Nitrate problems

[aedeos]

I've been doing one to three water changes a week for the last month or two, and my nitrates will not go down from around 80. I have an 85 gallon tank, putting in about 13 gallons each time. I skim pretty dry, so I increased the amount of flow today, hoping that might speed things up. Otherwise, I have no idea what to do. My sand bed goes from about 6 inches in front to almost nothing towards the back (maroon clown loves digging out the sand in his burrows), so I thought about adding more sand. Also considered more live rock. Any other ideas?

 

[Krish]

Tell us a bit more about your setup like if you use ro/di water, if you have a sump and if so, what's in it, what types of filters do you use, how often you change filter pads etc...That will give us a few ideas as to which direction to point you in

 

[mmkeeper]

Have you tested your water you use for waterchanges?

 

[Scooterman]

Before adding more to your tank, It would be better to find out what is causing the high nitrates. Changing out 13g isn't much on a tank that size, but without a real picture of what you have It is hard to tell where you may be having problems. Questions as mentioned above, how old is this tank, what test kits you use name brand, salt mix? What do you have in your tank as live stock, corals etc. You could have many causes so through information will get you better results but don't rush & try several things without finding out the real source of the problem.

 

[aedeos]

okay, breakdown of everything

Livestock:

5 blue chromis
1 yellowtail damsel
1 snowflake eel (14")
1 banded eel (12")
1 maroon clown
1 hawkfish
1 coral beauty angel
1 brittle star
2 turbo snails (need to get more real soon :-/)

Corals:
1 tubastrea (sun polyp)
1 basically dead korean tree, but it's putting out offshoots so I don't want to remove it.
1 flowerpot
1 small zoanthid frag

Filtration:
biowheel filter with charcoal, changed roughly a month ago
prism red sea skimmer, 120 gallon model, skims pretty dry

Water:
tap water, can't afford RO/DI, but I let water changes settle for 2 days before going into tank. Just did a salt change because the local store stopped carrying my brand. Forget what I switched to.

Tank is roughly 9 months old, moved about 5 months ago with all water saved. Smaller water changes were used for awhile successfully, then about 3 months ago, I didn't get a single water change in for a month. I got my game back together finally and started doing water changes again, with the larger quantity, with at least one a week, usually 2 or 3. Unfortunately, I've seen no decrease.

 

[dailydriven911]

okay, breakdown of everything

Livestock:

5 blue chromis
1 yellowtail damsel
1 snowflake eel (14")
1 banded eel (12")
1 maroon clown
1 hawkfish
1 coral beauty angel
1 brittle star
2 turbo snails (need to get more real soon :-/)

Corals:
1 tubastrea (sun polyp)
1 basically dead korean tree, but it's putting out offshoots so I don't want to remove it.
1 flowerpot
1 small zoanthid frag

Filtration:
biowheel filter with charcoal, changed roughly a month ago
prism red sea skimmer, 120 gallon model, skims pretty dry

Water:
tap water, can't afford RO/DI, but I let water changes settle for 2 days before going into tank. Just did a salt change because the local store stopped carrying my brand. Forget what I switched to.

Tank is roughly 9 months old, moved about 5 months ago with all water saved. Smaller water changes were used for awhile successfully, then about 3 months ago, I didn't get a single water change in for a month. I got my game back together finally and started doing water changes again, with the larger quantity, with at least one a week, usually 2 or 3. Unfortunately, I've seen no decrease.

I would ditch the biowheel and get a better skimmer. Nitrates will stick around especially in the biowheel. Also the two eels are most likely producing alot of waste as the eat and defecate. Look into a skimmer that's rated for at least 150-200 gallons. Better to over skim then under skim. Do larger water changes and let us know if that helps. Also how are you providing flow? How much?

G/L

Jayson

 

[plack]

When you do a large water change ( More than 25%) . Vacum the sand bed (get a different skimmer) and if you have a sump get 100 micron socks for the return water to go thru. Also change them out and clean them every few days. Clean out your overflows if you have one also.

I agree the Brand of skimmer without being modified is not sufficent for that tank (Too many fish) . Your sand bed has nothing to stir it but a maroon and sand beds work on lower bio loads .You need to have it stirred by somthing. There are many options but you all ready have enoughp fish ! ( I have a maroon also and he does the same thing it seems enevitable).

Skimmerwhisperer is a skimmer ADDICT but the perfect one to get advice from for a skimmer and I would PM him !!!

 

[Krish]

biowheel filter with charcoal, changed roughly a month ago
prism red sea skimmer, 120 gallon model, skims pretty dry

Water:
tap water, can't afford RO/DI, but I let water changes settle for 2 days before going into tank. Just did a salt change because the local store stopped carrying my brand. Forget what I switched to.

