trying to understand.....

[jessica47421]

my nitrates started going for some reason. they will go to around 20 then i do a water change and they are ok. my question is why do they keep going up? i have had this tank for a while now and they stayed at 0 for ever till i upgraded my lights to 384watt from 130watt and then dark brown algea started growing on the bottom so i reduced lights to 4 hours a day and it still does it i remove it and do a water change and its fine then in about a week they are up again to around 20. why is this? what might be causing it. also i feed everyother day and not much also i only have golden angel, 2 clowns, scotter gobbie, and a firefish, then various corals. also have 4 power heads through out tank and canister filter, and made fuge on back

 

[autofreak44]

something happened to the denitrifying bacteria in the tank, i dont see how the lights could affect that but its possible they did... i guess the best thing to do is keep doing water changes until your bacteria population regrows

 

[al mc]

What type of substrate do you use? If crushed coral then some feel you can get nitrate build up from that. Also, if you have a deep sand bed in your DT
then after some time it can (not always) crash and release nitrates. Did you recently lose some crabs/snails? Just some thoughts.

 

[spanko]

Also try turkety baster to blow on rocks at water change. This dislodges the detritus on the rocks, puts it in the water column for removal buy water changs and filter medium.

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by spanko
Also try turkety baster to blow on rocks at water change. This dislodges the detritus on the rocks, puts it in the water column for removal buy water changs and filter medium.
Another way to remove detritus is to use a thin diameter tube and siphon it out and then do a water change.
I don't think it's the lights causing nitrate spikes. Have you added any fish lately or had any deaths lately? I'm assuming that when you had zero nitrates you are feeding the same way. If not feeding could be your problem.
Also, do a test on your water source. It's possible that the RO filters need to be changed. If there's nitrates in your water source then water changes won't help reduce them.

 

[maxalmon]

Canister filters are notorious for housing nitrates, any sponge or filter media has to be cleaned at least once a week IMO, not every 30 days.
.
Do a test, if you have a sponge in the canister, pull it out and rinse it really good, chances are that when you rinse it the water will run brown. I'm not talking just running it under water, I mean scrunch it up, squeeze it, roll it up... Do a nitrate test before the cleaning and then wait a day or two and do another to see if readings change.
.
There's something in your tank that's got a buildup of detritus in it, could also be the very bottom of the canister filter, have you ever taken the canister apart and scrubbed it clean?

 

[jessica47421]

i have live sand. when i clean the canister i rinse it out, i havent added any fish and if anything i feed less now, almost scared to feed so do it very lightly.

 

[pondy]

oh old are your lights? I know that when lights lose there spectrum the will cause algea blooms. wont rise the nitrates but it will cause some pretty nasty algea blooms.