Help with ammonia an nitrate

[earlysteven]

so my ph is 8.2 and my nitrite is 0 but my ammonia is .50 and my nitrate is 80-160 I think anybody know why ? I've had this set up for three months has two clownfish and mushrooms . I do ten percent water changes once a week and have a 150 gallon aquarium with a sump and a skimmer .

 

[earlysteven]

And I test once a week my nitrates have always Ben high and have Ben trying to get them down with culerpa in the sump .

 

[bribo12]

Some thing has to be wrong with that kit. At those levels fish would be dying.

 

[earlysteven]

Hmmm idk how old it is could be the test kit maybe .

 

[carey]

High nitrate, even that high wont kill fish. the ammonia level isnt that high either, its not good by any means but it will slowly kill a fish rather than immediately like say a 4ppm ammonia reading.

Have you added anything recently to the tank? Has anything died recently in the tank?
And finally, how did you cycle the tank? How long did it take? Any live rock and how much? Add any of that recently? Something is causing a spike....Need to identify it and fix it

 

[earlysteven]

I bought it from some one and kept the water so it was cycled and I only add purple up . Other than that I see a mushroom floated off my rock but it's not shriveled up .

 

[earlysteven]

My guess on live rock is 20-30 pounds lol I know it's not enough but I'm working on it

 

[carey]

Have you tested your water that you use for water changes? What kind of water do you use? Tap water or ro/di water? ANd you can stop using that purple up, its just calcium.

If there is no ammonia at all in your source water i would do a rather large water change and see what the reading is. It will make your nitrates go way down as well. You need to get rid of that ammonia first and the big water change will do it I bet. How big is your tank?

 

[earlysteven]

I use tap water and I have a 150 gallon I was thinking of doing a 30 percent water change tomorrow .

 

[earlysteven]

And no I haven't tested my water I'll have to do that as we'll tomorrow

 

[jeffaquarius]

Are you using the old substrate when you bought the tank? I missed your last post. Tap water is a no no. That explains your high nitrate level.

 

[carey]

Another really good question. If you used the original sand or gravel or whatever you have then that is also I;d say the most likely source of ammonia. Moving a tank and not using new sand can muck up all the nasty crap in the sand and cause massive spikes. A good sized water change, like 50g would be a good place to start.
make sure the temp, salinity and ph are as close as you can get them so you dont shock what you have in the tank.

 

[earlysteven]

Temp is at 76-78 usually and ph is 8.2 and salinity is .024

 

[earlysteven]

Yes Jeff same substrate and I'm looking into a ro system.

 

[carey]

Those are good numbers, make sure the water change water you put in match those numbers as close as you can.

 

[earlysteven]

I will I was told I could always go buy ro water would that be a bad idea since it's all tap water now ?

 

[carey]

Using ro water from now on would be an awesome thing to start doing!! It will help the tank not hurt it.

 

[earlysteven]

This might sound like a dumb question lol but do the big water dispensers usually have a penguin on them provide ro water?

 

[jeffaquarius]

When I started I buy ro water from grocery store at 25 cents per gal. But with the old substrate it will take you a loooong time to lower your nitrate down. Once you are ready for coral the ro/di is a must.

 

[earlysteven]

I'll have to look into that Jeff and I just started looking into ro systems it's gonna be awhile before I get any corals I want to have everything as perfect as possible before I make that move.