Nitrates super high

[Javiv]

Hello, so I recently got a 29 bio cube from a friend, it had 3 fish I gave the fish away, currently has a few hermits and a serpent starfish. I wanted to start transferring my live stock to it from my old tank. I have performed at least 4 water changes in the last 3 weeks and cannot get nitrates down, they are at least 160 ppm. I just performed a water change on Saturday 5 gallons and re tested today same thing! I am hardly feeding just a pinch of mysis every other day for the inverts. 

I took a water sample to my lfs and he said I had very little nitrates and if it was as high as I said it was, my inverts would be dead.

i tested my old tank with the same kit actually 2 different kits mine is at 0 buddy's tank 160! 

The tank was pretty dirty when I got it, removed bio balls cleaned the sump added chemi pure blue, water looks clear, amm is 0 , nitrite 0.

i am only dosing purple up which should not affect nitrates.

what gives? I am totally stumped by this.

please help!

thanks

[brandon429]

is there a sandbed in the tank, and if there is, can you reach in and grab some and drop it down in the water and it still be cloudless...was it rinsed totally clean upon setup here

 

also detritus check the rocks too, do you have pictures of this tank

[Javiv]

Yes here are some pics, my buddy set up this tank like 2 years ago. 

So on the last water change I did blow some stuff of the rocks, but I would the think the hermits would eat any food or anything that is in there? 

So you want me to get some sand and drop it back down to see if it gets cloudy?

[brandon429]

no we better not test it. unless you rinsed it clean during the move it w cloud, and that can be a shock. the system looks pretty nice though, nothing bad at all its a nice base to work from!
 

 

here's a safer test

 

shove a siphon tube down in the corner of the sand and draw out mud/sample water from the bottom, just enough to put in a cup

 

leave cup sitting 24 hours, then test for nitrate I bet its sky high. if so, that's your source #1 in the tank. leaking its waste slowly into the water. we better not cloud it up in the tank, if not rinsed by design back to clean, it w def cloud. you could leave things alone too, but most want lower nitrates. Paul B's full size 40+ yr old reef everyone knows about is a high nitrate system, just that measure above in fact. Id run lower in my setups, but with that param theres room for negotiation.

[brandon429]

 

 

if you want to fix your sandbed, that's the direct action above, we fixed his

[Javiv]

Thanks i want to rearrange the rock work next, i want to break some pieces to open it up a little. Do you suggest cleaning the rocks also? Or just cleaning the sand bed, I did not want to lose the coralline that is on the rocks.

I will siphon out some water from the tank and test it, I will let you know how it test tomorrow.

thanks!

[brandon429]

if that was my system it would be the complete clean, but research what he did in that example thread he did really good on pics and follow up pics/rock cleaning. your rocks have less algae, so id just rinse them really well in saltwater outside the tank. rinse out the sandbed like we did there, reassemble your tank back together in the clean setting. since you can wait on adding fish you have it easier, he was using a fish directly upon resetup we had to be very thorough in that cleaning thread to be safe. I think your sandbed is 90% of your nitrate reading, then also allow for test kit variance. we have threads with a poster remarking 5 ppm nitrates on one kit, 100 on another, they're all over the web. your own nitrates may be half of what you are seeing. get readings verified too imo.

[Javiv]

That is what i find crazy, my original tank is at 0 Nitrates with 2 different kits, this one at least 160 with the same kits. My LFS said it was ok. I may take it to another LFS just to make sure. 

 

But yes I will test tomorrow and let you know. 

 

Thanks

[Javiv]

Hi Brandon, 2 different kits same result nitrates high. I will clean sand and rocks this week and let you know how it goes.

 

thanks for your help!

[brandon429]

nice! thanks for posting we will use this in our sand rinse thread after its ready.

[Clown79]

I would bet it's from an old sand bed. If you say the tank was dirty-the sand would be 10 times worse.

 

You'd be surprised  what's in there after a yr and that's with vacuuming.

 

I'd either clean the sand as Brandon suggested or completely replace it.

 

Make vacuuming it during waterchanges a routine (once it's cleaned/replaced)

 

 

[Javiv]

I ended up replacing the sand bed with new sand, the sand was super dirty, I guess with moving it, also stirred everything up. All levels look great now thanks for your help guys!

all the inverts seemed to survive also.

should I wait a few days to begin to add my fish and coral? Or can I start adding them now?