Nitrate's

mr . salty

Active Member
I am hoping you mean 40ppm. This is acceptable in a fish only tank,but for a reef tank you are pushing the limit. Do you have a crushed coral substrate?? If so you should think about switching to 3-4 inches of live sand. A water change will also help temporarily till you figure out what is causing these high readings...How many fish are in the tank? What kind of filter??Live rock??Size and age of setup??
 

trj

New Member
Yes you are right above 40. I have live sand,and rock I just did a water change last night of 20%. Also I just ordered the 1 each invert. package + blue hermits. There is only one fish in the tank with 1 mushroom, several tubes and one finger anenomi (spelling whew!) protein skimmer, wet dry system. Just ordered more filter media. What else can I do to get the Nitrates down?
 

cveach

Member
Your Wetdry is the culprit. The Bioballs inside are taking filtration away from your LR and LS. The wetdry has no means of breaking Nitrates into Nitrogen. The LR and LS can. Slowly remove your bioballs from the wetdry. The lossed filtration will be made up from in the LS and LR, when all the bioballs are gone so will the Nitrates or at least below 15ppm.
Good Luck,
Cveach
 

trj

New Member
What does LR and LS mean? Take all the balls out. .Which leaves the filter sleeve, heater and the carbon bio in the back. :confused:
 

mr . salty

Active Member
LR=live rock,LS=live sand.Do you even have Bio Balls in your filter.I didn't see you say so.Not all wat/dry filters use them.What exactly do you have filtering the water?? Filter pads,Carbon,wheels???And again HOW OLD IS THE TANK???? This whole problem may be just from an immature tank...
[ May 08, 2001: Message edited by: MR . SALTY ]
 

trj

New Member
I do have bio balls, a filter sleeve and carbon media in the back of my tank. I have LS and LR. The person before said I need to slowly remove the balls, what is slowly, I can't take them all out at once? I will receive my inverts tommorrow and I wanted to add them to the tank. Is it ok to add them with the nitrates so high? :confused:
 

bobber

Member
By slowly, he means 1/3 every other day or so. This gives the bioload a chance to catch up. If you take them out all at once, you run the risk of another cycle(or at least an ammo spike that will kill your livestock). You can introduce your invert package into water with a high nitrate reading. Just acclimate them longer-about 45-1 hour. HTH--Bob
 

trj

New Member
Me again, I'm slowly removing the balls. After they are all removed, should I keep the filter sleeve, clean the area where the balls were with a sponge or leave it alone. Also do I still need the Opti-pure in the back as well. I have a Seaclear system, therefore not much sand, do I need to add more? I have about one ince thus far and LR.
 
It will take time, Also how much live sand and how much live rock do you have? If only a small amount of either you may still need some of the balls, good rule for enough to do the bio filtration is, 1 1/2 pounds of live rock per gallon and 4 but preferable 5 inches of live sand, ...cya ;)
 

justchillin

Member
you said you didn't have much sand...i would suggest adding some small grain sand (southdown is a cheap alternative to the more expensive fish store brand) to give you 4"+ with 5-6 being preferable since it will give you more filtering area...
what size tank do you have???
how much live rock do you have, and was it introduce when you originally set up the tank or was it more recently??
if recently, cured or uncured??
i need more info about your tank but i would definatly say to lose the wet/dry, get a DSB (deep sand bed) and possibly add more LR.
HTH,
mike
 

trj

New Member
I have a 55 gal. flat back hex, the aquarium has been up since FEB. I added 20 more lbs of LS and 10 lbs of LR still no lowing of nitrates. Just about all of the balls are gone now. Still high nitrates. I have noticed the Nitrites raising. So I did a water change. Is there an additive I can add or do I still need to wait a bit? :confused:
 

kingbrd1

Member
You do understand this isn't going to go away overnight? This takes time, there's no need to rush, just keep doing water changes and monitoring and the levels will start to come down by themselves. Nitrites might have spiked from the addition of the LS and LR, so just keep doing water changes and the tank will take care of itself. That's my rule of thumb.
King
 
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