what should I do to lower nitrates?

[pontius]

after almost 2 months of being set up, my nitrates are starting to rise. what should I do? all other parameters are normal, other than phosphates are also high. I did a 12 gallon water change this week. the tank is 75 gallons, btw. I have a crew with snails, crabs, a serpent star, and one cleaner shrimp (the other died last night). shouldn't the cleaning crew be eating waste and uneaten food? also, I am using RO water. thanks.

 

[sebae0]

yes your crew is eating the algae and waste but that doesn't remove the trates, they are the end results of your tanks biological process. do you have alot of liverock and/or a deep sand bed? also do you have a refugium? these things help complete the nitrogen cycle and convert/or use up the trates to keep them low or at zero.
i run a deep sand bed with about 300lbs of lr and a refugium for a 180 gal tank with protein skimming and i have not had a trate reading in 3 years. i also have a low bioload of fish which helps and i do not overfeed.

 

[pontius]

I have about 140 pounds of live rock and a 3 inch think sandbed. there is a refugium in the wet/dry.
do you think the nitrates could be the cause of death for the shrimp? he had been acting sickly since I put the second shrimp in. I think the second shrimp was dominating him a little, but not too bad.

 

[sebae0]

i don't beleive that one shrimp would create that much but secondly do you have the bioballs in the wet dry? if so imo the wetdry converts the organic matter to efficiently (sp) and the trates are made more quickly than the lr and fuge can convert them.

 

[sebae0]

also i forgot your tank is fairly new and in time the lr and fuge will gain more nitrfying bacteria and the process will speed up and hopefully maintain a trate free tank.

 

[pontius]

I was wondering if the nitrates could be the cause of death of the shrimp, and if the other animals in my tank are in danger?
I do have bioballs, but I took 80% of them out probably a month ago. should I take them all out? thanks.

 

[reefraff]

You running a skimmer? How high are your Trates? seeing a little fluctuation in nitrates after only two months isn't really that unusual. A lot of people suggest waiting 6 months to a year before adding certain critters (anemones, starfish) because they are so sensitive to nitrates and it can take that long before your biological filtration is fully matured.
A lot of people run bioballs with no problems but you can't let them get junk built up in them. If you have a good amount of live rock there is really no need for bioballs. I have some in the back of my HOB overflow to silence the splashing noise and a couple on the tank side box because they spin around and seem to keep the snails from climbing in the box.

 

[belothsurf]

Hey Pontius,
I doubt nitrates are the problem. I've had a cleaner shrimp for 6 months ( his name is Big AL) and a peppermint shrimp for that long also. My trates always hover around 40ppm. I've got some rics, and 2 incredible leathers, that won't stop growing.
I've lost some shrimp in the past to some aggressive fish. They were aggressive enough to keep the shrimp hiding. My cleaner shrimp goes nuts when I feed, and usually my pepp shrimp will hop out for a quick bite. Perhaps that is the problem?
Anyway,
Roll Tide

 

[pontius]

yes, I'm running a skimmer.
my nitrates are higher than usual, not as high as 40ppm though, I don't think.
so I should take all the bioballs out completely?
belothsurf, CO COCKS!! we'll find out this weekend

 

[new2u]

DONT TAKE THE BIO BALLS OUT ALL AT ONCE i learned that one the hard way...

 

[sebae0]

if your gonna remove them do it slowly over a couple of weeks, also i don't think your trates killed the shrimp either. give it some more time its relatively young tank and with your lr and skimming everything should pan out for you.