These two are probably the culprits of your nitrate issues...The end product of anything it a wet/dry environment which in this case is the bio-wheel, will be nothing but nitrates and secondly the fact that you are using tap water, chances are it contains nitrates to some degree. Not very often do you find tap water suitable for aquarium use. I never bought an ro/di system, but bought ro/di water from the water plant here under $1.00 a gal which worked well

 

[mmkeeper]

Check ebay you can find a good 100 gallon per day, for around $100. Search ro/di filter not aquarium or reef. Anything that has aquarium with it will be more for the same thing.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If I'm reading this right, you have no live rock in your tank? Just the biowheel? If that's true, then like Krish said, that's your main issue - you have no way to rid yourself of the nitrates except for water changes. And if you're using tap/well water for your water changes, you're putting nitrates right back into the tank. Test your tap water for nitrates to get a feel of your levels. If you're on a public system, you shouldn't be too bad - but you'll still have some.

 

[Reeferdude]

I would agree 100% with Kurt on testing your tap water first before assuming it's the main problem. In other words, before buying a rodi unit, make sure you need one. If your tank is mainly a fish only tank higher than normal Nitrates are not necessarily a bad thing since fish tend to be more accepting of higher levels. You said you are considering "more liverock" which I think will eventually help alleviate the problem. How much liverock do you have now?

Your current water changes at 13gal "usually 2 or 3" times a week is quite a bit. That's about 15% every time. My guess would be that since you moved the tank only "5 months ago" you may have increased/caused the problem by stirring things up and they just haven't balanced out yet since you re-used the old water.

Was there a Nitrate problem before you moved the tank? And...Was the same equipment/filter/skimmer used on the tank before the tank was moved, or did you make changes and or additions? Naturally if the tank had no nitrate problem prior to the move and the same equipment was used, I would tend to think the problem was not equipment related.

 

[DonW]

This

5 blue chromis
1 yellowtail damsel
1 snowflake eel (14")
1 banded eel (12")
1 maroon clown
1 hawkfish
1 coral beauty angel

and this

"I have an 85 gallon tank"

Would be my guess.

Don

 

[120gallons]

Test your tap water. What are it's nitrate readings? Also get a second test kit to compare. Either your tap water has nitrates, or your test kit is bad.

 

[aedeos]

To start off, I removed the biowheels so it's just a charcoal filter and a pump now. Hopefully that'll help lower ranges. I think a lot of the jump in nitrate started around when I installed the filter. I'll look into a bigger skimmer when I have some more funds, but holidays hit me hard, and the tree the front end of my car found on Christmas night hit me harder

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

How much live rock do you have? If not alot, your biowheels were probably serving a purpose and taking them out will take out a portion of the ammonia-converting bacteria. The fact that you say the nitrates didn't jump until after you installed them tells me you had a fair amount of activity going on in those things. Might want to keep tabs on your ammonia over the next few days/weeks. People damn biowheels as being "nitrate factories", but that's what they were designed for and if you don't have anyplace else for bacteria to set up shop, you need them. The only bad thing about them is that they don't house the bacteria that will help you convert the nitrates to nitrogen gas.

I agree with DonW though... I missed the fact that you have two eels in there when you listed your fish. Fairly good sized crew you got in that tank.

And bummer about the car/tree thing. Glad to hear you can still type!

 

[aedeos]

It was an unlit, unmarked road in the middle of nowhere. Came out of one corner to find a sudden 90 degree turn. Tried stopping and turning at the same time, but it was snowing/raining and I only slowed enough to not get seriously injured. I might have bent the frame though, so I might be in search of a new bar. Not fun.

I have about 120 pounds of live rock, I'd guess. I've definitely noticed a sharp increase in algea growth over the last few days, so I'm guessing that's kind of a good sign because it means the tank is getting less messed up so that those can grow. Not I just need to get it even cleaner so that they don't grow anymore.

Tanks are really a process. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some more snails start dealing with all the algae and then go from there. I'm going to shop around for skimmers, too. But that would be a bit ways off. I also might have to move the tank again shortly, which would not be an enjoyable experience.

 

[Reeferdude]

Moving the tank is not working in your favor but life must go on and we gotta do what we gotta do. Sorry about the car man. My wife was rear ended 3 days before Christmas causing about six thousand dollars damage to our 2007 Nissan with only 4500 miles on it...

 

[aedeos]

If I have to move the tank, I'm just going to move it to my parents house, where I know it can be stationary for a few years. With college and all sorts of jobs popping up around the area, I just don't know one area where I'll be stationary long enough that it makes sense for me to move it into there. I need to graduate and get into an actual house before I can start up with a ton of tanks and the like.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I have about 120 pounds of live rock, I'd guess.

Oh! Well if you have 120 lbs in a 85g tank, then yeah... those biowheels probably weren't doing much for ya!

 

[aedeos]

I pulled the bio-wheels anyway and threw a bag of these nitrate-removing pellets into my main filter. Hopefully that'll help out. Maybe with birthday money I'll pick up a skimmer geared towards 250 gallons.