, then you simply haven't finished cycling - be patient you will get there!
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
True statement, just meant they're same company! And actually instant ocean works fine - I've used it for years, just requires the addition of a lot more supplements.
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
In general I agree, without knowing the sand bed depth its not a good idea to stir it up. However if this tank is only a month old and lets assume as an example it was a 4" sand bed I doubt there is enough anerobic bacteria in it to harm the tank seeing as though it appears that his cycle still maybe going on. But in either case I doubt your sand bed is your issue.
Some more questions to further help identify what could be going on. What type of tank is it? What type of filtration system is on it? What did you if anything cycle it with?
 
twenty12

twenty12

Member
Tank is a BioCube 29. I am running 20 lbs of live sand (which is a shallow sand bed) and 45 lbs of live rock. Rock is Kadavu (island of fiji.. so essentially fiji rock).
I am running in chamber one a heater and a Oceanic Protein Skimmer. The skimmer collects virtually nothing in a weeks period of time. In chamber two I am running a bag of Chemipure and Purigen with Filter floss. Chamber three is stock pump.
For cycle I added my rock. Initial readings of empty tank were all zeros. Ammonia spiked to over 8, then nitrites started to spike. About 1 week before posting this my Amonia and nitrites had reached zero. Everytime i test they are still zero. Nitrate reading is between 40 and 80 hard to tell the reading, but I would say its towards the 80 side. It was lower upon first test.. and seems to be higher now.
I did not run lights during the cycle. Now I was running 10 hrs, but with diatoms starting to show up I reduced to 8.
Only live stock is a cuc. 9 snails mix of sand and rock/glass cleaners. And 3 crabs. Nothing else in the system.
Hope that helps.. as it seems since I have changed out in total over 30 gallons of water it should have dropped atleast a noticable amount, but the readings still seem to be the same (or worse).
[Edit] I also did do a rinse on my live rock when i got it. But it seemed like it might have been partially cured as it had green and red color. Now that has all basically disappeared and there is a bunch of white hard stuff covering a lot of the rock.
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
Sounds like your live rock came in with coralline algae, which has all died and is being converted to Nitrates - hard to say without a picture. Nitrate often takes more than a week to come down - it took almost three weeks in my 65 gallon with a sump. Light shouldn't be an issue in a prepackage biocube, but chould be. I would also ncheck your pH, alkalinity and calcium levels, because the coralline shouldn't have all died? If these are all within proper parameters, time, patience and water changes are your only option - don't change too much water at once though - most sources only recommend a 20% water change maximum. Any more than that and you change all the water chemistry. Sorry, know its frustrating to wait, but everything I've read says patience, patience, patience! I cycled almost 2 1/2 months before adding anything to mine
 
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