High Nitrates..

[james734]

Okay, this is something that has been bugging me for the past couple months on my 75gal tank

High Nitrates around 20-25PPM.. Test kit is Salifert.

Here's the run down of all my numbers.

Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8.2 -8.3
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:20-25
Alk: 3.43
Calc:366
Phos: 0

So since this past week I decided I was going to fight this once and for all. I've did a 15G WC on Thrus. Did a 20G on Sat Morning, and just did another 20g this morning. Nitrates still at 25PPM. It's killing me. No matter how much water I change they stay right at 25. My tank is very clean I have very little to no detritus accumlation anywhere. I've tested my RO water and fresh SW (IO salt) and both show 0PPM. I have no filter sponges, Filter socks, etc. I do use some Poly Prefliter media on the return into the sump but this get's replaced weekly.

I only feed frozen Mysis, Formula1 and Formula2 and Sea Weed Selects. I feed the sea weed selects 2 times day and it's only 1/4 of a sheet. In the evening (daily) I feed 1 cube of 1 of the frozen foods mentioned above.

Also as a FYI: I do weekly WC changes of 10 to 15Gals per week.

Any ideas what might be causing this..

 

[DonW]

Verify your test kit and test your water change water again.

Don

 

[james734]

I tested my fresh SW twice this morning. I have taken tank water to LFS to verify and they get the same thing. Only thing I haven't done is take fresh SW in for testing.

I have tested with Fastest and it shows 0 but I don't trust it enough to believe it.

 

[DonW]

Your N should be falling. If all the test are accurate I'd do a 50% then retest. If N does not fall dramatily its either in the mix or the test are off.

Don

 

[james734]

That's what I tought. The Nitrates where at 25 when I started the process and are still at 25 after doing 55gals over 4 days. No matter what I do it stays at 25 regardless how much water I change. What's another good test kit besides Salifert. I wonder if My LFS and I have test kits from the same batch that might be bad? I don't know. How are the SeaChem kits?

I'd like to get this figured out before my wife thinks i've gone crazy with water changes.

 

[Krish]

How old is your setup James? Also, are you running a sand bed? I know people with sand beds have nitrate free tanks, but for me personally, I never went nitrate free until I went bare bottom (not saying that is your problem though) If you do run a sand bed, are you cleaning it properly weekly with your water changes (vaccuming if a ssb)? One problem some people encounter with sand beds is when they set up their tank, they put the sand in first and toss the rock on top which is a no no. What happens then is you have sand that never gets touched when cleaning because they are under the rocks...One of my biggest problems when I had sand. I'm just tossing out some ideas here. You sound like you are doing everything just right IMO. Everything sounds great to me! Sorry you are experiencing these problems. Hopefully we can help you sort them out. The sand bed was the first thing that came to my mind why I mentioned it

 

[james734]

Krish,

The tank has been up for about 1-1/2 yrs. It's a BB tank with about 65-70LBS of LR that I blow of with a turkey baster a couple times a week. The rock is supported off the bottom of the tank with arcylic rods placed into a peg board piece of acrylic. My return from the sump is into a spray bar located under the rock.

I have approx 4500 GPH or flow in the tank.

I'm leading towards testing error right now, But i need to rule that out. I think I might take some water do to another LFS in my area and see what they test. Of course this won't really mater all that much if they're not using salifert. It will only provide the results based on the test they use. Which is who knows how accurate.

 

[Krish]

Well, definately I'm thinking it's in the testing. You seem to have everything in check and are practicing great husbandry skills. What made you check for nitrates? Was it from the development of algae lately, corals not doing well or do you just test for it regularily? It definately may just be the testing if everything is doing great in the tank and you aren't seeing any signs of problems that arise when high nitrate levels occur...

 

[james734]

Just on of my weekly tests. I very seldom check Ammonia or Nitrites, but I check my Nitrates, Calc, Alk, MG, Phos weekly. Things in the tank seem to be doing fine. Except I have 1 SPS that's been in the tank for about 1week that isn't getting a polyp ext. It was the first few days but has decreased since.

BTW: This is my first SPS, I have some LPS and softies that are growing like crazy. The SPS was a brown out from a friend he didn't want any more. So he gave it to me.

FYI: Lighting is 2-175w XM 10k sup with 4 VHO attinics.

 

[Krish]

Cool...Possibly like you suggested in the testing. If you try again, let us know what you come up with. Do you run carbon by any chance? Just curious

 

[james734]

no carbon..

 

[Krish]

Any particular reason? It helps a lot to absorb urine and stuff that your skimmer and water changes don't always get to. I run mine 24/7 and change it weekly. Not saying it is the only way or preferred way to do things (using carbon) but I know it helps me a lot

 

[james734]

No, Just haven't done it yet. I've been thinking about running some carbon in bag. Maybe I'll go and get some carbon and bag a see what i get.

 

[Krish]

Yeah, I have mine in a media bag hanging in the sump where the water comes in from the pre-filter now. You want it in a high flow area. You'll be surprised man...Get black diamond carbon if you can

 

[james734]

Just got some carbon. Going to place it in a filter bag and place in one of my filter trays in my sump. I have a filter tray where my drain drains into that I can place PolyFilter media and the sorts. Hopefully this will help.

FYI: I had my LFS test my tank water and fresh SW, they got the same results I do. So I now know it's not a testing error. I actually had 2 LFS test my tank water. One was 12.5 (Red Sea/Tetra test (Crappy test kit)). and the other uses salifert and a quick dip strip. both came out to the same 20PPM. .

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear that man...Any fish gone missing that could be dead and driving up nitrates? I can't begin to imagine what it could be (live rock saturation???), but in any event, see if the carbon helps any. I would change it in about a week for starters just to be safe. If there is a lot to be absorbed by it, the carbon may be come exhausted really quickly and you don't want it to release everything back into the water afterwards. Good luck and keep us posted

 

[Slickdonkey]

You didn't mention if you were running a refugium? After I got mine going with some chaeto, my nitrates dropped from 10 to 0 within three weeks. It helps if you prune it about once a week.

 

[james734]

Sorry to hear that man...Any fish gone missing that could be dead and driving up nitrates? I can't begin to imagine what it could be (live rock saturation???), but in any event, see if the carbon helps any. I would change it in about a week for starters just to be safe. If there is a lot to be absorbed by it, the carbon may be come exhausted really quickly and you don't want it to release everything back into the water afterwards. Good luck and keep us posted

Nope everything is accounted for . I'll just have to see what happens.

 

[james734]

You didn't mention if you were running a refugium? After I got mine going with some chaeto, my nitrates dropped from 10 to 0 within three weeks. It helps if you prune it about once a week.

No refug. I've ran some cheato for a little while just never could get it to grow. Which if it's not growing it's not doing any good. I even went and bought the same or sim to the bulb I think you bought from HD. Still no growth. Not sure if the light wasn't close enough or what but....

 

[Krish]

Well, James...I don't run a fuge and have 0 nitrates. Good husbandry, great skimming, tons of flow to keep my rocks clean and small bio-load worked great for me with my cube so far