High nitrates 15ppm

[cbashaw]

My nitrates are at 15ppm

 

How can I get them down?

 

I have not been testing very often (except for salinity, temp, and ph) since everything has been looking healthy I assumed everything was fine.

 

The tank is a 110G with 29G as a sump/refugium

 

Salinity 1.027

 

Ph 8.1

 

Temp 79.7

 

Nitrite 0

 

nitrate 15

 

I will be testing for calcium as soon as I get a new test kit.

 

I have a small refugium with grape calerpa, cheato, and halimeda.

 

My sand bed is about 1.5" of southdown

 

Skimmer Aqua-c EV-180

 

I don't use carbon. Should I be using carbon?

 

I do water changes 15G every 2 weeks

 

 

Some things I think I am doing wrong:

 

I feed daily with some frozen food that I won at the last meeting and I think I may be feeding too heavily.

 

I'm not sure if I have enough cleanup crew. I have about 25 hermits and about 20 snails.

 

I don't have much flow in the tank so there are lots of dead spots but I'm getting a Tunze Stream next week to resolve this. could this cause high nitrates?

 

Is there anything else I can do to get the nitrates down?

 

Should I be feeding every day?

 

 

Thanks,

Chris

[dhoch]

Overfeeding can be a cause...So can a high fish load...

 

You can always get more cleaners...

 

DSB is probably one of the best ways to go (even a remote one... like in your fuge) will help, and can be very effective at reducing nitrates.

 

Dave

[mogurnda]

A lot depends on why your nitrates are high.

 

If bacteria are carbon limited, then a carbon source (vinegar, vodka) will allow them to consume more nitrate. In one of my tanks, the nitrate plunged when I started using kalkwasser mixed with vinegar.

 

How well are your macros growing? What kind of light are you using for them? Unless there's significant growth and removal, then they probably won't do a lot of good.

 

Although it's probably not a big deal, a 1.5" sandbed is not ideal. Not enough for denitrification, but enough to trap debris.

 

Feeding? I feed twice a day in small portions. Once a day is fine.

 

We'll see if I get flamed for this, but I wouldn't lie awake at night worrying about 15 ppm nitrate, unless you are seeing serious nuisance algae growth. My experience has been that fish, inverts and even most corals are unaffected by levels like that, even for prolonged periods.

[cbashaw]

Overfeeding can be a cause...So can a high fish load...

 

You can always get more cleaners...

 

DSB is probably one of the best ways to go (even a remote one... like in your fuge) will help, and can be very effective at reducing nitrates.

 

Dave

 

Right now I think my fish load is fairly low.

 

1 yellow tang

1 small clarki clown

5 damsels (until I catch them and take them back to the lfs)

 

I also have a coral banded shrimp and a cucumber are they benificial in cleaning the tank?

 

Is that a reasonable fish load for a 110?

 

I don't have much sand in my sump less than 1/2 inch on the refugium side but I'm going to upgrade my sump to a 50 or 65 gallon (36x18 footprint) in a few months. How deep and what type of sand should I use for a dsb.

 

At one time I was looking into Miracle mud to put in my fuge but didn't have the money for it at the time. Is this a good option or just a waste of money.

[madmax7774]

my best educated guess is overfeeding. I am starting to learn myself that overfeeding is a real problem for me too. I have tried to cut down on the food levels i put in fairly significantly. Also, your could stand to add some more cleaners. Interestingly, I have found that a sally lightfoot crab is worth it's weight in gold for tank cleaning. I bought mine about 6 weeks ago, and it was about 1" across, that little sucker is a one man cleaning machine. He has grown to about 4" and has done more to clean my tank than all of the snails and hermit's combined. I highly recomend them.

John

[cbashaw]

Thanks

 

I will cut down on the feeding and see if that helps.

 

I am using Kent Kalkwasser and dripping it from a 2.5g kent Aquadoser how much vinigar or vodka should I add?

 

I have Grey Goose maybe I should go with some popov or something cheaper I'm sure my fish can't tell the difference :-)

 

Should I start testing for ammonia too?

[mogurnda]

 

I am using Kent Kalkwasser and dripping it from a 2.5g kent Aquadoser how much vinigar or vodka should I add?

 

I have Grey Goose maybe I should go with some popov or something cheaper I'm sure my fish can't tell the difference :-)

I go for cheap white vinegar myself. The acidity helps to dissolve more kalk, too. I use between 100-150 ml vinegar in a 2.5 gal doser. Also helps to keep alkalinity up.

[cbashaw]

I go for cheap white vinegar myself. The acidity helps to dissolve more kalk, too. I use between 100-150 ml vinegar in a 2.5 gal doser. Also helps to keep alkalinity up.

 

 

Thanks Dave

 

I'll try adding some vinigar the next time I fill the aquadoser.

 

 

One other point that I forgot to mention was that I only have about 140 lbs of live rock in the tank. I know this is not much for a tank this size and I should get about 50 more about 60 of it was from hirocks so it probably isn't that benificial to denitrification yet since the tank has only been up since early February.

