160 PPM Nitrate even after two water changes

[cuteios]

I need suggestions on what to do here.  I had been slacking with the water changes on my Nano for a few weeks and I found that the Nitrate levels were through the roof.  Yesterday it was at 160ppm, so I did an immediate 30% wc.  This got it down to 80 ppm.  But today I found it back up to 160ppm.  I did another 50% wc and then retested its still reading 160ppm.  I then tested the new batch of water and its zero ppm.  I'm not sure what's making it go through the roof.

 

My other parameters are as follows:

 

PH 8.2

Ammonia at 0 ppm

Nitrite at 0 ppm

SG at 1.023

Phosphate at 0 ppm

[R_Pierce]

do you run any media?

[cuteios]

I have seachem SeaGel and Denitrate, Filter cotton and some pumice stones in my filtration.  The SeaGel and denitrate bags were replaced last week.

 

[This guy is extra salty]

Put in a ball of chaetomorphaits a macro algae, your LFS will have it fairly cheap...it will reduce your nitrate to 0ppm in a couple of days

 

goodluck on the nano

[cuteios]

So I should try some macro algae?

[kinetic]

what, chaeto will not reduce nitrate to 0 in a couple days.

nitrates come from things breaking down into ammonia -> nitrites -> nitrates. So it's basically food going in will be pooped out and end up as nitrates unless a skimmer or some other export takes it out first.

 

You'll have to address the origin of the increase as well as an export. There's also a chance something died, or rocks are leaching out something, or you're overfeeding, or a lot of food or poop got stuck somewhere and is now breaking down.

 

You can try No3Po4-X to increase bacteria that will essentially bring both phosphates and nitrates down together, but the levels need to be fairly high in both of those things.

[This guy is extra salty]

Yes I would get some macro algae before dosing N0P0x.

 

@kinetic you should know nothing in this hobby takes a couple of days, don’t take things matter of fact.

 

Mostly what is the size of your tank?

what do you have for livestock?

Is it a fowlr?

what is your filtration?

 

[SaltyBuddha]

Denitrate should not be replaced. Denitrate is a media specifically designed for special bacteria to grow that uses up nitrates. Essentially, you removed all the good bacteria you had and will have to wait for more to grow. This needs to be kept in a low flow environment as well (50 gph). Good luck on figuring out where the nitrates are coming from

[Mark1313]

Look I'm new so grain of salt here. 

If it was me. I would figure something died and I can't find it, or ooops I removed the denitrate. Based on that assumption on my part, here's what I would do.

Blast that bitch with Stability and cross my fingers.

I'm not trying to make light, no one mentioned stability and I believe it'll help nitrates. Best of luck. 

[dandelion]

If you want to use WC to lower nitrate, the best way would be first take out say 75% of the water, then put in 25% of new water, take back out 25%, and put back 25%.... and so on and so forth, and at the end add enough water back to 100%. It uses less water and everytime you swap out the 25% you’re halving the amount of nitrate in the tank.

[brandon429]

this sounds like a sandbedded tank with those readings.

 

replace w new fully rinsed sand all at once, full wc, reacclimate fish, coral doesn't care, done

 

if this is bare bottom at over 100, I expect to see lots of fish

 

post pics

[patback]

You have decaying organics.  Get rid of the pumice.  100% useless if you have decent rock.  It is a debris trap.

 

Use a new turkey baster to blow all the holes in the brickwork free of debjlris and run the filter floss while it is in the water column.  Do a 90% water change and make sure to suck all the gunk out.  

[cuteios]

Thanks for all the advice I will work on removing the pumice and try another large water change with what dandelion suggested. fingers crossed.

 

And yes I have a sand bottom on this 10G cube.

[brandon429]

all things you do shy of cleaning the sandbed 100% are lesser actions for long term nitrate mitigation ~

 

here's how to tell when your sandbed isn't in play: reach in grab a handful, and drop it down. if its cloudless and only grains fall down like a snow globe, g2g

 

 

if you already know it cannot pass that test, we should make it pass then post a video of the test and your resulting nitrate measures. 100% wc, 100% sb clean, nitrate fixed.

[Clown79]

To reduce your nitrate by 50% you need to do a 50% waterchange.

 

Doing a 30% dropped it by 30% but clearly it jumped right back up because there is more import than export.

 

Slacking on the waterchanges allowed for nutrients to build. It's going to take time to get those back down.

 

go through your routine to find the cause of the problem.

 

Is floss changed 2 times a week

 

How often is media like carbon rinsed and replaced

 

Do you blast your rocks and vacuum your sand with every waterchange 

 

Is this an aio, if so have the chambers been scrubbed and siphoned

 

Have the pumps and hoses been cleaned