Can't lower nitrates

[minkin]

I can't seem to lower my nitrates. They stay at about 40ppm.

I am running a 30g fowlr. 30lbs live rock. 20lbs live sand.

2 small ocellaris clowns, 2 small green chromis. 5 hermit crabs. 5 nerite/margarita snails. 1 peppermint shrimp.

Have chaeto in one of the back chambers. (12 hours on/off)

Running mechanical sponge, carbon and chemi-pure elite.

Top off with ro/di water

20% water change every 11-14 days.

Light on for 8 hours per day.

Feed once daily, only what they can eat.

Can anyone help?

[Bectan01]

What kind of foods and how much exactly? i would try once every other day and see if that helps?

[minkin]

I feed a variety. The new life spectrum pellets I think they are called. Then this frozen stuff called Rogers which has like shrimp, octopus and other meats in it then sometimes I put some purple seaweed but remove if it all doesn't get eaten.

I don't feed all this in one day. One day I'll feed pellets the next seaweed etc.

[jeffaquarius]

I would suggest large pwc like 40% followed by weekly 20%. Rinsed the frozen food and feed only every other day. Once stabilized 10% pwc weekly is recommended.

[Bige]

How old is your tank?

[dmolavi]

I do an every other day feeding schedule of PE Mysis frozen shrimp (rinsed, even though it's not packed in anything, just 100% shrimp), and Dainichi Marine FX pellets. Nitrates are almost non-detectable.

[blert]

How often do you clean and replace that mechanical sponge?

[Stlrockguy]

Originally Posted by jeffaquarius

I would suggest large pwc like 40% followed by weekly 20%. Rinsed the frozen food and feed only every other day. Once stabilized 10% pwc weekly is recommended.

+1 I agree with Jeff

[minkin]

The tank is 4 months old.

And I clean the sponges out once a week. Do I need to do it more often?

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Sniperhank]

Keep cleaning the sponges weekly like you are doing. I support what was said above, but I would cut back feeding to twice a week and only so much. I feed my tank twice a week and only 1 cube if prepackaged frozen food. Even that is prob a tad too much, but works. Do that with large water changes to get the nitrates down. If they are at 40, a 10% water change would only remove around 4, which would be why you aren't seeing it moving at all. Do several 20% water changes over the next few weeks with fewer feeding will drop that to 0 and keep it there.

[minkin]

Thank you sniper!

[bshenanagins]

You could make a reactor as well, but only do that once everything is under control

[minkin]

Could it possibly be that my API nitrate test just sucks and it's not giving the right results?

[blert]

Easy answer... Maybe.

Better answer... Take 2.5ml of tank water and 2.5ml of quality RO/DI. Mix them both in a test tube and test it. If your tank is truly at 40ppm and the RO/DI is at 0ppm then you should get a result of 20ppm.

[dmolavi]

Originally Posted by minkin

Could it possibly be that my API nitrate test just sucks and it's not giving the right results?

Are you shaking that API kit like your life depends on it? If it's not well mixed, your numbers will be all over the place.

[Grizz]

Have you tested just the RO/DI water? when my filters need to be changed my phosphates and nitrates are off the chart Also ask your LFS to test your water you could have a bad test kit