Troubled by Nitrates

[Kamikaze]

Hello,

 

I am troubled that i can never hit the zero mark with my nitrate levels.

34g RSM

Media rack with Phosban, Puirgen, Carbon and floss (which is changed every two days).

Tunze 9002 which is not running right now cuz i epoxied some items and the thing micro-bubbles from hell.

all of my water stats are awesome except for nitrates i am ALWAYS at 10m/l.

The tank has been up and running 6mos. and it always tests 10 at the lowest a couple of times I hit 20 early on.

All of my livestock looks healthy colorful, lots of growth, etc.

I have 2 clowns, 1 huge cardinal, a fire fish and a coris wrasse. I feed about half a dime sized pc of Rod's Foods every night.

My CUC is 3 nasarius snails, 3 mother of pearls, and a handfull of the little one that burrow in the sand.

A small sand sifting star fish, around 8 hermits blue legged and red, and 1 small emerald crab.

 

Water changes are every four days 8g at a shot. daily top offs of RO around 1g from fan use evaporation.

 

Holler if I missed anything to help diagnose things.

 

Thanks a lot!

[bshotty]

tagging along, i recently added a Aqua C Remora to my 20H in hopes of some help with the nitrates and things seem to be ok but i still notice a great deal of algae growth thats just plain annoying

[Kamikaze]

tagging along, i recently added a Aqua C Remora to my 20H in hopes of some help with the nitrates and things seem to be ok but i still notice a great deal of algae growth thats just plain annoying

 

 

I feel your pain too, I even added Cheato and a 2nd bag of Purigen. to help with that and get the remains of the epoxy out of the water so i can use the skimmer again!

[janussolutions]

Have you tried using a different test kit?

also test your water before it goes into the tank, that way you can discard the possibility of introducing nitrates via (clean water.) Reduce feeding your live stock to every other day.

 

 

Good luck

[Kamikaze]

Have you tried using a different test kit?

also test your water before it goes into the tank, that way you can discard the possibility of introducing nitrates via (clean water.) Reduce feeding your live stock to every other day.

 

 

Good luck

 

 

Sorry I should have listed that..yes i periodically check the water and it is good to go. I thought about cutting back the feeding but it is already a feeding frenzy when I do feed. So I thought I was keeping them good and hungry. I'll try it though.

Thanks

[janussolutions]

hang in there, when my tank reached 6 months I went through the same problem

[bshotty]

My tank is also at about 6 months and i do a good job on the sparse feeding with only to small percs theres not much waste.

[GioReef]

Clean the back chambers. They can get really dirty and nitrate factory!

[hcsceo]

yep all good information. I've also noticed the 6 month boundary with nitrates when moving the tank a little fast with stocking. I would suggest these little items in addition to the other ones mentioned.

 

1. Skim

3. Try Chemipure Elite instead of carbon.

4. Try using a turkey baster to get crap out of crevices and lodged areas in rockwork that could be causing nitrates.

5. Possibly increase flow to suspend the gunk in the water column to give the filter an opportunity to get it.

6. Feed less.

7. consider a remote fuge with cheato.

8. don't add anymore heavy waste creators (Fish, Fish, Fish, ) until you get it solved.

 

Almost all of these are cheap solutions and should help you out.

[BobbyL1212]

Pretty much covers it ^

 

Some nitrates aren't all that bad. As long as it isn't a screaming high number. some nitrates are beneficial.

[hcsceo]

sorry I see you have done some of the things I mentioned.

 

Just looking over your CUC, I think if it were me I might add a few more snails. Possibly some turbo's and nerites. The Nassis are sand dwellers and you mentioned another sand dweller which only leaves the pearls for other stuff. Nerites like glass and Turbo's like rocks and Glass. This might help get some algaes or uneaten food particles on that stuff. I'm not the biggest hermit fan but 8 wouldn't be too many for your tank.

[Kamikaze]

Clean the back chambers. They can get really dirty and nitrate factory!

 

Yup I vacuum them out once a month!

[Kamikaze]

yep all good information. I've also noticed the 6 month boundary with nitrates when moving the tank a little fast with stocking. I would suggest these little items in addition to the other ones mentioned.

 

1. Skim

3. Try Chemipure Elite instead of carbon.

4. Try using a turkey baster to get crap out of crevices and lodged areas in rockwork that could be causing nitrates.

5. Possibly increase flow to suspend the gunk in the water column to give the filter an opportunity to get it.

6. Feed less.

7. consider a remote fuge with cheato.

8. don't add anymore heavy waste creators (Fish, Fish, Fish, ) until you get it solved.

 

Almost all of these are cheap solutions and should help you out.

 

 

I do plan on adding the Chemi-pure Elite this week, I'll pick up a baster tomorrow and try that too.

I like to think i got flow, 1 Koralia #1 in the lower left shooting along the back and one upper right to cross current the returns.

 

Funny you mention fish cuz I have hit a sweet spot with what i have, they are healthy and they get along, i'm not messing with that..

To all of you that replied thank you and I'll try it all got nothing but time to keep tweaking things.

 

Thanks again

[hcsceo]

Looks like you are doing a good job and asking the right questions.

 

On flow... It is a very personal thing and sometimes difficult to figure. The more time that goes along the more flow I push in my tanks. At first things look a little tense but they look much better once accustomed. For reference, I have a MJ900 and a Koralia 1 in a nine gallon tank. My 15 gallon has a MJ1200 and Kor 1 also. I tell people to shoot for 30-40 times turnover per hour but I shoot for closer to 50. Don't be scared to try more flow. It might create a little dust cloud at first but it will go away and settle down. This is one of the great advantages of the Vortech pumps. You can change the flow rate on the fly and try different things and see how it reacts. I'll leave you with this last item. Don't forget about flow behind your rocks. You don't want that area to get dead. I will design all my tanks to have at least one pump pushing directly behind rock work.

[Kamikaze]

Looks like you are doing a good job and asking the right questions.

 

On flow... It is a very personal thing and sometimes difficult to figure. The more time that goes along the more flow I push in my tanks. At first things look a little tense but they look much better once accustomed. For reference, I have a MJ900 and a Koralia 1 in a nine gallon tank. My 15 gallon has a MJ1200 and Kor 1 also. I tell people to shoot for 30-40 times turnover per hour but I shoot for closer to 50. Don't be scared to try more flow. It might create a little dust cloud at first but it will go away and settle down. This is one of the great advantages of the Vortech pumps. You can change the flow rate on the fly and try different things and see how it reacts. I'll leave you with this last item. Don't forget about flow behind your rocks. You don't want that area to get dead. I will design all my tanks to have at least one pump pushing directly behind rock work.

Sweet I'll check out some more flow i do have a #1 running along the rear of my rockwork, it makes a big difference but i still have some relatively calm areas.

 

Later

[btbeam]

I have the same problem. I do my water changes and i run pura complete in the back chamber. I did a lot of cleaning this week which might explain the high number tonight of 15 but I was considering dosing vodka what do people think about that idea. I also have a brown hair algae problem I assume from the nitrates...

Thanks

[MGDMIRAGE]

Stop adding frito-lay products to your tanks..

 

I had some serious problems with trates for a long time with bastering, 5 gallon water changes weekly, purigen, every other day feeding, and a 5.5 gallon tank half full of chaeto. It wasn't until recently that it seems to have settled down. All i can really recommend if you have cut down on feeding is keep up the dilution through water changes and ride it out. Nitrates, phosphates, and algae are like the saltwater aquarist's bane.