*Nitrates/Nitrites Spike?**

[xxnonamexx]

55 Gal. Wet/Dry filter, 260watt Compact Lighting, 50lbs. live rock, 4in deep sand bed live sand with crushed coral and fine live sand. I have feather duster, bubble anemone, frog toadstool anemone, sun polyps, few other types of polyps. Maxima Clam, clown fish, firefish. When I tested my water last week they were pristine conditions. I didn't add anything new since last week and the Nitrates/Nitrites are high I did a 50% water change. What else can I do to control it? I thought The clam was supposed to filter the Nitrates.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86208900@N00/[/img]

 

[aquanaut]

Do you have any filtration ? Maybe some more LR, usually 2 lbs per gallon is enough. Do you use R/O water for top offs ? My tap water ,even though its a well, is not good enough

 

[revhtree]

A Few questions....

How much do you feed?

Added any fish lately?

How old is your test kit?

Is it a Liquid or Dip stick test kit?

How long has the tank been set up?

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm trying to narrow it down..

 

[xxnonamexx]

I feed every other day usually a 2 day gap in between, Haven't added any new fish lately but added new corals, did a water change the day before i added them, Newest addition Maxima clam, Tested and Nitrates,Rites were 0. New Test kit Dip Stick, set up for 3 years, I have a wet/dry filtration I cleaned sponges in filter etc. I have snails, crabs. What else can I do to help keep the Nitrates down?

 

[revhtree]

Wow sounds like you got your bases covered. Hmm...

How long have you used the dip stick test kit? They can be somewhat unreliable. Any chance you could take your water to the lfs for a test, or get a liquid test?

I know this is not helping much right now, but that's all I can figure at this point.

PS. You sound like your doing this right, but I gotta ask. How much do you feed? Any chance you are overfeeding? Are you dosing any zoo plex ect... for the inverts and corals?

 

[Phyl]

New test kit? Have you used it yet? Was that what you got the readings with last week? If not I would definitely suspect the test (and probably still suspect the test anyway). I was getting false high readings with strips. Started using the salifert test and am getting much lower readings with it.

I've recently added a fuge into my system to add macro algae to so that I had a way to battle nitrates. I also don't see a protein skimmer in your setup. I was thinking about suggesting that you give it a good cleaning but maybe you need to add one? I pump water out of my wet/dry into my fuge (10g square box I got from Target) and gravity feed it back into my sump

Have you changed anything about your feeding regimine in the last month? Quantity, brand, type, size, ....?

Good luck.

 

[xxnonamexx]

I have a redsea protein skimmer