I can't get my Nitrates lowered in my tank. Please help ASAP.

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Abiroad

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 21, 2013
Messages
172
Location
Dayton
I have a 20 gallong long tank.
Month 1/2 old.
Marineland Reef Ready LEDS.
Live rock, Live sand, Corals. Pair of OC clowns, and a coral beauty.

Along with a CUC of a sand sifter star. hermies. Cleanershrimp. Variety of Snails.

Two days ago I checked my para. and everything was fine except my nitrates were INSANE . Like blood red in the little vile, off the charts. No one seems upset though, the corals dont even seem bothered.

We did a 20 percent water change with RO water. Did Nothing.
We had just a wet/dry filter with bioballs. We took out half the bio balls, replaced them with live rock and some chaeta (SP?) , and cleaned all our filters.

I tested yesterday and i thought it had gotten better so i began to relax. it looked around 40 ppm instead of 120 ppm.

Well that test i must have done wrong because we did another water change yesterday, and all day yesterday and today it is off the chart.

My questions are

Can you do too many water changes? I dont want to induce stress ontop of high nitrates.

We have had no casualties. Even all hermies are accounted for, what could be causing this? Why is no one reacting to it? and WHAT DO I DO :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
 
What are you using to test? Did you shake properly. Are you getting towards end of bottle? Never to much water changes. Just make sure to temp match as much as possible. You could try a significant water change 50% plus.
 
It's the API Reef Master test kit. Two bottles. Ten drops each. I shook them both a lot i felt like, and it is a brand new bottle. I have tested and tested and tested and it's always red except that one time it was a bit lighter.

I have done 20% water changes yesterday and the day before. Its okay to do a 50% that soon after?
 
Also maybe check your RO water for nitrates before you put it in the tank. I had a major algae problem and was doing massive water changes and still had phospate issues. Come to find out it was the ro water I was buying.
 
Are you testing correctly? Put first in, shake like crazy, add second, shake more (making sure the bottles were shaken well too). Stupid question, maybe, but I've seen people do it wrong.
 
I think I am testing right, and the ro water was fine before i put it in the tank. But i feel like if they were that off the chart there would be some kind of visible indicator in the DT.

Has anyone used chaeta? When did you see results?
 
Well the tank is only a month and a half old its still a baby. How long ago were the fish added?

I had two clowns about 2 weeks ago, and one was teeny teeny and he got sucked into the filter. I replaced him with a fairly larger black OC. and they have been doing fine. The coral beauty i added the same day i did the initial water change and when i noticed the nitrates...2 days ago.
 
we had been doing 20% everyother week. So the intitial water change i mentioned when i noticed the spike was the second water change, since having fish etc.

I alternate between flakes and frozen brine with spirulina. Everyother day, if i feed the frozen i do usually about 1/2-2/3 of a cube. if its flakes i just do what they eat in about 3 minutes.

I also feed the corals once a week somekind of green coral food...i'm at work and forget the name of it. but just two squirts.

i also killed some aptasia with aptasia x last week idk if that is relevant or not.
 
Have you tried much for chemical filtration? I use Purigen and Chemipure and haven't had any spikes in the Nitrogen cycle.
 
Have you tried much for chemical filtration? I use Purigen and Chemipure and haven't had any spikes in the Nitrogen cycle.


I am not familiar with either of those things :blink:

Perhaps i should look into it... It is something i get from the LFS?
 
I got it under control with water changes and the cheata! Thanks everyone!
 
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