Nitrate Problem

[borlaracing9]

Hello guys, I have had my tank up now for about 2 months and i cannot get the nitrate below 20mg/L for the life of me. I have done 5 huge water changes (75% of the water). I added nitrate removing non toxic fish safe chemical (forget the name of it) and changed my filters on my canister and HOB. It than dawned on me to check my source water which was tap water. That tested right out to 20mg/L. I than tested a 4 stage hang on the sink model pur filters water and again 20mg/L came back. I am beginning to think i am gonna need to buy an RO/DI unit to filter my water, they are just so darn expensive for a water filter .
If anyone has any advice or knowledge of why my water is testing so high, it would be greatly appreciated as always. I was under the impression water from the water company shouldn't have more than 5 mg/L of nitrate.. but i may be wrong.
On a happier ending note heres a pic of my tank and its fish so far.
2 damsels
1 perecula clown
1 black perecula clown
All them are getting along quite well out of quarantine and are making quite a happy little fish family!

 

[thominil]

If you look on ebay you should find some decent ones for around $100. If you are just doing fowlr you should be fine. Don't add any chemicals as they tend to either not do anything at all, or make the problem worse. Looks great!

 

[ryshark]

Your tank looks nice. I agree about looking on Ebay for a decent RODI unit for a good price. It is a lot more than just the Nitrate which the unit filters out. I can't imagine not using one. I highly recommend you get yourself one before you get a bad algae outbreak which is bound to happen.
Aslo do you have BioBalls, cylinders or some sort of sponge in your filter? If so take that out and it will help reduce Nitrates. Your Live Rock should be good enough where you don't need any of those listed above.

 

[borlaracing9]

If you look on ebay you should find some decent ones for around $100. If you are just doing fowlr you should be fine. Don't add any chemicals as they tend to either not do anything at all, or make the problem worse. Looks great!

Thanks for the advice i appreciate it!

 

[borlaracing9]

Your tank looks nice. I agree about looking on Ebay for a decent RODI unit for a good price. It is a lot more than just the Nitrate which the unit filters out. I can't imagine not using one. I highly recommend you get yourself one before you get a bad algae outbreak which is bound to happen.
Aslo do you have BioBalls, cylinders or some sort of sponge in your filter? If so take that out and it will help reduce Nitrates. Your Live Rock should be good enough where you don't need any of those listed above.

Thank you for the tank compliment! I dont have bio balls but i do have a huge sponge filter in my fluval 305 canister and i believe the 2 filters are sponge based in my HOB but not positive. I know fluval makes a nitrate removing media i dont know how well it works maybe i should try removing my sponge media and adding some of that? I will also check out the RO/DI units on ebay cause i have heard nothing but good things about them!

 

[ryshark]

Thank you for the tank compliment! I dont have bio balls but i do have a huge sponge filter in my fluval 305 canister and i believe the 2 filters are sponge based in my HOB but not positive. I know fluval makes a nitrate removing media i dont know how well it works maybe i should try removing my sponge media and adding some of that? I will also check out the RO/DI units on ebay cause i have heard nothing but good things about them!

Those sponges are called "nitrate factories." I doubt you will ever get close to 0 nitrate with those sponges in there. What I would do, is slowly remove sponges over a couple weeks. I would also get one of those RODI units and get a sump and stop using the canister filter. This is if you want to keep coral. If you want Fish Only, then the 20ppm of Nitrate is not a big deal.

 

[CaptainAhab]

I think we've been through this before. Have your lfs test your tap water. I doubt it's 20.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f45/nitrate-problem-122960.html

 

[borlaracing9]

I think we've been through this before. Have your lfs test your tap water. I doubt it's 20.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f45/nitrate-problem-122960.html

my bad forgot about that post

 

[austinsdad]

I rinsed all my sponges that were prefilters to pumps. Wonder if that'll help you.

BTW, 20 and below are acceptable for a lot of people. It giving you any trouble?

 

[Jaybird]

If you don't plan on keeping corals then I wouldn't worry. If you want the nitrates down, find some good macro algae. They will use the nitrate as "food". Most people recommend Chaeto as it doesn't go sexual, meaning it won't be popping up all over your tank. Get a small ball and watch it grow.

 

[Ziggy953]

I would have your water tested by another source to verify your numbers. All of the above are great suggestions on how to handle this issue. Bottom line though if you are replacing water that already has high nitrates you aren't really getting anywhere. As was mentioned if you aren't going to house corals then 20 isn't so bad. If you are going for corals then there are several adjustments you may want to consider to your system and RO/DI should be at the top of the list.