Nitrates off the chart

[scdc46]

I have a tank that's about 1 year old and all readings (other than Nitrates) are perfect. I have a Yellow Tang, an Arrow Crab, an Aruba Damsel, Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Percula Clown, Barbed Golby and 2 new additions (Med Tenticle Anenome and an starfish --- sorry, not sure what it is). -- Of course, there are a few crabs and snails for Algae control as well.

The tank is 38 gallons and has LR and LS, a MAGNUM 350 canister filter using carbon. The lighting is a CoralLife (power compact) --- 36" with one 96 watt 10,000K Daylight and one 96 watt True Actinic 03 Blue Compact Fluorescent Lamps plus two 3/4 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-GLow LED 470nm Lamps.

I feed the tank daily 1 cube of frozen Spirulina Enriched Brine Shrimp or Emerald Entree (alternating every few days). I've also been doing about 20% water changes every couple of days to try and get the Nitrates down. I'm using tap water and letting it sit in a bucket for about 1 day to let salt disolve... I aslo use "Prime" to remove the Chorine, Ammonia, etc and detoxify Nitrates and Nitrites.

My test kit is "Saltwater Master Liquid Test Kit" made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Any advice is appreciated.

FYI: My gallery has everything except for my 2 newest additions.

ALSO... If anyone knows why my Anenome appears to be losing it's color, then please feel free to let me know...

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[Thumper]

I would say that you need to get your hands on some RO water and do 20% changes every other day untill you get the nitrates down. Have you tested the water your using ? Could be as simple as that. As for as your anenome losing it's color , that's probably going to be directly related to your water problem, and according to how high your nitrates are could be dying..
May want to set up a qt tank using ro water of course and get it out of the main tank, untill you get it under control.

[EBR]

I recently had a similar problem (all chemistry on the mark except for the nitrates), due to some bad advice I got from the knucklehead at my LFS. He advised me the vacuuming the bottom was not necessary when doing water changes. Come to find out, that while that CAN be true with LS bed (if you have enough critteers sifting through it), it's typically NOT true for CC, which is what I have. A good couple of waterchanges while deep cleaning the CC bed, and the nitrates fell right in line.
HTH.
Matt

[cmor1701d]

You might want to cut back on the feeding to every other day too. Are they eating all the food within a few (<5) minutes?

Do have the foam sleeve on the magnum? That could be the cause of the nitrates. The canister filters are great for ammo/nitrite removal but only add to the nitrate problem.

How deep is the sand bed? If it's less than 4" you are not getting any nitrate reduction from there. The only way to reduce your nitrates would be 20% water changes every few days with RO water.

[scdc46]

Thanks for the advice.... I'm going to see what I can do about getting RO water for the LFS. I've been vacuuming the bottom when performing the water change... That's what I'm using to take water out of my tank.

[scdc46]

They are pigs... They eat all the food within 1 minute. They act like I don't feed them.

[c0mf0rt]

I would second lowering the feeding... mine will eat it all up too but they poop it out too.... keeping the feeding down, keeps the waste down.... they can always eat less and still be fine..... I have ALOT more stock and feed mine about half a cube a day on a good day....

[cmor1701d]

Just read an article about CR (calorie reduction) which said it's unproven in primates but is a known fact for longer life in fish and other more primitive species. CR was in the 30 -35% neighborhood.

A hungry fish is a healthy fish!

[scdc46]

Thanks for all of the advice... I just did a pretty good water change... Before doing to change, I took a water sample to my LFS for another test (as a second opinion). I'm sure they did something wrong, because it stated that my Nitrates were low.

I fed the fish 1/2 a cube... so, we'll see.

Thanks.

[cmor1701d]

What test kit did they use and what kit do you use? I get off the chart with Seachem and 25 with Salifert.

[scdc46]

My test kit is "Saltwater Master Liquid Test Kit" made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

I believe they used the same test kit.

[cmor1701d]

Test again. How old is your test kit. It should have an expiration date on it. If you got it when you got the tank it's time for a new test kit.

[scdc46]

Is it true that nitrates will be higher at night? Should I test in the morning?

My test kit is brand new... I don't see any exp. dates on any of the bottles though.

[Brad524]

use salifert test kit then post results

my tetra test kit was lousy at nitrates, I changed over a 100 gallons of water trying what you are, all for nothing. the problem was my test kit.