Amerijuanican Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 A buddy of mine bought my old 14g BioCube. He has had it set-up and running for a couple of months now and so far he has been doing a great job. He has researched a lot and really taken his time with it. However, over the past week or so, he has had a major spike in his nitrates and we can't figure out why. He did a water change and all of a sudden, BOOM! Nitrate spike. Now, the funny thing about the situation is that the water that he used for the water change was fine, no nitrates detectable. He has done 3 50% water changes in the past 3 days to no avail. We tested the water using different kits and we even tested his top-off water. No nitrates. Any ideas? His nitrates are around 35ppm so they definitely need to come down. What could be causing this crazy spike in his nitrates? Thanks for the help guys. Link to comment
Oceanic 30g Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Check the back compartments. There could be a build up of detritis back there. Did you rinse it before he got it or did you just empty it and give it to him? Also... Are the sponges still in there Is the carbon filter still in there Is there live rock rubble in there Are the bio balls in there ect. Link to comment
r20crazy Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 how are all the other perams? ammonia?ph? salinity? etc. [and please don't say 'all tested ok,' exact values may point to something] anything new added to tank recently? (LR, corals?) need more details please, and answer the questions in post above as well Link to comment
Amerijuanican Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 no sponges, bioballs, or LR rubble... Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm pH: 8.3 Salinity: 1.024 no poop in the back. and yes, when I gave him the tank, we cleaned it pretty religiously. Scraped off all the dead algae, new sand, new cured LR, rinsed it really well, etc... Link to comment
thecowkid Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 hey man i know this is a long shot, but did he have any windows open for a while? If so some of that southern pollen could have gotten in the tank and caused a spike. Link to comment
h3llc4t Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Strange question, but how are you testing the nitrates? (Strips, liquid?) Has he opened a new bottle of strips, exposed his reagents to high heat, etc? I was getting insane ammonia levels in a newly cycled tank and it turns out it was just crappy testing reagents. Link to comment
Amerijuanican Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 its a closed tank so I don't think anything accidentally fell into the tank. He has a quarantine tank set up right next to it which he has used the exact same water, etc on... and the nitrates in the quarantine are 0ppm. Thats another way we know that it isn't the water. Not the test kit, we cross-checked that already. We are officially miffed. Link to comment
Oceanic 30g Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Take a water sample to your LFS and get them to test it for you. My LFS had a pinpoint type tester that was around $1000 and it tested everything. R20 touched on this. If anything was added that is big, like 5 more pounds of rock or something, you could initiate another cycle. Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Nitrate problems can be tricky, but they always have a biological source. Look harder, increase the flow for now. Link to comment
Amerijuanican Posted March 14, 2008 Author Share Posted March 14, 2008 thanks guys for all the help... we will get to the bottom of it no doubt Link to comment
Six Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Did something die? That can cause major issues. Or is he used a snailacide or flatworm killer that would do it. (not that people in SW use snailacides, but you never do know) Link to comment
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