Nitrates in the thousands

[eatsomepopcorn]

A LFS owner told me he has customers with FOWLR tanks with nitrates in the thousands and fish are fine. I have two large puffers that are super messy, tang, and small Picasso trigger in my marine aquarium and cannot keep nitrates below 160 ppm. I changed my water three times this week at 1/3 water changes and did not put a dent in it. I have a 120 g, 30 lb live rock, live sand with large sump test has three socks, bio balls, pad, sponge and protein skimmer. I keep charcoal in their. First, any further suggestions on reducing nitrates without going to larger tank or giving away fish or adding no plants and rock. Second, has anyone heard of someone with nitrates in the high hundreds or even thousands?


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[Sniperhank]

Thousands is toxic, plain and simple.
When it comes to water changes to lower nitrates it can be frustrating. Think of it like this, if your nitrates are at 100, a 50% water change will only take the nitrates to 50. They then rise from normal feeding and pooping until the next water change.
It can be really difficult to do in our large systems, but continuous water changes can get us in the right direction. For my tank, I fill a brute trash can with my water change water. It's about 20 gallons. I do that if parameters are out of whack. I do a 20 gallon change weekly no matter what, but adding additional water changes will bring more clean water in to remove and dilute the nitrate levels...with 2 changes being short of a 50% water change in a 24 hour period.

 

[Delapool]

This is for freshwater but I've heard of large, mature fish in tanks with nitrates around maybe 150ppm. This link might get you started. Personally, in freshwater I'm finding the lower the better.

Is Nitrate Toxic? A Study of Nitrate Toxicity

 

[Autumnsky]

Nice to always be learning the "best practices" and not using the what can I get away with before the fish get sick or die option.

 

[coralbandit]

Wonder how you would know if the test was over 160?
Maybe these great reefers have a great test kit for keeping tanks not so great ?
I would take info from that LFS very carefully..Seems like a sales line...

 

[Autumnsky]

Wonder how you would know if the test was over 160?
Maybe these great reefers have a great test kit for keeping tanks not so great ?
I would take info from that LFS very carefully..Seems like a sales line...

Great comment!!!

That "thousands" had me wondering what kind of instrument they used to measure that high of numbers too!!! But I didn't wonder that long - guessed maybe an electronic gadget the lsf used when the customers brought their water samples in. I don't know there is one.

It seems way too high for fish to be well, or maybe alive???

 

[dalto]

I would take info from that LFS very carefully..Seems like a sales line...

^^This. Don't worry about, it's not your fault, just buy more fish from me when they die.

Back to the original problem. Have you tried supplementing your water changes with a refugium?

 

[Delapool]

Great comment!!!



That "thousands" had me wondering what kind of instrument they used to measure that high of numbers too!!! But I didn't wonder that long - guessed maybe an electronic gadget the lsf used when the customers brought their water samples in. I don't know there is one.



It seems way too high for fish to be well, or maybe alive???

I'd have to check but the CheMETs test kits I think cover quite a range as intended for farming, etc I guess. But they are a pretty expensive test and slow. Bit odd for a lfs to have one in that range I agree.

 

[coralbandit]

I guess if some one was dedicated enough [and a bad enough keeper] they could cut the number of drops used in the test[to like 1 of each ,not 10 ] and then multiply their reading by ten....I personally having kept several overstocked tanks [both fresh and marine] can't even imagine getting a 160 reading with just one drop !

 

[dalto]

I guess you could also cut it with RODI and then multiply the results.

That being said, I feel pretty confident the LFS in question hasn't been doing any of these things since not many fish could survive that concentration. It is either a sales pitch or just another fishkeeping myth.