gdog
New Member
Just wanted to let new reefers learn from one of my mistakes. Recently had a high nitrate problem and finally figured out what my problem was. My tank has been up 7 months and has been doing fairly well, about two months ago i bought some new salt mixture for my water changes and assumed it had a declorinater (wrong) in it because the first brand did. After my second change I noticed my encrusting coral didnt open up for a couple of days so i tested my water to find out that the nitrate levels were quite high (60)so i think i killed off most or all of my bacteria with my water changes. So in hind sight always read the labels and test water regually even if things look ok. Yesterday I added another 20lbs live sand and did a 5% change with a declorinater and hope to bring my nitrates down within a couple of weeks.Iam not sure if I should take my encrusting coral out and put it in my hospital tank untill thing are better 