high nitrate levels

[cobyb]

well to start off i havent tested for nitrates for a while then i got a nother korilla 4 power head did a 20% water change yesterday and tested everything tonight and my nitrate levle is 60-80 ppm. i have a 120 gal dt 55gal sump, and a 12 gallon tank that we are raising baby cardinals in. i have a basketball sized macro ball floating in sump, a reef octopus nw-200 skimmer that is always (screwy)? 3 k4 powerheads 600 gph return pump. well i feed dt 2 times a day with a nickel sized piece of mysis shrimp. but for the little baby cardnials they say to feed alot so we feed the three times a day dime size cyclops.

any help is greatly apprieciated thanks

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear man...The fact that you haven't checked things for a while kinda makes it hard to say what may have caused the high nitrate levels as it is quite possible these levels may have always been there and you just didn't know. Any idea at all when you last tested your nitrates and what the levels were?? On thing that does stand out a bit is the basketball sized ball of macro you have floating in your sump. As that macro grows it will bind up available nitrates (and phosphates) in your water, but you will need to trim it back, to export these things out of your system. What exactly are you using?? Chaeto?? Let us know...

 

[cobyb]

yes it is the chaeto, i am not sure how offten to trim it back. and it has been about a month sence i tested nitrate and then it was around 20.

 

[thatguy559]

the added flow probably pushed some crap off the rocks

 

[cobyb]

so if everything was in order how long will it take to get the nitrate to a level of 5 ppm or lower

 

[cobyb]

how often shoud the macro be trimed

 

[thatguy559]

i would do more water changes until you get your levels back down. while doing the changes suck off the crap on the rocks

 

[Krish]

the added flow probably pushed some crap off the rocks

That is quite possible, but that would be a good thing as any crap settling on any rocks, if left there will begin to rott and degrade water quality which in turn will shoot up nitrates so added flow to keep the rocks free of detritus is a good thing. You want that waste/detritus to remain in the water column to be filtered out. It is quite possible though that the flow could have stirred up the sand bed a bit releasing alot of the nasties in there if a sand bed is being used. Do you run a sand bed?? If so, how deep is it and how do you go about maintaining it? In additon to that, did you do anything differently on this last water change than you typically do or was it just the same old routine you always go by? Another thing is your make up water...Where do you get it from? Quite possibly the last batch you added in there could have had quite a bit of nitrates already present in it. With all that said, your nitrates may just have been on the rise within the past month and you just didn't know and it was only a coincadence that you noticed the increased levels after adding in a new pump and doing a water change. You will have to look at things like sponges, filter socks etc if they are being used and if so, how often are they being cleaned or changed. Also, how often you do water changes as well as how much water you change each time. Are you using ro/di water and how old is the setup. Just a few questions that might give us some idea as to what is actually causing the increased nitrate levels. It could also very well be that big ball of chaeto you are using. I would definately prune that back some to export some of those bound up nutrients out of your system. You don't need a huge ball. A small ball will grow fast as it uses up all of the available nitrates and phosphates in the tank. Let it continue to grow and continue to prune it back every so often. You may even be surprised at what you may find hidden underneath that huge mass of chaeto. If not using a filter sock before the fuge, you could quite possibly have a nice portion of waste/detritus sitting under there that would need to be vacuumed out. So many things to consider. Just tossing out a few things that come to mind.

 

[cobyb]

well my sand bed in my dt is only about 1.5-2" and i just vacuum the top if thier is some build up.and i have a ro system for fresh water and i checked that for nitrates when i first seen that my tank was high, and thier was'nt any trace. i do use filter socks, one at a time and i clean them about every three to four days. im going to cut back the macro to a soft ball size. and go from thier. how much should i be feeding. i feed my dt 2 times a day with a nickle size of mysis shrimp. i have 2 med tangs, 2 cardnials, 2 clowns, and 2 gobies in a 120 4x2x2. is that 2 much. and with the baby cardnials they say to feed them quit a bit. and we feed them 3 times a day.

 

[Tureefik87]

That's good you got more water flow to get any dead areas. I would do one thing at a time so you can find the root of the problem. And you can go from there. On some of my areas that dont get enough water flow i have a turkey stuffer to blow the dead areas to avoid a spike. From the research I read sometimes if you been using tap water it might be very hard to get rid of the nitrate in the old water. I think you can feed them once a day and they will be fine. And what kind of skimmer are you running?

 

[NWDiver]

Tureefik87: In the first post he says that he is using ro/di water, that he is running an octo 200 skimmer, and for the record it is NOT ok to feed fish fry once per day.

Cobyb: As thatguy says above, water changes are the way to remove nitrates. You might think about changing the filter socks every other day or so to help from building still more nitrates.

 

[cobyb]

thank you nwdiver i got my skimmer tuned in a little better and i hope that it will help. and im doing water changes. i was letting the socks go till they were almost overflowing before i would wash them, oops.
thanks coby

 

[Skimmy]

well, cylopeeze twice a day alone could cause your nitrates to elevate,
not to mention fish only consume 10% of the nutrient from food and pass the rest...
while your raising fish, you should be doing WC's every week,
as well as running carbon 24/7 and changing it like every 3-4 days.
and yeah, you should be cleaning out the socks every 4-7 days.
cleaning the neck on the skimmer every couple days will help too.

also, it sounds like you have issues with detritus build up in the main display,
you should pull your rocks and shake them clean in fresh saltwater at your soonest conveinence,
and of course siphon any detritus off the substrate.

 

[NWDiver]

For the reasons that the Skimster just pointed out, it is much easier to raise fish in a tank other than the display. You can feed lots and use water changes to export the nutrients without having many places to build up detritus.
For me, I worked on making water changes as easy as I can, that way I don't put it off

 

[OldFishMan]

If your not raising corals, enjoy your tank. Advice above is good, skim heavy at all times --- I like mine golden colored and a lot of it.

OFM

 

[ac7av]

+1 more on getting the baby’s off the grid with your main tank. Easer to deal with and that’s going to be a source adding to the nitrates. Much easer to do weekly water changes in a small system then trying to use the larger one to steady the nursery.