Can't get nitrates down

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:20 pm

Up until now...once a month I do a 40% water change and change out my cartridges. I have an Emporer 400 (removed the bio-wheels), a Prizm protien skimmer, and 3 Maxi-Jet power heads (a 400, a 900, and a 1200). I just started keeping corals around Thanksgiving. About a month ago I ordered 3 nano packs from liveaquaria.com (the mushroom, polyp, & soft coral pack). I realize I probably got too many all at once. Well ever since, I can't seem to get my nitrates lower than 20ppm no mater how often I do a water change or how many times I change my filter catridges. I've done 2 or 3 water changes in the past month and changed my carbon and filter catridges once a week since I noticed my nitrates were high. I clean my protien skimmer every 2 or 3 days. Feed only 2 or 3 times a week. I'm desperatly low on snails....planning on ordering a good size snail pack online soon. Up until recently my nitrates were almost always non-detectable. How can I get my nitrates to zero??? I have around 85-95 pounds of live rock and a 3 inch sand bed. My tank is 75 gallons. Each time I test my water my ph is 8.2, amonia and nitrites are always zero. Most of my corals and fish appear to be healthy. A couple of corals look a little sickly...but most appear to be fine.

Post by **snoopdog** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:28 pm

IMO if your corals look ok then do not worry about it. My nitrates are always above 40, for 7 years now. I think tanks are as different as our human bodies, some people smoke for 50 years with no problems, others 5 years and develop lung cancer. If everything is alive and well do not worry. As far as some of your corals not looking good, realize that new corals can take up to a month to adjust to change. There again some never adjust.

NM354 · Post by **NM354** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:36 pm

How many fish do you have? If you have a bunch of fish you are going to have a harder time with nitrates.
I would get a better skimmer (if you need a HOB then a supper skimmer, biggest one they make) and also get more flow in the tank. Maybe add a couple seio's. cut back the feeding even more, once or twice a week. oh yeah and just sit back have some patience. It will come down just get a ton of water flow to free up any settled out detritus, and agressive protien skimming should help out a ton.

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:31 pm

NM354 wrote:How many fish do you have?

1 clown
2 clown gobies
1 yellow tang
1 diamond goby
2 shrimp gobies
2 stars
3 shrimp

I think that's all....all I can think of this late at night anyway. I am planning on getting a SEIO hopefully soon.

One of these days when I can afford it I'd like to get a bigger tank and turn my 75 into the sump/refugium for the bigger tank....maybe next year! I'd like to have a 150 or 180. Until then I'll keep dreaming.

Heck if I'm dreaming, may as well dream big....I'd really like to have a 1000 gallon built into a wall. But that ain't gonna happen unless I hit it big at the slots one day!

NM354 · Post by **NM354** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:49 am

we can all dream can't we

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:41 am

Mine stay 20 and have been that way for 1 year now and I have nt seen anything suffer due to it so I am just leavig it alone.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:54 am

Do you have alot of algae? If not, you really don't need to get too many snails, they'll just be adding to the waste problem. If you want, you can try doing water changes more often, 10 percent every week or two. That may help, as the skimmer you have really isn't going to be able to handle that large of a tank. Nitrates aren't the end of the world, but I wouldn't recommend going with many SPS right now.
You might think about just not adding anything else for a while and let your tank adjust to what livestock you have.

Amphiprion · Post by **Amphiprion** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:00 am

Fortunately, I do not have a nitrate problem. However, I am unable to explain why, except that maybe my tank (75) had at most 3 small fish in it at one time. Even this doesn't adequately explain things. Some tanks with only a few fish can have elevated nitrate, while tanks with many still maintain levels at 0 (even without water changes, protein skimming, etc.). Every tank is going to be different with respect to nitrate, phosphate, etc because it literally varies with bacterial and infaunal diversity/population (and the variables involved are insanely complicated). I doubt the nitrates are the source of you problems, though. All the corals you stated should have no problem with those nitrates. In fact, I know out of experience, that many of our "sensitive" corals can actually tolerate nitrates in excess of 100 (contrary to popular belief). This may not be the most ideal situation, but just know that it isn't the end of your corals and it most likely wont prevent you from adding more later. At worst, it will just cause some algae (if you have enough phophate).

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:05 am

I have a fair amount of algae. I'm down to only about 4 snails and they can't keep up with the amount of algae. I wipe the glass with a mag float twice a week. I'm not gonna add any new fish or corals for a while and see how things go.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!

Amphiprion · Post by **Amphiprion** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:08 am

sounds good. Continue doing regular water changes, removing excess algae (siphon when you do water changes, or pluck hair algae). Continue doing these more often if necessary. Also try a phosphate adsorbing media, like Phosban, to remove as much excess phosphate as possible. If you don't have enough phosphate, algae can't grow, even with plenty of nitrate present (well, except maybe for some types).

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:26 am

I think this one is more an issue of lots of stuff added to the tank in a fairly short period of time, right Kristyn? If so, then your bacterial population is just overloaded a bit and needs to catch up to the larger amounts of waste in your tank. If you have alot of corals that pull nitrients from the water, and it sounds like you do, it'll help. Water changes (small, regular ones) will also help. Not adding anything else until your tank has a chance to level out is the best thing you can do. Give it awhile, at least a couple of months....let everything get situated, don't change anything drastically, and it should work itself out. If by then you still have high nitrates, don't worry about it.
What corals exactly are showing stress?

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:08 am

sb1227 wrote:I think this one is more an issue of lots of stuff added to the tank in a fairly short period of time, right Kristyn?
What corals exactly are showing stress?

Yeah, I know you told me to go slow....I can be harded I guess. My only ones that are showing stress are a devils hand that I can't seem to keep attatched to anything (even using super glue gel), a few mushrooms (one looks very pale and kinda shriveled), a few of my yellow colony polyps won't open anymore (but the rest of the yellow polyps look fine). I think that's pretty much it. My candy cane coral is getting bigger and multiplying and my button polyps are mulitplying too...so that's a good sign right?

Post by **snoopdog** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:35 am

Do not worry about the devils hand. Just put any small edge in a crevice and it will attach itself within weeks. Glueing is probably frustrating it. I find that it is best to wedge it in somewhere when it is pissed off, that way it is "small". When it slimes over and puffs back out it is twice the normal size and now stuck in a crevice, then it is forced to grow around it.

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:37 am

I've tried that....my powerheads or something end up knocking it off. I'll try again...if the diamond goby hasn't burried it.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:19 pm

It's really hard to be patient, I think it's one of the hardest things about having any kind of aquarium.

I'm waiting for the new tank I got to run awhile before transferring the stuff out of my 20 into it, and every day I think of some reason for me to go ahead and start moving some of the corals.

But I'm waiting.....and it sucks.

Caulastreas (candy cane) corals are hardy, a little nitrate spike shouldn't cause it any problems, sounds like it's happy.