Nitrates

plomanto

plomanto

Member
I am out of ideas so I am asking for a little help.
About a month ago things in my 120 started not looking so good, so testing the water i found nitrates to be high around 50. I did a large water change I also pulled all the rock out (thinking something might have died) I found nothing all creatures were acounted for. In the past two weeks I have been doing 20g water changes 3 or 4 days apart. I have cut feeding down to only a small ammount of mysis shrimp daily.
I did another water change Friday (20g) Nitrates are still at 50
All other tests look good
Temp = 80
Salinity = 35
Amonia = <.25 ( test water is totaly clear)
Nitrites = 0.0
Nitrates = 50
Phospates = 0.0
Alk. = 9.9
Calcium = 440
Lighting - 2 x 250 10k mh and 2 x 96w atinic pc
Flow- Mag18 for return, 2 x sieo 820, 1100 GHP closed loop blow ing from behind my rocks.
A Large DIY becket skimmer using a Mag24
29g sump with about 12g used as fuge with sand and chateo.
I have moved some of my LPS from my 120 to my prop tank and by the next day they are fully open and looking great. Fish and clams look fine.
Some one mentioned that my sand bed may be dieing, I dont know
So if I am missing something or you can think of any thing I can do , please let me know
Peter
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
how deep is your LS bed? do you have any sand sifting seastars or other creatures that you might have missed
 
plomanto

plomanto

Member
The sand bed is about 2.5" ( a little lower in the center and a little deeper on the ends)
I dont have any sandsifting stars. When I moved all the rock all things were acounted for
 
ctgretzky9

ctgretzky9

Member
Originally Posted by plomanto
I am out of ideas so I am asking for a little help.
About a month ago things in my 120 started not looking so good, so testing the water i found nitrates to be high around 50. I did a large water change I also pulled all the rock out (thinking something might have died) I found nothing all creatures were acounted for. In the past two weeks I have been doing 20g water changes 3 or 4 days apart. I have cut feeding down to only a small ammount of mysis shrimp daily.
I did another water change Friday (20g) Nitrates are still at 50
All other tests look good
Temp = 80
Salinity = 35
Amonia = <.25 ( test water is totaly clear)
Nitrites = 0.0
Nitrates = 50
Phospates = 0.0
Alk. = 9.9
Calcium = 440
Lighting - 2 x 250 10k mh and 2 x 96w atinic pc
Flow- Mag18 for return, 2 x sieo 820, 1100 GHP closed loop blow ing from behind my rocks.
A Large DIY becket skimmer using a Mag24
29g sump with about 12g used as fuge with sand and chateo.
I have moved some of my LPS from my 120 to my prop tank and by the next day they are fully open and looking great. Fish and clams look fine.
Some one mentioned that my sand bed may be dieing, I dont know
So if I am missing something or you can think of any thing I can do , please let me know
Peter

hmmm...what is your bio load? Have you tested your top off water or your salt mix water? There are nitrates in some cheaper salt mixes, and could be from the water you may be using....
The cheato bundle you have...I read about one guy, who didnt realize his large brillo clump of cheato was trapping all sorts of detrius in it. He harvested some of it, rinsed it all out, and a coupel days later trates dropped to nil.
The mysis....which brand do you use? Some of the brands need to be "rinsed off." whereas you get a very fine strainer, defrost it and rinse it then dump it in...you would be amazed at the amount of excess stuff in the cube...though if you have a lot of coral, especially ones like gorgonia, they benefit from some of that, but not much.
Cant help with the sand bed theory, though I have heard about it dying, but it would throw other things off too I would think, especially ammonia?
 
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