High Nitrate Levels...Help Please!

[mm91485]

My tank has been up and running for about 5 months now. Its a 40 Gallon Hex with lots of live rock. I test the water and do water changes regularly but my nitrate level is still high. It reads between 20-40 ppm (mg/L) on the API SaltWater Master Test Kit card. The card says to be as close to 0 ppm (mg/L) as possible but i just cant seem to get anywhere near that. Please can someone let me know what I can do to get this nitrate level down

[Rehype]

Give us some more details about your tank.

how many fish are in your tank?

how often are your water changes?

How often do you feed the tank?

What type of coral are you housing?

 

 

Just FYI it's not absolutely nescessary to keep your nitrates at 0 most species of fish and coral will do just fine with 20ppm nitrates.

[mm91485]

I have a blue hippo tang, yellow tang, 2 perc clowns, watchman goby and 3 green chromis. I have a rock full of zoas, rock full of polyps, frogspawn and 2 xenia frags just added a couple days ago. I would love to get a leather, mushrooms and maybe some sponges...ive been doing water changs weeky around 5 gallons and i feed the tank twice a day.

[Gatotsu77]

Welcome to Nano-Reef. Let me start by saying there will be a number of members here who will want to see the tangs taken out of that system, as they will require something more along the lines of a 125 gallon tank. That aside, even if the fish are juveniles, this seems like a large bio-load for that size tank. One of many means of helping to combat the nitrates would be to increase the volume of water changes. 5 gallon changes every week comes out to ~12.5% total tank volume a week. At the rate nitrates are being produced, I wouldn't be too surprised to see the numbers slowly climb, as production will likely be faster than exportation. You may want to browse around, read some of the articles on this website, and look into what a "AC110 fuge" is. (basically, a cultivation area for a macro algae called chaetomorpha to help with nutrient export)

 

I certainly don't want to discourage your exploration into this hobby, as I'm sure I can say of anyone who would post on this thread. We'd all love to see your tank and inhabitants thriving and well, and that simple driving factor may bring out some seemingly abrasive comments about your tangs. The long and short of that story would be, it would be best for you to return them to your LFS or other fish retailer where they were purchased, as they will simply get too large to be housed in such a tank.

 

For the time being, I'd suggest increasing either your water change volume, or frequency, not necessarily both at once. A 10 gallon change every week would certainly be a step in the right direction, and perhaps a 5 gallon change mid-week between 10 gallon changes would be even more beneficial until the water parameters are brought back towards ideal. Do you have test kits to post other parameters on the water as well?

 

*Edit* I also noticed you say that you feed the tank twice a day. What have you been feeding, and how much? That could be contributing to the problem as well, especially if not all of the food is eaten. What does your clean up crew consist of? How often do you try to siphon out detrius and other buildup?

[Bill Nye]

wow thats a lot of tang in a 40 gal hex. How wide is the tank?

[mm91485]

the tangs are fairly small and i'm deffinetly not going to return them because i am buying a 125 gallon off of my buddy here really soon. I have 10 hermit crabs and a couple snails for cleanup recommended by guy at local lfs. I have not siphoned anthing yet. I guess i should start doing that. I feed marine flakes and tropical crisps a pinch of both twice a day. Any suggestions on something better to give them. I put romaine lettuce in there for the tangs as well

[reefer916]

Welcome!!!

 

There are several things that the others have already addressed.

 

1) Tangs are beautiful fish, but they get large and they eat a crap like 20 damsels worth. I have a Large Hippo Tang, Yellow, and Sailfin tang in my 95 gallon and that's too small for them now. So I can't imagine what kind of problems you may have with your bio-load later. However, it is possible to keep them in your system, but maintaining high quality water for more delicate corals like SPS could be a challenge. The softees you mentioned won't have a problem, but try to keep your nitrates under 15ppm or so.

 

2) I'd cut back on your feeding.. I feed my tanks once a day and alternate between Formula 2 Flake food, Mysis shrimp, Krill, and Silversides. Make sure if your feeding frozen foods to rinse thoroughly in fresh water before feeding your fish. There's a whole lot of organics that will get into your system and cause your nitrates to shoot up.

 

3) Refugiums definitely help to increase water volume and add additional biological filtration by using Live Rock, Live Sand, and Macro algaes. You could also easily place a phosphate reactor and protein skimmer in there to help reduce your excess nutrients.

 

4) You could definitely increase your water changes. In my 24 gallon I do daily 1-2 gallon water changes with a 4 gallon weekly water change. I do feed the tank a lot due to the different corals that I have, but it keeps my water prestine. You could try 2 gallon daily water changes with a 10 gallon weekly water change for several weeks. That'll help reduce your nitrates. I got into the habit of doing it and my 24 definitely looks better than my 95 gallon which I do a 30 gallon water change every other week. The 95 gallon has all of the expensive equipment, but the water changes definitely do a much better job in keeping the best water quality.

 

5) Try a different Nitrate test kit... I bought 2 different API Nitrate test kits and they were showing that I had 40 ppm's when I first started. I took it to my LFS who uses Sailfert and ELOS and they read 10 ppm. It was frustrating because I was new to the hobby and was doing crazy daily water changes like 5 gallons a day. So don't trust those test kits.

