nitrate trouble

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noodus

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 18, 2005
Messages
69
Location
fort lee, new jersey
my nitrates used to be around 20 ppm but now they are around 30.... so worried about it getting worse i need help trying to get it under control. help please

72 gal with 18 gal refuge
80 lbs live rock
3 inch sand bed
lots of cheato macro alge
1 red mangrove
5 shaving brush plants
18 hermits
20 nassarius snails
1 mex turbo snail
1 tiger sea cucumber
10 green chromis
2 black saddleback clowns
1 yellow assessor
1 lawnmower blenny
1 fridmani dottyback
1 randall's shrimp goby
1 pistol shrimp
1 engineer goby
1 cleaner shrimp
lots of live critters on the live rock.

aquac ev-120 skimmer
eheim 2026 canister filter
bag of carbon

let me know what you think i should do next. do you think there might be a chance my test strips went bad? has anybody ever had that problem? thanks
 
I wouldn't rely on test strips. Heard about too many water tests gone bad. I know most of your fish are the smaller types, but there there may be too many. I'd also watch the amount of food. What are your feeding routines anyway?

You could also use more hermits IMO.

Or maybe the constant struggle @ 20ppm and the amount of fish - that are growing - finally just caught up with you.
 
16 fish in a 72 gal would be my anwser to why its so high. Get a different test kit to start with and check your tank and top off water. You already have a fuge so the only other way is to do water changes, just make sure your new SW has no nitrates. If your going to have that many fish you will be doing more WC to keep things in check.
How long has the tank been up. Is this a FO tank or reef.
 
More rock would help with your nitrates. Also try cleaning the foam pad on your sump/fuge. Rinse it real well, and I would do a water change.
 
a water change will help in the short term.

long term you have few options
reducing the bioload (by returning some of the fish)
or
drasticly increasing the volume of your system with a larger refugium with more LR rubble and substrate.
 
Don't forget frequent water changes with RO or RO/DI water to bring down the concentration of DOC's.

eheim 2026 canister filter

Prolly don't need the canister filter in the mix unless it is strictly used empty for water flow reasons.
JM2C
 
Your feedings need to be cut back to every other day so as to reduce the organics in your tank
 
Base rock is the same as live rock, it just hasn't been populated with the useful bacteria and life yet. Once it acquires it, it will perform its duty.
 
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