please help....trying to lower nitrates

[cancun]

Hi everyone.....I have a 29 gallon Biocube....been set up and running for several months....but can't seem to get my nitrates lower than 20 ppm....my ammonia is 0....nitrites are 0....salinity is 1.024....ph is 8.0....my nitraits fluctuate between 20 ppm and 40 ppm....I test both with API liquid salt water test kit and API test strips...I have been doing 10% water chg once a week...was doing wc evrry other week...just started every week trying to lower nitrates. ...have biocube 29 gallon protein skimmer...biocube filter....also using API chem-zorb under my filter in the back chamber.....I have 30-40 lbs of live rock....live sand....my bio load is:

Clownfish

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Coral beauty
6 line wrasse
Watchman goby
Small sea urchin
Choco chip star fish
Green bubble tip anemone
Coral banded shrimp
Few small snails

I feed a small amount of Rods frozen food once a day...and spot feed the anenome twice a week.....everything is thriving and doing great...see pics...any suggestions or ideas would ne greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!!

 

[woody390]

macros algea will help if you can get some in there maybe put some in a basket up the top so wont be seen. how often do you clean change your filter media and what media is in there as that could be an issue?

 

[tonedogz]

You can try another test kit like salifert or red sea. In my experience api test kits always read high.

 

[huma-huma]

why mess with it? if everything is thriving and your corals are growing, just stay the course and don't change. if you do want to try and lower those trates, id clean out the entire back section. take out everything back there, clean it out real good, also look for detritus under and behind your rockwork. rinse the chemisorb off in old tank water when you are doing your pwc's. also the thing ive noticed is if you were doing bi-weekly water changes and switched to weekly, it takes awhile for the benefits of weekly changes to appear. just keep at it

 

[cancun]

Thank you for all your info......It is experts like you who making owning and maintaning a saltwater aquarium do able....I really appreciate all the feed back and advice..... 8)

 

[JW20VT]

not a expert but having similar issue. 29g ..water in check except my nitrates between 20 and 40 with my api test kit. I was always told it reads high especially the nitrate kit , everything alive in my tank seems happy besides my blenny who is stil getting used to having a pair of clowns with him now.

ive been keeping up on water changes from day 1 and really have a problem getting nitrate lower ...if you consider it a problem which i consider it more of a personal goal now since everyone in the tank seems happy and doing great.

my 29g isnt a biocube so my new project is filtration and such...running a HOB which I clean weekly and honestly dont think its the reason for higher nitrates like most things ive read , I also use distilled water for everything. I think its more of a case of newbie overfeeding and think I need some macro algae like you have had mentioned to you also

I have also been using microbe lift special blend to help boost my bio-filter and keeping water clean , it mentions helping with nitrates also ... haven't been using long enough to see if it will help that much.... I am in process of getting more rock for decoration and with seeding will help more with my bio-filter and getting some macro algae but i want some I can use to decorate with since Im FOWLR and have no corals ... will help with the eye candy of the tank also

 

[cancun]

Hi! Thanks for replying. ..sounds like you and I are in the same boat. ..I am fairly new also!! Yea all of my fish...urchin...and anemone are thriving and doing great....I too think I was over feeding....so I cut down to every other day...I feed only one kind of food which is Rods fish only blend....like you I have no corals yet....I plan on getting some someday...but I want to be much more experienced first....maybe everyone is right...the API kit tests high for nitrates. ......I do a 10% water chg every other week....on my normal schedule. ...but was doing them more often trying to get the nitrates down....but back to my normal schedule for now sence everything is doing good...sence we have a similar situation plz keep me posted on how your tank is doing! 8)

 

[DUPRASAQUARIA]

I just wanted to add for all of you to up the water change from 10% to 25% weekly and also with saltwater you should always feed your fish every other day and not very much also I agree that cleaning out the entire back section could also help. Cleaning the floss every 2 weeks helps as well I don't like to leave the dirty floss in too long as it leaches nitrates back into your tank.
The best advice is keep it clean and always replenish your cleanup crew they are important!!

