My nitrate levels are high, around 100 ppm. About 2 weeks ago I had to change tanks because of my glass tank leaking so I purchased a 125 acrylic. I saved all my water, live rock from my old tank and put it in my new tank. I bought 100 pounds of live sand and put it in the new tank. The new tank has an overflow, which was filled with bio balls to the top. I took all those out yesterday because as I understand now bio balls are not good. All that is in my overflow now is a bag of carbon, probably about 2 cups. The tank has a sump, which I have a protein skimmer in, some live rock, filter pads, and some bio balls. Should I remove these bio balls as well? I also bought 2 bags of the beneficial algae and have it floating iny sump with lights on it 8 hrs a day. I just did a 25 gallon water change yesterday, and I got the water from an aquarium store. I thought I would see a change in my nitrate levels today, but not really much. What should I do? I'm worries my new soft corals are going to die! Please help!!!!
I need help, nitrate levels high !!
- Thread starter Jpfire
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Got a qt tank? Sounds like that live sand you got started a cycle. Only thing you can do is partial water changes every day. This might also work as I have had great success with it is seachem stability. Buy 2 bottles and dump half a bottle now and 1/4 every 24 hours. You should see results by tomorrow morning, but dont do water changes if you use the stability.
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get rid of all of the mechanical filtration, bio balls and let it be for a month... that way the rocks and sand will have to be 100% biological filtration like it should... after that, add like a filter pad or sock if you want... but i don't use mechanical filtration in my setup...
what kind of fish are in there...? if there are tangs, leave the lights on for about 9-10hrs a day and don't feed... feed every 2-3 days... after the month, you can start feeding a lot more...
what kind of advice is "vodka dose"... do you really think that's helpful..? no... that just confuses people... at least put a link or explain your method... why even post at all if you aren't really going to be helpful..? that's lame...
what kind of fish are in there...? if there are tangs, leave the lights on for about 9-10hrs a day and don't feed... feed every 2-3 days... after the month, you can start feeding a lot more...
what kind of advice is "vodka dose"... do you really think that's helpful..? no... that just confuses people... at least put a link or explain your method... why even post at all if you aren't really going to be helpful..? that's lame...
I will take the bio balls out of my sump, and you're saying not to have any filter pads in the sump too? What will catch any waste then? And forfish I have 4 chromis, 1 maroon clown, 1 coral beauty, a diamond goby, and 2 pajama cardinals. I will try feeding less like every 3 days you say? And keeping the lights on for 12 hrs. What will that do?
well... the light thing isn't going to work because you don't have any tangs... tangs can live off the algae that grows on the rocks... they'll just graze all day long... but since you has no tangs, you have to feed every day...
are you feeding frozen foods...? like mysis and brine...? you should rinse it before throwing the cube in the tank... some people get brine nets, let it thaw out, and slowly rinse it out under tap water... or ro whatever... just that the juice they are frozen in contain small amounts of phosphate...
the waste is going to collect in the bottom of your sump anyways... no matter how many filter pads or socks you have... so they are nothing but phosphate factories in the long run... after a week of use, the trash starts to break down into phosphates and nitrates... anyways... the waste that floats around in your tank is reef snow... that should feed the filter feeders and corals...
are you feeding frozen foods...? like mysis and brine...? you should rinse it before throwing the cube in the tank... some people get brine nets, let it thaw out, and slowly rinse it out under tap water... or ro whatever... just that the juice they are frozen in contain small amounts of phosphate...
the waste is going to collect in the bottom of your sump anyways... no matter how many filter pads or socks you have... so they are nothing but phosphate factories in the long run... after a week of use, the trash starts to break down into phosphates and nitrates... anyways... the waste that floats around in your tank is reef snow... that should feed the filter feeders and corals...
I do use mysis and blood worms to feed my fish. I'll will try rinsing like you said. Thanks for all the help, I'm definitely going to go buy some of that seachem stability today and see if that helps. All my other levels are perfect, and all my fish and corals look great, I just need this nitrate to get to 0!! Thanks again!
um... i really don't trust stability at all... you could try adding a carbon source... i recommend adding a bit of vinegar... put an ounce of white vinegar into the sump after you do a water change... i use the cheap stuff... do a small waterchange right now too... to kick the levels down a notch...
Did I miss what skimmer or other filtration you have? Just filters pads and carbon ain't gonna get your nitrate down.
Yeah new cycle when you moved to the new. Did you check for ammonia when oh did the transfer?
Don't waste your money on stabilty. You should narrow down the source of your problem.
+1 to gumbiis advice
Yeah new cycle when you moved to the new. Did you check for ammonia when oh did the transfer?
Don't waste your money on stabilty. You should narrow down the source of your problem.
+1 to gumbiis advice
Yeah I've checked all my levels and everything is perfect except nitrate. Yesterday after I did a 25 gallon water change I removed all the bio balls from my overflow. So now all I have in my overflow is a bag of carbon that has about 2 cups of carbon in the bag. And I did buy a picasso trigger that died, was in my tank for about a day before I finally moved some rocks to find him and remove him. I've read alot on the seachem stability but you guys say stay away from it? I'm starting to think maybe it's from the new live sand I bought, but the shop said it would be totally safe to put in my established tank. Or the dead fish/ bio balls?
the best thing you can do is nothing... just have patience and wait... don't add sand, rocks, fish, nothing but corals... give it a month or more... also, don't listen to shops... most of the live sand they sell is dead anyways... it's saver to add dry washed aragonite sand than live sand really...
good luck, and stop messing with the tank... take out the media, and sit on your hands...
good luck, and stop messing with the tank... take out the media, and sit on your hands...
you could do 1 big water change (like 100g) to get nitrate down fast, but be careful.
thing with small serial water changes is it takes a long time. if you want to lower nitrates down to 5ppm, and change 25g a time, it would take 10 water changes! (assuming 100g total water volume)
start at the source: you should limit nitrate production, like by doing all the things gumbii says.
you could also help export nitrate with macro algae, mangroves, vodka, etc. over the longrun
thing with small serial water changes is it takes a long time. if you want to lower nitrates down to 5ppm, and change 25g a time, it would take 10 water changes! (assuming 100g total water volume)
start at the source: you should limit nitrate production, like by doing all the things gumbii says.
you could also help export nitrate with macro algae, mangroves, vodka, etc. over the longrun
Well I have 2 different types of micro algae in the sump now, no bio balls at all in the overflow or the sump, and put a few more pieces of live rock in my sump. I also tried the vinegar thing suggested by gumbii. I'll test my water when I get home today, but still all fish and all my corals look awesome. Ive read a bunch on how test kits could not be reading right, but I tested some h2o I bought from the fish store and the the nitrate test came out to 0. So it works.. I'll see how the levels are when I get home!
