High nitrate question....help!

[bavass]

You've mentioned several times about using "BioClean". Not sure what that is, but if it's some type of bacterial supplement, and there's nothing in there for the bacteria to eat (ammonia from fish), then the bacteria is going to die off. And bacteria dieing off creates... nitrates.

I did some searching and found several snake oil... err... I mean "aquarium helpers" called "BioClean". Not sure what exactly the stuff is, but I'd wonder if that's not the source of your mystery nitrates - either directly or indirectly.

Adding uncured reef rock will cause die off, but I wouldn't think that'd be enough to boost the nitrate levels that much in a few days. I'd be suspicious of the stuff you're putting in the tank.

you might be onto something here with the bacteria dying because of no fish and no ammonia. I did a 15g water change yesterday and added a vial of the Biodigest and a vial of Bioptum well this morning the Nitrates are lower they are below 5ppm. Adding the two Green Chromis might have been the ticket. The bacteria might have died because there were no fish in the tank. It is lower the morning than it was after I did the PWC yesterday. Keep fingers crosssed! I will try and get a pic of sometime today of the tank and what it looks like now!

 

[bavass]

I really want to once again thank all you for your help and or advice. I know it must seem that this thread will never end. I am hoping that people can youse this thread later if they have Nitrate problems like I did. So I am trying to keep it detailed until my nitrates are 0 and I have some corals in the tank!

 

[bavass]

Photos of progress

So I finally got around to taking some pics of my tank this morning. Here are some pics. Looks much better! Thanks all! Can you see the difference you all have made?

This is a pic when I started trying to fix the Nitrates

These are pics of the tank today!

Left side

Middle and Right

and then the whole tank!

o and a pic of what I hope is coraline algae

 

[melosu58]

Looks like some pretty good progress. Keep up the good work.

 

[bavass]

back up to 10ppm tonight, WTH! would the clean up crew and sand bed team help?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

In my opinion, adding just 2 chromis isn't going to make the nitrates jump like you're finding in just two days - even without a cleanup crew.

Personally... I'd stop with adding the junk and see if your problem doesn't go away. 'Betcha it does.

 

[bavass]

might start doing 8-10g water changes twice a week instead of doing 15 once a week, maybe I am doing to much at once and causing a mini cycle?

 

[bavass]

stop adding bacteria?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yup.

 

[bavass]

I was under the impression that you are supposed to add bacteria to replenish it? I was adding to replenish my sand bed, live rock, and new reef rock. I have cut back to every two weeks.

 

[InfernoST]

The natural nitrifying bacteria in your tank will maintain and adjust to it's bioload on it's own providing there is an ammonia source in the tank. If you keep adding the bacteria and there is nothing for it to feed off of they will die off in large numbers and create nasty ammonia and nitrite spikes. A couple of pinches a food 2 or three times a week should be suffice, no need to use the bottled stuff. Remember you can't rush mother nature, if you try to it will backfire on you.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yup yup.

I think you find the VAST majority of folks here put absolutely nothing like this in their tanks.

 

[bavass]

Then I will start doing 8g or 10g water changes twice a week till it hits 0 and not add any bacteria. What about when I add ne fish, or inverts?

 

[InfernoST]

You have to add the fish in small increments to give your biological/nitrifying bacteria time to increase to the additional bioload. This is why a large amount of fish should never be put into any tank in a short time frame because there wont be enough nitrifying bacteria in the tank to process the ammonia properly causing ammonia and nitrite spikes which can kill the fish, the bacteria will eventually catch up to the bioload but the damage would have already been done. Slow and steady is the key to success.

 

[bavass]

my biggest worry was adding the cleanup crew! Can I add them with nitrates at 5-12ppm? To me that is a lot to add at onetime

 

[InfernoST]

5-12 isn't a problem.

 

[bavass]

you say to go slow which I am trying to do. What do you recommend for water changes? To continue bringing nitrates down to 0? I was doing 25g every Sunday but went to 15g every Sunday and now thinking of doing 8g-10g twice a week. One on wensday and one on sunday.

 

[thincat]

IMO, one large water change is better then two small one. With smaller PWC's the waste is just diluted and you remove less waste.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Don't forget... there are fish in the tank now. I've lost track of how big this tank is (hint hint about the "My Tanks" section) but I wouldn't change more than 30% with fish in there.

 

[thincat]

Yes, one 30 percent is better then 3-10 percent changes...