Water levels unchanged...

NC2WA · Jan 8, 2012

Over the past couple months my nitrates and phosphate levels have been 25ppm and 1.86-1.90ppm respectively.

I completed a 190 gallon water change today (yes this is correct and not a typo) and the levels did NOT go down...

how can that be??

I have a bio pellet reactor on for 1.5 months and has not made a difference (so far)..I was hoping to see some reduction of levels by now..

any ideas why the levels have been unchanged??

mojoreef · Jan 9, 2012

Hmm sounds like maybe a test kit issue?? also have you tested the WC water??

MOjo

NC2WA · Jan 9, 2012

i have not tested the WC water, but was thinking about this last night...I am in the process of making more RO water and will test when i get home. However, all sediment and carbon filters to the RO unit were changed two weeks ago, so I would be surprised if the nitrate or PO4 levels were high.

But yes, good suggestion..

Krish · Jan 9, 2012

That was my first thoughts as well. Either bad test kit or make up water. Changing 190 gals which is roughly 50% of your tanks volume if I remember the size correctly (375 gal?) should have had some impact on your parameters. Seems very odd that it didn't.

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Skimmy · Jan 9, 2012

your pellet rx needs more than a month and a half to really start kickin...
more like between 2 or 3 months.

you might be needing to take your live rock out and rinse it all along with detritus removal...
when was the last time you took the rock out for a quick scrub n shake??
do you have detritus build up in your system under rocks?
also, are you running GAc in a rx?? skimmer working well? overfeeding???

BigAl07 · Jan 9, 2012

Something isn't adding up here. It's hard to guess but 190 will be slightly over 50% when you take out for rock, sand etc from a 375 tank. With that percentage you should have seen an approximate NO3 reduction of around 50%. When you get down less than 20ppm to begin with it's hard to see a change that small but you should have noticed a visible change (of course this depends on the test kit). You have a "worm in the stew" somewhere...

A) Faulty test kit (out of date etc)
B) Fluke in your testing routine
C) Problem with your water system
D) Problem with your fresh salt mix.

You'll need to (I'd do them in this order to help eliminate from the beginning of the wagon back):

a) Test your RODI water
b) test your newly mixed Salt Water
c) get an alternate set of test kits or have a friend come over and bring theirs
d) get someone else to do the testing for you to help eliminate your test kits, your test procedures etc.

Your water might very well be better than you're thinking but as this point everything is just a guess.

If you find the Phosphates to indeed be present I'd want to get the Phosphate levels down before you have some form of nuisance algae outbreak.

Good luck and let us know.
Allen