HIGH nitrates!!! (1 Viewer)

[bchadley]

Ok so my nitrates are somewhere in the neighborhood of 40ppm (the API test kit is incredibly hard to distinguish between 10 and 80- are there any others that are better?).

I appear to have had two fatalities recently, my royal gramma and firefish. Found only one quarter of the body of one of the fish. Not sure if the nitrates caused the fatalities or the fatalities caused the nitrates.

In my 58 gallon tank I've done 20-25 gallon water changes every week for 3-4 weeks and not been able to get the nitrates down.

Anyway, Dennis recommended this Red Sea NO3/PO3 dosing, which I bought. Says it contains Methanol, but smells like Acetone. Maybe it's both. Anyway, dosing ~7ml per day since Sunday. Also leaving the lights on my refugium 24/7 that's filled with chaeto and ulva. I've also been cutting back on the feeding.

Anything else I can be doing?

 

[Darrel]

tagging along to see responses.... Mine are at about 20ppm and I use the API kits too,

 

[steveb]

I'm not sure what the lethal concentration of NO3 is, it probably varies by fish to some extent. I have read anywhere from 20ppm to 100ppm so who knows....and probably is also tied to length of exposure at said level.

Red Sea NO3/PO3 dosing is basically commercial carbon dosing you can use (vodka/vinegar/glucose as liquid carbon sources) as another option that may be cheaper.

good article to review
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/8/chemistry but does not really go into carbon dosing
this one does
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php


I am using macro algae and vodka/vinegar to control nitrates/phosphates in my small tank. Mine got way out of wack when I let a family member take over the maintenance. My NO3 is now 0 and phosphates where .03 last reading. I'm dosing 1.4 ml vodka each evening and about 2 ml vinegar/day via ATO in kalk solution.


I use the Salifert Nitrate test and Hanna checker phosphate meter.

 

[tektite]

I'd first test that your test kit is accurate. I've had bad kits that were telling me my nitrates were 50+ when they were really zero.

What is your bioload and how much/how often do you feed?

 

[steveb]

Good point.

 

[bchadley]

Thanks, Tektite, I will test against my RO water this afternoon.

My tank is 58 gallons, plus probably 4 in my HOB refugium.

I have a 3" lawnmower blenny, a 2.5" blue tang, and two 2" clownfish. In addition, I have probably 60+ dwarf ceriths, 15 large ceriths, 20 nassarius snails, 5 trochus snails, two cleaner shrimp, one fighting conch.

I feed once a day, a small number of algae pellets every day, and I alternate between Prime Reef Flakes and Frozen Mysis shrimp every other day. I'm cutting back on the amount I'm feeding to help, but the tank inhabitants always seem ravenous when I feed.

 

[steveb]

Do you rinse the frozen food?

 

[bchadley]

I mix it with tank water to dilute and melt it, but I guess the answer is "no". Should I? I figured if you rinsed it you'd lose so many of the little tiny bits.

 

[tektite]

Rinse it in a coffee filter, you won't lose any food.

 

[steveb]

I do. Lot's of fertilizer in the defrosted water.

I use ro/di, mix with frozen food, drain off excess, add more ro/di, drain off excess, add some tank water and then add about 1/4 of the mixture at a time with a turkey baster until gone. There are still lots of little pieces.

 

[Jasonc]

I rinse my mysis but do you guys wash frozen foods like Rods Original?

 

[steveb]

I don't have experience with that one...

I use these and rinse all of them...

H2O Life Spirulina/Brine/Mysis
Ocean Nutrition Angel Formula
Piscine Energetics PE Mysis

 

[bchadley]

Ok, update for you guys.

Red Sea NO3/PO4 stuff seems to be doing the trick. Nitrates were down over the week from 40 to 20 (or as close as I can tell with the poor color matching of the API kit), and that's even with the water level down a bit due to evaporation.

I tested the test kit against my RODI water, and the RODI water measured zero NO3, so it's not the kit.

I did another 20 gallon water change (on my 58 gal tank) and it's looking pretty healthy right now.

 

[steveb]

Keep it up. It just takes some time.

 

[fishcraze_1]

20 gallon water changes per week on a 58 gallon tank

that is awesome,

dont even need a skimmer

your tank should be looking great

any pics

 

[fishcraze_1]

i forgot to ask, how much are you feeding

 

[bchadley]

20 gallon water changes per week on a 58 gallon tank

that is awesome,

dont even need a skimmer

your tank should be looking great

any pics

You'd think, but I'm doing all the water changes because my nitrates have been ridiculous. Still pulling out some good stuff with the skimmer. Tank is looking better. Also cleaned a lot of salt off the T5 plexiglas, and that let a lot more light into the tank. I'll try to take some pictures and post here once the lights come on today. I'm starting to get a good dusting of purple on the white marco rocks I started the tank with.

I'm feeding a small pinch of Prime Reef Flakes and maybe 15-20 little Algae Pellets every day once a day. I have cut back because of the nitrates.

 

[bchadley]

Here I'm going to try to post a picture of the tank as of the morning!

 

[mwilliams62]

I don't know how true this is or not but I was told that doing that large amount of water changes every week is not good it takes out some of the benifical batcertia out and causes mini tank cycles for that size of tank. I do not know if that is correct or not but I have stoped doing weekly water changes and do them once every two weeks to maybe three weeks and my nitrates and ammonia went way down.

 

[Mark L.]

I rinse my mysis but do you guys wash frozen foods like Rods Original?

No I don't rinse my Rods Original or Coral Blend. I do rinse my frozen mysis and brine shrimp though. Buy you a Brine Shrimp net at the LFS and use it to rinse your food. I put 2 cubes of frozen brine in the net and a small chunk of mysis. I put the net over a small bowl so the net and food hang in some ro/di water. I kind of swish the net around until it's thawed out. I'll pour some more water into the net and let it drain into the bowl.

The water in the bowl look like light chocolate milk. It's dirty!! When you put your shrimp in the tank there shouldn't be any "cloud" to it. Just clean pieces of shrimp floating around. The Brine net is fine enough to not lose any food.