Nitrate levels through the roof!

[Yellow Jobber]

29 gal sw aquarium

I tested my water today and have some concerns. My nitrate level is very high at 100ppm. I did a pwc about 2 weeks ago 1/3 of the water. Replaced the carbon filter cartridge, cleaned sand bed, a general routine cleaning. I have a protein skimmer thats rated for 75gal. My phosphate is at about .5ppm. I don't have an algae problem but I am getting ready for corals. Why are my nitrates so high? How can I lower nitrate and avoid future problems? Calcium is good at 460 ppm and alkalinity is also good at 179 ppm or (10 dKH). ph is 7.8

 

[melosu58]

Frequent PWC`s will be needed and testing of your PWC and top off water are needed. 10% PWC`s every three days will help instead of every two or 3 weeks. IMO and IME.

 

[Ziggy953]

A list of what you have in the tank could help us out a lot. What types of filtration do you use? I see you have carbon are you changing that weekly? Do you have sponges in your filters? How much LR do you have?

When you are "cleaning" you really shouldn't disturb the sand bed. That will cause a lot more propblems then it will solve.

Give us a little more info about your tank.

Also doing PWCs weekly would be far better for your tank.

 

[NoSvOrAx]

Got a sump with some kind of macro algae in it? You need some sort of nutrient export. The sand bed is supposed to build up anerobic bacteria that break down the nitrate. If you disturb the sand, you add oxygen to it which will kill off the anerobic bacteria.

 

[Yellow Jobber]

No sponges.
No corals yet.
10-12lbs of live rock.
No sump.
Hang on back Emperor 280 filter with carbon filter cartridge and media cartridge.
Aquasea Remora protein skimmer rated for 25-75 gal.
One yellow tang
3 clowns
I do not do anything to improve alkalinity or calcium.
I replace the carbon filter with every pwc.

How am I supposed to keep the gravel clean if you say not to clean it? Maybe I'm using the terms gravel and sand bed interchangeably and shouldn't be. My gravel consists of small rocks and shell particles as it came like this out of the bag.

 

[melosu58]

My gravel consists of small rocks and shell particles as it came like this out of the bag.

This is where a bunch of your nitrates are coming from. Food and fish waste are getting between the crushed coral or gravel and turning into nitrates. You can vacuum it but you`ll never be able to get it all. You might want to think about changing over to sand. Much better and cleaner IMO

 

[lReef lKeeper]

My gravel consists of small rocks and shell particles as it came like this out of the bag.

This is where a bunch of your nitrates are coming from. Food and fish waste are getting between the crushed coral or gravel and turning into nitrates. You can vacuum it but you`ll never be able to get it all. You might want to think about changing over to sand. Much better and cleaner IMO

i agree 100% ... crushed coral is ok for certain things, but not for anything reef related,IMHO. i would switch this out for an Aragonite based DEEP sand bed. i would go with at least a 4 inch depth. if you know others in the hobby ... ask them for a couple of cups of their sand to kick start the bacteria.

i would also add about 17 more pounds of live rock. a ggo rule of thumb for rock is 1-2 lbs per gallon of saltwater.

 

[Yellow Jobber]

Thanks a lot everyone. I've come to realize that the store that sold me all my original equipment when I first got into this hobby about 4 years ago sold me a lot wrong stuff and gave me a lot of improper information. I have to break the old habits I guess. They said a pwc of 1/3 of the water once per month is all that is needed. Now I know better. I have recently stopped going to this lfs because all they seem to want is my money.

How can I go about switching to sand. If I understand correctly, live sand needs to cycle and will release ammonia. I unfortunately do not know anyone else in the hobby.

 

[h8z2luze]

That the classic way of the LFS 80% of them are in it for the money and/or dont know what they are doing. And thats why this site was made

 

[lReef lKeeper]

you will have to scoop out as much CC as you possibly can, and just pour in some RINSED Aragonite sand. you will go through the cycle again, but it will be worth it in the long run of the tanks life.

 

[Yellow Jobber]

Yeah but theres fish in there. Is the sand I will be adding just regular sand or should it have bacteria in it like my cc had or so I was told. Additionally, is it safe if LR leans against the aquarium glass?

 

[h8z2luze]

No you have to get Aragonite sand as reef keeper said and i would try not to lean the LR against the glass.

 

[lReef lKeeper]

oh, i didnt know you had fish. hmmm ... can you put the fish in a bare bottom 10 gallon tank or another tank you have sitting around ??

you COULD use live sand, but i really dont think it is very alive. i would just go with 1 bag of live sand and 1 50# bag of aragonite from a LFS that knows what they are talking about. sounds like a lot of sand, but you want to make about a 4" sand bed in there.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You are also EXTREMELY overloaded with fish. 3 clowns and a yellow tang in a 29 gallon is just a disaster waiting to happen. All the things previously noted by the others will help in getting those nitrates down, but you're still going to struggle with water quality with that much fish in there. I'd start thinking about a larger tank, or finding that tang a new home.

 

[lReef lKeeper]

GREAT catch Kurt !! i cant believe that i missed that !! dude, that tang has got to go, or you NEED a much bigger tank !! that is also a huge part of the problem.

that fish needs at the very minimum ... 75 gallons, but would do even better in a 6' tank.

 

[h8z2luze]

I was thinking the same thing but i didnt say anything cause i figured it was a very small tang and he was going to move it into a bigger tank. But yes that is to many fish for a 29G

 

[lReef lKeeper]

I was thinking the same thing but i didnt say anything cause i figured it was a very small tang and he was going to move it into a bigger tank. But yes that is to many fish for a 29G

even small tangs cover hundreds of miles or reef in the wild on a daily basis. so even a small tang IMHO, is to big for a small tank.

 

[Yellow Jobber]

I know, LFS screwed me over once again. I told them what I had and they sold it to me anyway. I've had this set up for about 3 years with these fish and am seriously considering a larger tank.

 

[roka64]

I removed my CC substrate and replaced it with sand, with fish in the tank. I did about 1/3rd of the substrate at a time, over about a three week period. I had no casualties, but I did have extra PWC in the event of my water spiking. Also, carbon starts to leech what it has absorbed after 1-2 weeks. I would look into purigen, great stuff!

 

[cmor1701d]

Change out the CC like Scott did; over a 3 week period, replacing about a third at a time. You'll want to create a barrier between the sand and the gravel part to keep too much from getting mixed together. A small piece of plexiglass is great for that.

New dry sand will cloud the water for days. You could use the wet bagged sand from the lfs that supposedly is LS, or you could just buy play sand (kids sandbox) from a hardware store (Home Depot/Lowes, etc.). You can mix batches in a 5 gallon pail with a cup of your gravel and fresh sw mix. Keep it heated and keep stirring it so that all the sand get's coated with bacteria. It should take about a week.

When placing the sand into the tank, first clear an area and section it off. Then you can fill some gallon plastic bags from the bucket, lower them in the tank and slowly release the contents. You could also use a section of large diameter pvc (3" or 4") that reaches the tank bottom. Drop the sand into that and then slowly raise it.

Once sand has been coated by bacteria it will settle to the bottom within minutes of being disturbed.

The sand does NOT need to argonite. It can be any sand that has sugar sized granules. It should be a high quality sand like the sand that is fit for children to play in. All metals and toxic elements have been removed/screened out.

You want more ROCK. You should have 1½ - 2 pounds of LR for every gallon of tank capacity. You can get more base rock to save money. It will become LR over the course a few months.

I would not lean any rock directly against the side glass. It should rest on the bottom glass though.