 

Good luck and again feel free to ask as more questions

[Gatotsu77]

Sounds like you already knew the tangs were going to outgrow that tank, and I'm glad to hear that you'll be setting up a 125 for them. If you don't mind my asking (and this is simply for curiosity's sake) what is the approx. length of each of the tangs? Do you foresee the 125 being set up and running in the next 2-3 months? If so, you should be on the right track.

 

As far as the clean up crew is concerned, you may be a bit heavy on hermits in a tank that size, but that's not a huge contributor to the nitrate issue. Currently, I have 3-4 hermits, (uncertain in the last week or so, as I've only seen 3 of them) 1 astrea snail, 3 margarita snails, 1 tiger conch, 3 nassarius snails, and 1 emerald crab in a ~27g tank. I'm not going to say that what I've selected is necessarily ideal for any given setup, but it works well for me. Everyone experiences different results with each setup, so I'm certainly not here to tell you that 10 hermits is wrong for your tank.

 

As for the water changes and cleaning maintenance, I've got a couple suggestions for you. I personally use a fairly narrow diameter tube for the sake of siphoning off detrius, and any other unwanted crud in the tank. (I'm currently battling a caulerpa outbreak, so coupling the narrow hose with an outreached finger over the end helps to tear out a lot of the pest algae and siphon it right out, without pulling too much water out and leaving little time to work) I've even gone to the extent of using air line tubing to siphon things out very slowly, yet deliberately. (i.e. flatworms and other bits of detrius on the rockwork) You could even use a turkey baster to blow crud off of the rocks before doing a water change to help remove a good bit of it.

 

How deep of a sand bed do you have in your tank, and do you have anything that manually sifts it for you? If shallow, do you stir it periodically yourself?

 

If you've got a veggie clip, or something comparable, including some seaweed in their diet would be beneficial. As far as the romaine goes, (and for seaweed, if you choose to feed them any) make sure to remove any remains after ~12 hours, or it can foul up the water.

 

Yet another curiosity, what kind of lighting do you have on your tank? How long each day do you run it for? Would you be able to post a couple photos for us all to see?

[mm91485]

yes i will deffinetly have it up and running in the next 2-3 months. The sand bed is about an inch deep and I have nothing that sifts through it. I did go out and pick up a siphon today and am getting ready to do a good sized water change. I tried putting some seaweed in there for them but they seem to not want it. It just ends up breaking up and floating around the tank. They tear up the romaine though. I have a coralife 17" 96 watt 50/50 quad bulb. Just replaced it last week so its brand new. I also have a protein skimmer hanging on the back of the tank as well as the filter that came with the tank when i bought it. I usually run the lights for about 8 hours a day.

[Gatotsu77]

Sorry for inundating you with questions, but I've come up with a few more. What kind of water/salt are you using? (mixing yourself, buying pre-mixed, etc)

 

Do you have a veggie clip? I'd definitely suggest using one as opposed to letting the seaweed float about the tank. It may take a few times for them to realize it is edible, but once they do, they should hop right on it when they notice it in the tank.

 

The light fixture you've selected will work for lower-light corals, and by the sounds of it, those are the ones you've taken interest in. Mushrooms, Zoanthids, Leathers, Xenia, and Frogspawn should do fairly well in lower levels of light. (How tall is the tank itself? I'm guessing around 20-24" deep) Sponges are non-phoyosynthetic, and so long as proper care is taken in introducing them, should be fine as well.

 

Do you know the make/model/etc. of the protein skimmer you're using?

[mm91485]

No problem man, I will take all the help I can get. There is deffinetly a lot more to keeping a good saltwater tank than I could of ever imagined. But I love it and I cant get enough. This hobby is my drug lol. The tank is 24" tall. I use instant ocean sea salt and mix myself. The protein skimmer can handle up to 125 gallon and Im not sure on the brand. On the top of the collection cup it says "Queen" so that may be the brand name. I bought it off of my buddy, he upgraded his tank and needed a bigger skimmer. Yeah, the guy at my lfs told me that It would be best to stick to those corals you listed untill I learn a little more about everything and exactly how it all works.

[mm91485]

should i be using distilled water for my water changes instead of using tap water??

[Seiryoku]

should i be using distilled water for my water changes instead of using tap water??

 

Really? Really, really, really?

[lakshwadeep]

lol

 

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates?

[jetthril]

also another way to help you decrease nitrate and phosphate is the vodka/sugar/vinegar dosing method, if you do a search on google, you can find recommended dosing schedule. They basically act as additional sources of carbon to feed the growth of nitrate munching bacterias in your tank, and you better have a good protein skimmer hooked up, the bacterias will be subsequently skimmed out of the tank, you should notice darker and thicker skimmate.

 

You also may want to test how much nitrate is in your tab water, which may be another source of nitrate build up in your tank.

[rubadakis]

should i be using distilled water for my water changes instead of using tap water??

 

RO/DI is the only way to go!!!!

[mm91485]

ive been looking at a RO/DI 5 stage plus from bulkreefsupply.com....Any1 out there use this one and reccomend it? lol its gotta be better than the tap water that ive been using