Need help!!

[leeboy-83]

My nitrates are high and i am gailing to find the cause of the spike also,failing to reduce the levels they are up and will not come down! Has anyone any knowledge that can help cos im starting to loose snails and crabs!

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

Do a big water change, I would also clean the live rock with the water your gonna throw away in a big bin and do a 80% water change.
If that don't help I don't know

 

[leeboy-83]

Its a 600 litre system,ive turned over %40 in the last 7 days and the level has not moved! The system has been running over 6month and until recently has had zero nitrate,there is only 7 fish in there too! I need to find the cause of the spike but i dont know where to look lol

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

What kind of filtration system are you running?
What are your water parameters?
I had my nitrates at 80! I scrubbed every rock, I used up a 100 gallons of my water from the tank, had it in 3 bins. 1- to hold all the rock from the tank, 2- scrub the rock 3- rinse the rock before I put it back into my dt. That I obviously had to top off with 100 gallons of new water! All day job 400lbs of rock, it got my nitrates down to 5-10? Couldn't tell the diff. in colour of the test.

 

[leeboy-83]

Its a 3ft 3 chamber sump,water enters wier from main tank down an outlet pipe and also an over flow pipe through a filter sock into the first chamber.th skimmer is positioned in the 2nd chamber(fuge) with the pump.the outlet goes back into the first chamber and also through another filter sock.all water will pass through marine bio media into the fuge.

The fuge (2nd chamber)
This has a deep coral sand bed about 20-25 kg of live rock and some macro algae (cheato) both walls in the sump are open by an inch gap at the bottom of the walls,so through the sand into the fuge and though the sand out.

The last section of the sump contains the return pump and an extra established internal filter just for fun!

Any ideas for change are welcome i cleean the filter socks 1ce a week

 

[leeboy-83]

All my parameter are perfect apart from nitrates bud!,somethings causeing a spike and im not sure what

 

[Sgc1107]

All my parameter are perfect apart from nitrates bud!,somethings causeing a spike and im not sure what

I've used bio fuel before. I was in a similar place, had no clue where the spike came from and WC didn't work! I knew I had to get it down before I started loosing things! The bio fuel helped big time but the down fall was I never figured out the problem. Since I've upgraded my pump on my skimmer and its pulling out 1 the amour of crap it was before! Maybe this was my problem but I still don't know for sure.

 

[leeboy-83]

Im starting to wonder if ive somehow changed something thats triggered off a new cycle and maybe i just need time for the live rock to work its nitrifying process again! I love keeping marine but it can be stressful and a guessing game.

 

[Grizz]

Im gonna say your DSB is the cause of the nitrAtes
The fuge (2nd chamber)

"This has a deep coral sand bed about 20-25 kg of live rock and some macro algae (cheato) both walls in the sump are open by an inch gap at the bottom of the walls,so through the sand into the fuge and though the sand out."

With the water flowing through the sand your losing the anarobic (sp) bacti that breaks down the nitrAtes and turns it into nitrogen gas DSB's need a oxygen free zone in order to work. either get rid of the DSB or block the holes so the water flows over the sand

 

[leeboy-83]

The sump is designed for the water to pass through the bottom!,the walls of the sump run level with the top so water can only pass under!,ive had zero nitrates for months until now using this same system.there is also another 40-50 kg of live rock in the main tank.i was under the impression that live rock completed the nitrifying process?

 

[Grizz]

It does help but the anaerobic bacteria still need a low O2 zone to grow my thoughts are your are losing that zone with the water flow through the DSB With out the anaerobic bacti the nitrAtes will build until it reaches a point where it feeds on it's self and is very hard to lower. With the holes in the bottom of the baffles your sump is not set up for a DSB.

 

[Mebbid]

I would replace the DSB with refugium rubble, that's the media the lower baffles are designed for.

How big are the water changes that you're doing? You said you've changed over 40% of the water but if you're only changing 10% of the water multiple times then you aren't really removing much nitrate from the water at all.


Also, like Ivan said; a thorough cleaning of the rocks is a good option.