high nitrates - suggestions?

[smorrismi]

My skimmer stopped working properly... kept doing water changes normally... but then noticed my corals not opening and xenia wilting. Did a test and found my nitrates at 20-40. I did a 25% water change immediately and threw in a new miniskimmer 115 just to get some crap out of the water.

 

Nitrates are still high after water change... I would venture to guess they've been high now for about 3-5 days. How long will corals tolerate this before they really start to get sick? Any good suggestions on how to get the nitrates down quickly? I use good water in a separate bucket heated with exact salinity. How many water changes are allowed without messing with the corals?

[Dasani]

We had a dumb maintainer for our 75g. He didn't check nitrates. He just checked the skimmer that wasn't working right (so it had nothing in it). So he said our nitrates were fine. Well we got a test kit and they were 180+. Our corals did fine, but all we had at that time were zoas and xenia. And 10 fish. We didn't no how long they were that high. We cut back on feeding, did 3 20g water changes in 2 weeks, and that got them back to 40-60. Then just did our regular 5g per month and eventually they came back down.

I'd say just do 20% water changes twice a week for 2-3 weeks, and don't feed as much.

[Deleted User 6]

how often and what % are your normal water changes?

[smorrismi]

how often and what % are your normal water changes?

 

about 20% water change every week... religiously...

[Deleted User 6]

then you need to adjust how much nutrients are entering the water.

 

what size tank? how many fish and what kind? how often do you feed? do you run a fuge with macroalgae on a reverse light cycle?

 

a skimmer will cut down on nutrients some, but it can't do it all alone.

[smorrismi]

then you need to adjust how much nutrients are entering the water.

 

what size tank? how many fish and what kind? how often do you feed? do you run a fuge with macroalgae on a reverse light cycle?

 

a skimmer will cut down on nutrients some, b ut it can't do it all alone.

 

I was actually thinking it had to be the skimmer since my nitrites where fine before malfunction. I have 2 true percs, watchman goby and a six line. I give them a small feeding in the morning, one large variety feeding on the day of my water change and I have cheato in the back chamber working it's magic (or not).

 

tank is a 24g AP

[Deleted User 6]

Hmm...you should be fine even without the skimmer. How old is the test kit?

[smorrismi]

Hmm...you should be fine even without the skimmer. How old is the test kit?

 

3 months old... Something has all my corals closing up (zoas, blastos, leather) funny thing is my acro, monti and war coral is doing great.

[Deleted User 6]

as dasani said, 20-40 nitrates shouldn't be causing any problems. did you test for nitrite and ammonia?

 

something might have caused a mini cycle.

[Austin]

Best and safest way to get those nitrates down is a series of relatively large water changes. Think of your skimmer and your refugium as the tools that can bring your nitrates down NOT from 40 to 20, but from 5 to 0.

 

And also +1 DHaut Sounds like you might be overfeeding. It's weird how little food these environments really require.

[smorrismi]

as dasani said, 20-40 nitrates shouldn't be causing any problems. did you test for nitrite and ammonia?

 

something might have caused a mini cycle.

 

Testing Ammonia right now... Nitrite is at home... but if ammonia is present, nitrite should be as well right. Ammonia is 0

[Deleted User 6]

well, the cycle could be over. the end product would be the extra nitrate. at this point i'd say keep up with the water changes for a few weeks and see if the nitrates start to come down. or get the skimmer fixed and crank it back up again.

 

all-in-all, 40 nitrate isn't the end of the world.

[seldin]

A trick I did years ago to not have a nitrate problem is to have a low bio load. There are many things that will be suggested to reduce them. Water changes are very useful, reducing your bio load, maybe getting a phosban reactor. Reduce feedings...

 

However, as I first said, maybe getting rid of some fish and feeding less. It is so much easier to not fight a battle.

 

Again, others will provide alternatives, however, lowering your bio load makes life a lot easier.

[Austin]

Time out - not to hijack - and I guess I'm revisiting my collective knowledge about params in a marine reef - but I'm reading that 20-40ppm isn't bad...

 

Can I ask - 20-40ppm isn't bad for a FOWLR, for SPS, for LPS/softies - what? I know 0 is the magic target but what is the acceptable range of nitrates for our tanks?

 

I know it's elementary - but maybe I need to revisit the basics?

[smorrismi]

Time out - not to hijack - and I guess I'm revisiting my collective knowledge about params in a marine reef - but I'm reading that 20-40ppm isn't bad...

 

Can I ask - 20-40ppm isn't bad for a FOWLR, for SPS, for LPS/softies - what? I know 0 is the magic target but what is the acceptable range of nitrates for our tanks?

 

I know it's elementary - but maybe I need to revisit the basics?

 

I have to somewhat agree... afterall, my corals are acting funny... and the only thing that is really off is my nitrates. Call me crazy... but isn't it obvious? My original questions, how to get them down (answered pretty much) and how bad it is for my corals (not answered completely).

[blasterman]

I'm going to offer two alternatives to what's going on.

