Nitrates won't Go away , need advice!

[CaptainAhab]

20 isn't that big of a deal.. get the shrimp. 90G reef here... rarely if EVER below 20...

 

[francis]

LOL captain ahab . I think I love you . I will get the snails first along with maybe 20 more lbs of live sand. Do a maybe 25% water change, and just get the shrimp. I was thinking of getting the uhh yellowhead goby for the gunk on my sand bed? I saw them sifting the sand through the gills, wondering if that would solve my problems

 

[CaptainAhab]

Nope, if you're talking about a yellow watchman.. He's a pure carnivore... Mine, and his little shrimp buddy love hunks of shrimp... Did I say shrimp?

 

[francis]

Well guys I went out and got me some more live sand, sitting on about 4-5" in the front of the tank. I still know that I will have to wait for any good bacteria to grow though. So in the mean time is there any ideas on what was causing and still is causing my high nitrates?

I do not have fish in the tank, only about 6 hermit crabs and 2 nasarrius snails. When I do water changes sometimes I blow air over the live rocks to get the sand off and I think some of the rocks are dying off and gunk comes off. Also I have been "somewhat" stirring the sand bed, but better described as rummaging through the top 1" only. I also have been swishing my filter around to get the gunk off of that too.

I really want to try and get a handle on my nitrates, and the main advice of water changes simply does not seem to be doing the trick. Is there something I might be missing that is just keeping my nitrate levels the same?

 

[CaptainAhab]

The odds of you creating a true DSB with anaerobic bacteria in sufficient quantities is remote. For all the talk, I doubt there are many that maintain enough to process 20ppm of nitrate. I would look at how much you feed and the quality of the food. Even though there are no fish in there now, I assume you are feeding something. If not, the bacteria will die.. Anywhoooo back to where I was.. When you were feeding (let's assume over feeding , even a tad bit), all that excess is decomposing and resulting in nitrate creation. It's going to take time but the keys are a) water changes b) not to over feed c) quality food d) rinse alot (outside of the tank) those filters or get rid of them all together (better). If you have no fish and are changing that much water anyway, then why not do a 80%+ bu;k change. If immediately after that your nitrates still read as high (though as I said, 30 isn't THAT bad).. then it's either the kit, the operator or the water source

 

[francis]

Yeah originally I was dosing ammonia for my fishless cycle, then I was feeding my 1 sebae clown umm 1/4th of a block of frozen brine shrimp (according to lfs) . I removed some of the leftovers so I don't think I was overfeeding but I dont know for sure because my feeding guideline is based on a lfs.

What are some quality foods I can look for? For now I have just frozen brine shrimp and this multi-pack frozen food thing. And yeah I have been feeding the bacteria but I have been cutting back lately. I will begin maybe putting in a few brine shrimp or something for my bacteria.

 

[CaptainAhab]

make your own... lots of recipes online.. target it to the kind of fish you have.. fresh seafood, etc... no phosphates...

by a few, I hope you mean a few..

Is it the 29 or the 40 gallon?

 

[francis]

its a 40 gallon, and yeah few ) , if anything I should be worried they've been starving. Do I need to get a phosphate test? I do not even know what that is and how it could affect me. The only things I've been testing for is nitrate, ammonia, nitrite, and pH, and also salinity.

 

[CaptainAhab]

if you have the time and inclination.. I'd do the massive pwc thing.. then test shortly after.. gauge your results by the pwc %.... errrr.. if you do a 20g water change and your at 20ppm for nitrates.. your nitrates should read around 10 after... if not.. then..well.. you know. If you do 30 gallons then..well, it's just a math problem at this point..

BTW: A couple pinches of flake food is plenty for your bacteria. They're not the fat American version, they're the slimmed down European bacteria strain. Just add fish s l o w l y when you start restocking.

 

[francis]

Okay...so good news to me. Tested my water at 2 different fish stores and they both tell me that my nitrates are 0. I guess something IS wrong with my test kit. I was sure there wasn't just because when I tested the LFS saltwater it showed 0 nitrates, but hey! If it says my tank is good then I won't ask questions .


Thank you everybody for all your help and advice, I shant forget it!

 

[leftyfish]

Awesome!