Trouble with Nitrates.

[irishbuffalo]

I just started my first salt water tank about 3 months ago. It is a 20g long. I currently have 25lbs live rock, 15lbs live sand, 2 medium ocellaris clowns, 1 large turbo snail (about 1.5" maybe a little larger) and 1 nassarius snail (big for a nassarius, about 1/2").

I've been doing 4-5g (30% considering water displacement) water changes weekly to keep things diluted in case I make any mistakes. Nitrates seem to be climbing up to around 40ppm by water change day. After the water change it gets between 10 and 15ppm. I tried doing more frequent water changed and got it down to 5ppm but it seems to always eventually creep up.

The only equipment I'm using is an Aqueon Pro 100w heater and two Hydor Koralia Nano 425GPH power heads.

The tank seems to be doing well. I have about a dozen very small feather dusters growing on the back glass. I even have coralline slowly growing on some of the rocks.

I would like it to get under control before I start messing with corals. Any advice?

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Are you running any media? What are your params?

 

[Rare]

Before fish went in was the cycle completed? How much are you feeding daily and what are you feeding

 

[irishbuffalo]

Are u running any media? What are your params?

No media. I don't have all the test kits here at home but the parameters I could measure are:
SG -- 1.022
Temp -- 79 (too high?)
PH -- 8.2
Ammo -- 0

I also tested the nitrate level in a bucket of freshly mixed salt water and it shows 0.

 

[irishbuffalo]

Before fish went in was the cycle completed? How much are you feeding daily and what are you feeding

That's questionable. I didn't know exactly what to look for when setting the tank up. The parameters were good at the time of adding the fish though.

For feeding I switch between frozen mysis, frozen brine and omega one marine flakes. I feel like maybe I'm not feeding them enough because they always go nuts for the food..

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

How long did you wait after starting tank to add the fish? Did you use LR or LS? Your LFS will also check the water params for you

 

[irishbuffalo]

How long did you wait after starting tank to add the fish? Did you use LR or LS? Your LFS will also check the water params for you

I used live rock and live sand and waited a month before adding fish.

 

[Rare]

That's questionable. I didn't know exactly what to look for when setting the tank up. The parameters were good at the time of adding the fish though.

For feeding I switch between frozen mysis, frozen brine and omega one marine flakes. I feel like maybe I'm not feeding them enough because they always go nuts for the food..

Did you setup everything at once and fish went in? If that is the cause you parameters will be perfect but that cycle wasnt even started. You need to go in to detail of how you did it.

Now for the food...How much times are you feeding them a day? And how much? 2 fish- you can create problems if you are dropping in one of them cubes a day or more in there. They will always look hungry but that doesn't help with your water issue and might be one of the source of your problem. The more detail you give us on all the above the more we can pin point what is going on.

 

[irishbuffalo]

Did you setup everything at once and fish went in? If that is the cause you parameters will be perfect but that cycle wasnt even started. You need to go in to detail of how you did it.



Now for the food...How much times are you feeding them a day? And how much? 2 fish- you can create problems if you are dropping in one of them cubes a day or more in there. They will always look hungry but that doesn't help with your water issue and might be one of the source of your problem. The more detail you give us on all the above the more we can pin point what is going on.

I added the water and sand at the same time. Then the next day I bought the live rock. I added a HOB filter briefly to clear up the water. As the nitrates got high I would change water. About a month into it the parameters seemed to stabilize so I added the fish.

I feed a very small amount daily. Definitely not a whole cube. Maybe 1/16 of a cube. They eat all of it.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

All I can think is that maybe the rocks are leaching nitrates some how, I've had them leach phosphates before but never trates. Your not using a hob or canister filter right? I feed every other day FWIW but it doesn't sound like your over feeding

 

[irishbuffalo]

All I can think is that maybe the rocks are leaching nitrates some how, I've had them leach phosphates before but never trates. Your not using a hob or canister filter right? I feed every other day FWIW but it doesn't sound like your over feeding

No I'm not using any kind of mechanical filtration.

How do rocks leach nitrates? Or even phosphates for that matter? What is the solution to leaching?