Nitrates

[Keepmefromdrowning36]

I have had my 40B up and running about 6 months. I have about 40+ lbs of LR and a sand bed 2" deep. I have 20+ hermits,12+snails, 2-small true percs
1- pygmy angel 1-yellow clown goby and 1- yellow eyed Kole. I have a HOB prizm skimmer and a marineland 400 powerhead. I can't seem to get my nitrates to stabilize. And they are always in the 20+ppm range. Help.

 

[huma-huma]

check your water that your using to do water changes with. I know it sounds dumb but if theres trates in the water that you are putting in the tank, then youll NEVER get it under control

 

[TheTodd]

How often are you doing partial water changes and how much?

 

[tonedogz]

What test kit are you using also. If it's api in my experience they always read high

 

[molliwopp]

Anything more than 10ppm in salt water is Bad to say the least.

 

[carey]

The 20ppm isnt optimal of course but is not as horrible as people may think. I dont see that you listed any coral so the 20ppm is almost acceptable. the goal of course is to have zero but in a fish only system it is common.

I would do several larger water changes and see where you are at from there. Once you get them lower they will be easier to stay on top of. I would even say to do a half tank change if you can, I tend to do 50% water changes on most of my tanks with no ill effects. Just make sure salinity and temp match and even check the ph so you dont shock your fish.

From there I would limit my feedings...Do you use frozen food? If so do you rinse the food before adding it to the tank? Might be a good idea to cut back on the nitrates. In addition, if you have any foam blocks or anything be sure to wash them when you change the water in old tank water, nitrates can linger and never seem to go down if thats not done.

Hope that helps a bit. In fought never ending nitrates in my biocube only to realize that they were never leaving the tank and were in the filter media bags I keepin the tank. lol

 

[huma-huma]

Anything more than 10ppm in salt water is Bad to say the least.

this isn't completely true. there are very successful, well-established tanks that have 10+ trates consistently

 

[tonedogz]

twenty is not that bad there are lots of people with higher then that and still having succ
ess

 

[molliwopp]

Whether theyre having sucess it isnt really particularly fair. So it isnt sucess imo.

 

[carey]

Well then I guess my years of reefkeeping arent successful? There are nitrates in all 9 of my tanks to some degree or another. I have yet to lose a fish over nitrates nor do i expect ever to. While it is not a perfect thing to have nitrates in the range that the OP does we shouldnt be here condemning him for it or telling him his tank isnt successful. Really now.... Saltwater is a lot different than freshwater and there are so many variables that contribute to nitrates. The OP wants help in getting them lower, no one here is telling him that its good but that its expected and not the end of the world.
All the advice posted has been positive and everyone totally understands the situation and wants to help. Just want the OP to understand the issue and see if he can improve the conditions. And as a side note, if it is indeed a fowlr only then the nitrates are not really harming anything and at the level indicated should not harm his fish to any extent that it would be "cruel" or "mean"

I am done. lol

 

[bribo12]

Yep I agree 20 isn't to bad for a fowlr. Do you have detritus buildup on your substrate or rocks? Like stated earlier what test kit? Some are much better than others.

 

[melosu58]

That is really not that bad. While it is not optimal it's not a killer either. Just cut back on feedings and check your pwc water to make sure you are not adding them to the tank.

 

[Tkey3425]

My reef has gone as high as 40s-50s for months at a time in the early stages when i didn't have a good grasp of what i was doing. Not that it was a good thing but i didn't suffer any loses in coral or livestock. I didn't have any sps but i had a lot of LPS and nothing happened. That said, I wouldn't make it a practice of running high nitrates but It's not the end of the world to have 20ppm. I keep mine in the 4ish ppm using the red sea kit. Switching out to a simpler refugium with filter socks that take 2 minutes to change vs. my wet/dry that i was rinsing filter media has kept me on time rather than being lazy and letting it go for another day. If it seems less like work you're more likely to do it lol. Maybe try a little "wetter" skim. It will fill faster but also pull out some more waste hopefully.
EDIT: BTW i have been in this now for almost 5 years so im no expert but I've learned A LOT more now than I did back the lol.

 

[Andreasmith]

I had so much difficulty with my tank and nitrates. And then.... Da da da... Some random guy at my lfs told me to check out reefcleaners.org. No, I'm not affiliated. I bought 6 mangroves. They look like giant green beans. Generally, I've seen people put them in their sumps but i was so frazzled, I dug them right into my sand bed. Within a month, I had no nitrates and have no had any since. I tried almost everything before that. Hope this helps!

 

[Themonsterisme]

I started another thread about the mangrove seeds on here...was in the 12-15 range on nitrates and within a few weeks I'm hovering over 5....it would take about 10-12 to show any signs on a 29 gal cube but it does have a small effect on nitrates...mind you the mangrove is not a replacement for proper tank maintenance but a very small help to it...I don't have any solid tests to back my claims but maybe I'll use a 15 gal tank to try it out ...if anyone has any good advise on how to do a good test with a control element I'll try it and post results on the mangroves...I use Red Sea pro multi test kit btw

 

[Themonsterisme]

Also I live in Sarasota/Bradenton Florida 5 min from the ocean so mangroves are free...I just freshwater rinse them and wipe them down and put them in a quarantine tank for a few days before adding them...not even sure if that's the right way of doing it but I've dodged a few bullets if it isn't

 

[MarinaClown]

How often are you doing partial water changes and how much?

This is a good question. If not enough that's a problem right there.