[Larry Grenier]

$.02 more...

 

Go over to Reef Central and search on using vinegar in you kalk, or search-thru Randy Holmes Farley section. Do it sparingly, remember it is an acid so too much could throw things off.

 

Upgrading your light over your fuge could make all the difference. Caulerpa and Cheato will really grow fast and use-up some of the nitrates under adequate lighting.

 

If I had 15ppm and saw it was on the increase, I'd do something about it. If I had 15ppm and that's the way it had been for quite a while I wouldn't worry about it.

[mogurnda]

I certainly encourage reading Randy's articles, but adding less than a cup of a weak acid to a jug of kalk will simply make it somewhat less basic.

[cbashaw]

I'm using a 4X13W pc light over my fuge running 24hrs a day. I have not taken out any of the algae in my fuge in quite a while so it has very little room left to grow.

 

I'll take some out so it can grow again maybe that will help.

 

I will look into the articles on RC about vinegar before trying it to make sure I don't have any disasters.

 

Thanks

[Larry Grenier]

I'm using a 4X13W pc light over my fuge running 24hrs a day. I have not taken out any of the algae in my fuge in quite a while so it has very little room left to grow.

 

I'll take some out so it can grow again maybe that will help.

 

I will look into the articles on RC about vinegar before trying it to make sure I don't have any disasters.

 

Thanks

 

Yep, ya gotta yank some so more can grow.

[cbashaw]

I'm thinking of taking out all of the grape calerpa so the cheato can take over since grape calerpa can go asexual.

 

Is that a good idea?

[ReeferMan]

I'm thinking of taking out all of the grape calerpa so the cheato can take over since grape calerpa can go asexual.

 

Is that a good idea?

i have never had mine go asexual before. I hear that it is a good nutrient exporter. I had a nitrate problem before that was associated with feeding them everyday. I cut feeding back to once every two days and sipon out my sump and its zero.i only do a 5g water change a month now!

[cbashaw]

I just went through a few of Randy's articles and I think I found my problem.

 

In one article he suggested testing the RO water and when I did I found that my RO water is at 10ppm!!!

 

I knew my RO membrane was getting old so I guess it's time to change it.

[kngfisher]

my Nitrates were 80ppm yes 80. to get mine down i did the following

 

1) removed all bio balls / stones from my canister filter

2) 15 gal water changes every week for 4 weeks (instead of my normal 15gal / month)

3) added a fuge and added lots of chaeto

4) vaccumed substrate.

 

the above woked like a champ on my 55 gal

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i have probly the most nitrites out of anyone here. can i get a medal for that? all the stuff in my tank is living and doing great. i used to never run my skimmer and never do water changes. ive been running my skimmer for a while now and every two weeks i TRY to do a i think its 8-10g water change (thats all that i can mix in a little 10g).. over the last month ive had a bad infestation of cyno, and its starting to die off after ive treated it several times.

 

i think the major problem is that i dont have a sump, and theres really no way to get one on my 55g because by the time i get one and get a new stand that will cost so much cash that i wont be able to really get stuff for my 120g that im setting up at the end of the summer.

 

good luck with your nitrates and i hope you find a way to get them down.

[cbashaw]

I cut back my feeding

I took out most of the grape calerpa and cheato to give it room to grow.\

I picked up 10 more snails.

 

it has dropped down to about 10

 

I ordered a new membrane and prefilter for my ro system so that should be here in a few days. Hopefully they will come down a little more. After doing lots of reading about this it looks like even at 10PPM I'm at a safe level and everything should be ok.

[Larry Grenier]

[Caribbean Jake]

more water changes, a little less food every time, and you shall be at 0-5 ppm by next week.

[Guest Ominojacu]

Right now I think my fish load is fairly low.

 

1 yellow tang

1 small clarki clown

5 damsels (until I catch them and take them back to the lfs)

 

I also have a coral banded shrimp and a cucumber are they benificial in cleaning the tank?

 

Is that a reasonable fish load for a 110?

 

I don't have much sand in my sump less than 1/2 inch on the refugium side but I'm going to upgrade my sump to a 50 or 65 gallon (36x18 footprint) in a few months. How deep and what type of sand should I use for a dsb.

 

At one time I was looking into Miracle mud to put in my fuge but didn't have the money for it at the time. Is this a good option or just a waste of money.

Do not do miracle mud, check out this site:

http://www.inlandreef.com/Testing/MManalysis.html

Creating a better deep bed sand filter is a better idea.

Edited May 18, 2006 by Ominojacu

[cbashaw]

Do not do miracle mud, check out this site:

http://www.inlandreef.com/Testing/MManalysis.html

Creating a better deep bed sand filter is a better idea.

 

 

Wow thanks fo the tip. I bet lots of people must be really angry about this.

 

I replaced my RO membrane and after 2 water changes it was down to 5ppm

[rsaavedra]

Wow thanks fo the tip. I bet lots of people must be really angry about this.

 

I replaced my RO membrane and after 2 water changes it was down to 5ppm

 

cool chris...