 

[DUPRASAQUARIA]

I guess I missed this in my first read! But I recommend you doing more research on using distilled water as I have found that it is not as benifishial as simple reverse osmosis water which carries some minerals that are helpful to your tanks

 

[Dave Gille]

I just wanted to add for all of you to up the water change from 10% to 25% weekly and also with saltwater you should always feed your fish every other day and not very much also I agree that cleaning out the entire back section could also help. Cleaning the floss every 2 weeks helps as well I don't like to leave the dirty floss in too long as it leaches nitrates back into your tank. The best advice is keep it clean and always replenish your cleanup crew they are important!!

You seem to know a great deal about Salt Water Tanks. I'm not questioning your knowledge but could you provide me some resource information about feeding every other day to keep Nitrates down?

I run a 300 gallon Reef & I'm having to do 100+ gallon water changes every week or two to keep my NO3 to 0.5ppm. By the second week the Nitrates climb to between 15-20ppm.

Needless to say I go through a lot of RO water and salt I make myself... Thank You!

 

[huma-huma]

theres no reason you should be doing a 33% weekly water change to keep trates low. theres something else going on in that tank. what aare the specs on that tank? filtration? powerheads? skimemr? reactors? etc

 

[cancun]

Hi! If you don't mind I want chime in......my lfs store owner advised me to feed a very small amount every other day to keep my nitrates in check.....and the reason he gave is that if you over feed any uneattin food decays thus causing your nitrates to rise because your biological filter (live rock) can't keep up. I have read the same thing on many forums. It makes logical sense to. But I am fairly new to salt water aquariums myself and still learning....I do know when I cut back to a small amount every other day my nitraits did in fact drop like a rock. I also use RO water....and buy my salt water already mixed at my local lfs.....sence I am lucky enough to have on 10 min away....one more thing....feeding less did the trick for me...not a bunch of big water changes.......my current wc schedule is 10% every other week.....

 

[huma-huma]

reducing feeding shouldnt be the answer to lowering nitrates IMO. there is a decent number of marine fish species that in reality should be fed 2-3 times a day....so feeding every other day isnt exactly in the best interest. adjusting and finding the proper amount of food for a daily feeding should yield the same results as reduced every other day feeding. also flowrate helps a ton... if you have the proper flow patterns in your tank, it should suspend the uneaten food long enough to be picked up by some form of filtration.

 

[woody390]

The way I see it the more food that goes in even if its eaten the more nitrate as the more fish poop which is obv ammonia and thus the nitrogen cycle starts and if you donthave enough live rock or a way if dealing with nitrates they're going to rise

 

[JW20VT]

Woodys reply is one reason i want to go ahead with more rock...going to be ordering some rock and misc from reefcleaners soon....

I thought i read it was ro/di water that lacked some good stuff... I understand how much better it is but didnt ever see anything about distilled like that... Thanks ill have to check it out

 

[JW20VT]

Woodys reply is one reason i want to go ahead with more rock...going to be ordering some rock and misc from reefcleaners soon....

I thought i read it was ro/di water that lacked some good stuff... I understand how much better it is but didnt ever see anything about distilled like that... Thanks ill have to check it out

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving !

 

[huma-huma]

The way I see it the more food that goes in even if its eaten the more nitrate as the more fish poop which is obv ammonia and thus the nitrogen cycle starts and if you donthave enough live rock or a way if dealing with nitrates they're going to rise

Although i agree to a certain extent, your theory is flawed. Only reason being is because you arent factoring in actual usable nutritional value of the food. The higher the usable value, the lower the waste volume

 

[DUPRASAQUARIA]

I agree with both of you although on one hand my reef has been thriving for over 5 years and I have never had a problem with fish being underfed and I always only feed every other day rotating between flakes and brine shrimp. Also I have a 55 gal tank with a 40 gal sump loaded with over 100 lbs of live rock, I have more rock than needed, but I can handle any bio load or amount of food on this setup as I have done tests and never seen a nitrate reading always0. And I checked my test kit. So on the other hand you can feed everyday the amount of food needed by your fish if you simply get a lot more live rocks and a better filtration system!!! More filtration is better!! that's truly the only PROPER solution!!! IMPO!