Continuing to fight Nitrates!?! Me too.

[kungfukoi]

I'm not sure why.. and would love to find out more about the causes of it..

But i've been set up now and running for a good 6 months. Yet I still am fighting Nitrates. They drift up to 20ppm and I have to do partial and often 50% water changes to hold off the rise.

I don't overfeed.. I don't see tons of dead "inhabitants".
I have a refugium. I have 140 lbs of live rock for the 70 gal. I have the DSB. Got the Skimmer. What else can I do?

How do people maintain 0ppm on nitrates!?!?

Thanks.
Kungfukoi

 

[Guest]

how many fish is there? what size are they? and what do you feed them? also what type of water are you using? tap? ro? di?

 

[Biggen]

Good questions from gotz_potential.

What test kit are you using? Perhaps buying another one (Salifert or Lamotte) to double check its accuracy would be a good idea as well.

 

[kungfukoi]

I only have one mandrin goby, and a Flame Clown.
I'm using RO water.

Yes, I have been suspect of my test kit for sometime... However it's the one the LFS uses...

What else would you suggest?

Thanks,

 

[utahcutter]

It took me about 9 months to get the nitrates under control in my 90 gal., but I didn't have any live rock or a protien skimmer. One thing I know of that didn't help was using CC for a substrate. I don't know what you are using, but that could be a problem. Also I was using aqua medic test kit, that I didn't think was very reliable. It read all the way up to 100 ppm! And was very open to individual interpretation. It also may just be a time issue. HTH, I'm not an expert but that was my experienc.

 

[Hara]

you have not mentioned what you feed, or how often. Do you have any other forms of filtration like cannister or hob that you may need to clean the media in?
Do you use a skimmer?

 

[kungfukoi]

RE:

Hello again.

Yes , As far as I know i'm doing everything the way I'm supposed to.

I only feed every other day.. and even then it's usually frozen brine shrimp, or something similar. (1 cube)

Yes I had mentioned that I used A HOB BackPack skimmer.
I have also a HOB refugium.

I guess I need to get a better test kit.
I am using the Aquasafe one... It IS open to interpitation.

 

[Hara]

you may try switching foods, frozen brine is notorious for causing high nitrates, a whole cube for just 2 fish is also alot.

 

[utahcutter]

I've heard suggestions to thaw your frozen foods strain and feed using tank water to avoid getting all the nitrates that are in the liquids they are frozen in. Though I have never tried this, and I can't remember if it came from a credible source or not. Something to try though.