nitrates 10 ppm, what to do?

[lziarek]

My nitrates are at 10ppm and I have been trying to get them under control, but I am not sure what to do. I have been doing 4 gallon water changes every two days to try to stabalize the condition. I have also vaccumed out my cc real good and added some macro algea to the sump. I started using distilled water for water changes and top off, but I see no reduction in nitrates. Oh yeah and I have tried to cut back on feeding as well. The tank gets: roughly 4x 10ml of a brine shrimp/mysis shrimp/emerald entree/forumla 1 mixture (this is mixed with a decent portion of tank water), 3x a 1inch by inch square of nori for the tang/butterflies, and 1 silverside for the anemone, a week.

 

[JamesR]

I would think with all that you are doing, they would come down soon. You may want to try one large water change 15%-20% and that should help, then let the macro and smaller changes keep it stable. for a fish oly tank, 10 is not bad. Also, is your test kit reliable? it could be 6-7 and showing 10.........just a thought.

Jim

 

[c0mf0rt]

I second everything he just said....... especially the kit... crappier kits are known to register high rather than low...... and 10ppm isn't too bad....

 

[foma2000]

ide do a 10 to 20 % water change, but other then that it sounds like your taking care of it really well

 

[quarryshark]

Agree 10 ppm is not bad at all.
Also agree to keep with the water changes. The macro should help in time.

 

[lziarek]

thanks all for the reassurance

 

[itsfishy]

build a de-nitrator........best thing I ever did. Nitrates are now not a problem

 

[foma2000]

ah. i really wish i had the time to build a de nitrator. those are awsom. just as worth it to build a fuge though.

 

[austinsdad]

Might be a good thing to find the source of the trates to keep them down. Yeah, I know, easier said than done, but there are a few "usual suspects". Overpopulation, overfeeding, sand, filters, etc.

Other than that, if you can keep it consistently at 10 or below, there's not a whole lot to worry about.

 

[lziarek]

I am going to vac my cc some more, I never had done it before so it has 6 months of gunk in it. It didnt look dirty but man when I vac'ed it the first time whew! I am hoping this is the sources of my nitrates.

 

[the21kid]

lol....I will never forget the first time that I actually vac my gravel in my FW tank. I was new to the hobby and had only plunged the vac into the gravel...lifted to let gravel fall out...and moved it around repeating. I decided one time to actually get all the way to the bottom above the UGF and give it a good shaking....OH MY HEAVENS! You see I have plecos and cats along with a few others and wowzers are they a mess. I have since modified my method of vac'ing to doing it more often and definitely doing the shake!

 

[c0mf0rt]

How do you build a denitrater ??????

 

[jbro]

No offense, but 10ppm Nitrates sounds like bragging to me. I never got my tank below 20 (5mo. old). I WISH for the day I see 10! I do 20% WC weekly. Only gets as high as 40, but never below 20. I'd like to find out about building a denitrator as well. A friend mentioned this to me, but I thought it required additives, which I'm strictly against (except for nutrients when the time comes). If there is a more "natural" way, I'd like to know.
BTW- Inhabitants are very healthy. I only lost my turbos and some hermits that fed on them.

 

[lziarek]

no not bragging, I am actually recovering from a bad cyano outbreak and as such paranoid about the nitrates =), but I believe I finally found the source of my woes and it was my sand/cc bed. I gave it three good vacumings and now I am at 0 ppm again. I pulled about 9-10 gallons worth of mucky water out of my tank over this week, the water was litterally a brown sludge. I think I am going to add vaccuming the cc/argonite sand mixture into the regular routine from now on.

 

[RMPD109]

This is a link someone posted previously on a thread. It looks fairly simple to make and explains why it works. HTH

http://www.aloha.net/~hqf/indexdondenitrator.htm

 

[jbro]

Sorry. I didn't really mean "bragging". I guess I'm just jealous. I'm working with a local guy that's going to help me set up a simple denitrator. I'll let you know about it when it's done. Glad you found the source and good luck!

 

[tiredfish]

how do you build a de-nitrater? i need one bad. you think 10 is high, mine is off the charts...even as soon as i shake it...i need help real bad. i cant have an ro unit yet, so i have to use regular water sometimes store bought.

 

[johnkristie]

My nitrates seem to have stablized at 20 and I can't get them any lower than that no matter what I do. I have a fish only and they all seem pretty happy. What would be considered too high for a fish only tank??

 

[tiredfish]

well...my fish seem to be ok...and my levels were at like 80!...didnt do a water change for a while but they have seem to grow and have no problems(that are visible anyways) but im sure 20 will be ok..just from my info they might be fine..just for not corals or something like that..im still learning 'bout this stuff so dont take my word for it

 

[jbro]

I was told by LFS to forget about bulding a denitrator and replace my substrate. I have CC now, and need to change to (live) sand. Supposedly, this is easier for microbes to do their thing.