 

Zoas and Xenia like nitrate. Matter of fact, zoas would probably prefer to live under 1/4" of fish poop if they could. LPS also tend to like nitrate, but can only grow as fast as their skeletons will let them. This is why low nutrient SPS tanks grow LPS well even though LPS would prefer higher nutrient levels.

 

something has all my corals closing up (zoas, blastos, leather) funny thing is my acro, monti and war coral is doing great.

 

Which tells me this might be a (1) pH issue, or more likely (2) onset of a nuisance algae spurt fueled by the nitrates, or a combo of both. A sudden change in pH will piss off softies really quick, and please tell me you are using RO water. A broken skimmer reduces aeration, and this can cause a pH drop. SPS oddly don't seem to be bothered by these factors - they'll do fine, but up and RTN on you a few months down the road :-(

 

Nitrate by itself isn't the problem, but a sudden increase is almost guaranteed to fuel nuisance algae, and this will aggravate zoas and LPS even though you don't see it yet. The younger the tank, the greater the chance this is the problem. It also takes massive water changes to affect high nitrate levels. To be honest, using water changes to combat high nitrate is a lot like running your Air conditioner with the windows open to cool your back yard.

 

..And for the record, I'm a skeptic if Cheato and Macro algaes honestly compete with nuisance algaes.

[smorrismi]

I'm going to offer two alternatives to what's going on.

 

Zoas and Xenia like nitrate. Matter of fact, zoas would probably prefer to live under 1/4" of fish poop if they could.

 

 

 

Which tells me this might be a (1) pH issue, or more likely (2) onset of a nuisance algae spurt fueled by the nitrates, or a combo of both. A sudden change in pH will piss off softies really quick, and please tell me you are using RO water. A broken skimmer reduces aeration, and this can cause a pH drop. SPS oddly don't seem to be bothered by these factors - they'll do fine, but up and RTN on you a few months down the road :-(

 

Nitrate by itself isn't the problem, but a sudden increase is almost guaranteed to fuel nuisance algae, and this will aggravate zoas and LPS even though you don't see it yet. The younger the tank, the greater the chance this is the problem.

 

My PH is fine though... I am getting the algae a bit though. UPDATE on ONE colony ... turned brown and some broke off a bit ago when I dipped it with seachem coral dip. This tells me I may have a disease? Any ideas? I didn't notice it because it was sitting up on my frag rack hidden... others around it fine though. I'm baffled still... others are not doing this... just closing up. Right now is when I hate this hobby... LOL

[amnestia]

20-40ppm nitrate isn't enough to kill corals for the most part. It will definitely be able to brown out sps and some other corals though. Do water changes with ro/di water and a good bucket salt. You can possibly go up to 50% water change at a time and that would reduce your nitrates by 50% (assuming the water you are putting in is at 0ppm nitrate). If you want to be on the safer side 30%-40% is usually good.

 

Don't forget about your phosphates! those are usually harder to remove than nitrates and very easily forgotten about.

[smorrismi]

20-40ppm nitrate isn't enough to kill corals for the most part. It will definitely be able to brown out sps and some other corals though. Do water changes with ro/di water and a good bucket salt. You can possibly go up to 50% water change at a time and that would reduce your nitrates by 50% (assuming the water you are putting in is at 0ppm nitrate). If you want to be on the safer side 30%-40% is usually good.

 

Don't forget about your phosphates! those are usually harder to remove than nitrates and very easily forgotten about.

 

I think I may have a desease or something... nothing visible other then they are closing up. I've dipped them once now... how long before dipping them again. used seachem (coral disinfectant). I've gathered the nitrates wouldn't cause such a tank wide problem. My only coral now that seems to have issues are the zoas.

 

another note: my six line jumped into my darn fuge in back. LOL

[Gigaah]

What about your phosphates?

[smorrismi]

What about your phosphates?

 

always been at .5... just tested them and they are at .25-.5

[Reefmonster]

I'm going to offer two alternatives to what's going on.

 

Zoas and Xenia like nitrate. Matter of fact, zoas would probably prefer to live under 1/4" of fish poop if they could. LPS also tend to like nitrate, but can only grow as fast as their skeletons will let them. This is why low nutrient SPS tanks grow LPS well even though LPS would prefer higher nutrient levels.

 

I'd like to know what you base this hypothesis on? I have been diving for 20+ years and have NEVER observed any LPS or Zoa's / Paly's thriving under stagnant dirty conditions I also read reefkeeper mag's chemistry section religiously and never heard the notion that they like high nitrates. I have also observed in my own aquaria that the higher the nitrates the poorer the corals do...so please elaborate, if you can.

 

always been at .5... just tested them and they are at .25-.5

 

Purigen for the win. I had a similar issue with a bloom of blown algae, and I added purigen and a week later everything was back to normal. I also change about 32oz of SW daily. I run Carbon one week on, one week off. But Purigen has worked better than anything I have ever tried, except a Phosphate Reactor.