newbie help... high nirate readings..

[mani3009]

Since ive joined ive learnt a lot about my new reef tank, although has of yesterday i had a bicolor die on me and my nitrate reading is thru the roof 75.m/ltr. i have a 55g tank with a few clowns and some regal tangs, which dont seem to have been affected by the high nitrate just yet.

ive done approx 3 x 10% water changes in the last 24hrs but yet to see any drop. im using local tap water with a conditioner, is this my problem i should i try to do a 30-40% water change in one hit. im really desperate and would much appreciate any help from the experts.. thanks

 

[prbhasson]

Welcome to Rf. You definately need to do water change but using ro/di water. Also, how many tanks in that tank? quite small for more than 1. How long did your tank cycle? I am sure you will hear from others as I am no expert but you need to make sure and cycle your tank and goooo slow on adding livestock. goo luck and wish you well...

 

[prbhasson]

oops I meant how many tangs in the tank??? Not Tanks

 

[mani3009]

just 2 clowns and 2 regal's... 5 in total with the bicolor when it was alive.. might try a 30% water change with ro/di in one go..

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! Yeah, I would check your make up water and use ro/di water if your water has a high levels of nitrates coming right out of the tap. Also, what type of equipment are you using in your system (ie type of skimmer, filters, are you using bio-balls or something with a bio-wheel etc.) That will also help determine if some of your nitrates may be coming from somewhere else as well.

I hope you get everything under control soon and enjoy your time here

 

[mmkeeper]

Test your tap water. I have a RO for drinking in my kitchen that I was using for makeup water and it had NO3 @ 50. So I installed a ro/di in my garage with 0 NO3.

 

[curro18]

mani3009, i would definitey get a hold of some ro/di water and only use that from now on. When i started my first saltwater tank, i used regular tap water and had high nitrate problems for a long time until i bought an ro/di unit and eventually got the nitrates down to 0. I have started two other tanks since then and started them with ro/di water and the nitrates went to zero after the initial cycle. good luck.

 

[Little Luey]

Welcome to the forum.
Tell us more about your tank. How long has it been running? do you have a skimmer? how much live rock/sand do you have? how are the rest of your parameters? ammonia, PH, salinity, etc...
definatly get RO water, at the very least use drinking water, yea I know some may jump on me for saying that but I don't know how available RO water is in Australia.