Stored Salt water full of Nitrates?

[Sean.G]

So I noticed I was having some algae problems in my display. I don't normally check parameters unless something is off or I have a specific reason to its not a part of my routine maintenance. So my nitrates are reading very high over 50ppm (max for the redsea test kit). Out of curiosity I measured my stored fresh and salt water, since I don't feed a lot only 1-2 times a week I wasn't sure why my levels where so high. Both are made from my RODI set up still reads )TDS out although my DI resin is getting close to replacement. The fresh water reads 0 Nitrate but my stored salt water is also over 50!

 

What could have caused my stored saltwater to either cycle or somehow accumulate nitrates? I keep a lid on it at all times and have a small pump moving the water around. Its not heated though. I do water changes Bi weeky so I am usually remaking a full container once a month.

 

Obviously I am going to remake all my salt water, although it suck losing like 20 gallons worth of salt mix and RODI water. Fish and corals seem to be doing fine its just the algae mainly on the sanded and potential problems later if I can't fix this.

 

 

[Mikeymikemike]

That's quite odd. Perhaps someone pee'd in it and introduced ammonia to boot the cycle

[MysticReef]

I've personally never had an accumulation of nitrates in stored water, but I have had phosphates which caused me many algae problems down the line. I eventually stopped buying the store water and began making my own water which helped me to greatly reduce my phosphates.

[Sean.G]

I am making my own water though I us an RODI then mix it with salt. I just keep around 30 gallons of each stored so the salt is fully dissolved and I don't need to wait for it to clear up.

 

I really don't know what could have caused it to cycle.

[Clown79]

Nitrates showing up in your stored water has nothing to do with it cycling. A cycle would have ammonia present.

 

Do you ever clean the buckets with vinegar water?

[Sean.G]

Ammonia would not be present unless this was the very beginning of a cycle and having over 50ppm Nitrate is not indicative of the start of a cycle. I already dumped the old water and am going to add salt today and do a big water change to drop the Nitrates in my tank. I have not cleaned it before because its a 32 gallon trashcan and it is only used for storing mixed salt water. There should be nothing to clean from it.

 

Like I said my fresh and salt water come from the same RODI system and my fresh water is still fine, I don't put anything other then salt water and a pump into that container so the only thing I can think of is something small fell into the water and caused it to cycle. Or a mysterious force was adding nitrates to the water, and apparently no one can think of any weird ways for that to happen.

 

I'm just going to test the stored water ever now and again, so if this happens again at least I can catch it before adding it to the tank.

[Clown79]

Its advisable to clean the buckets.

 

Salts can leave residues, some of their ingredients have additives like organics, and bacteria can build.

If your mixed water sitting in the container is the issue, my first thing would be the container its in.