Off The Chart Nitrate

[abombinus]

Hello All this is my first post in several months. Recently my girlfriend wanted to add a coral banded shrimp to our tank, so i decided it would be good to have our water tested first. I havent tested my water in quite a while. I tested it with SaltWater Masters test kit. It is blood red =ing 80+ppms. This is unreal. Here is the specs on my tank.
75gal
60lbs live sand
30lbs live rock
125gal rated sealife sump
1 sealife skimmer
1 UV filter
2 power heads in tank
1 Med-Large Tang
1 Full Size Coral Beauty
1 scooter blenny
1 snail
1 damsel
This system has been setup since June of 2001
In my sump i have alot of bio balls. I think i read somewhere that its not good to have those in the sump after startup. Also if anyone has any tips on how to get my Nitrates down that would be great. I just did a 18gal water change. Dont know how long to wait to retest but after about 1 hr testing is staying the same. I dont know what to do. The odd part is nothing in my tank seems to be effected by this. Please let me know your thoughts.. Thanks,
Bryan

 

[sinner's girl]

just a thought. How old is your testing kit? if you don't believe the results, bring a water sample to the lfs and have them check it.

 

[abombinus]

Actually, I had my water tested first at my LFS and then tested it again with my kit to make sure theirs was ok. Both Readings are very high.

 

[i have no clue]

I would add a refugium with a deep sand bed and some caulerpa. I'm currently trying out the shaving brushes that swf.com sells to see how well they lower nitrate. If a refugium sound interesting to you, just do a search on this message board. There is a lot of info. Good luck.

 

[wolffam]

Do a water change to begin lowering you nitrates. It may take several changes to get it low. Bio balls tend to collect all kinds of nitrate causing bateria. Does you water go through a prefilter before it gets to the bio balls? You might have gotten some excess food that got caught and it's decaying.

 

[jim672]

Bryan,
I've also read that bio balls can contribute to nitrate problems.
Are you using RO/DI water for your water changes? Water changes are what you need but remember, you're just diluting the nitrate with the water change so it will take awhile to see marked results.
Jim