I cant get my nitrate levels down (1 Viewer)

[wendy32693]

Ever since i switched my tank over to my 120 gallon i have been fighting to get my nitrate levels down. When i bought this tank from the person i had brought a lot of the water over to, he told me he had tested the water and it was fine. Well come to find out it wasnt..the nitrates were very high and now i have been dealing with this problem. I have been doing atleast two 5 gallon water changes a week and the nitrates arent seeming to come down. They were at 50 now at 12..i use the api nitrate test. And it just seem to be stuck at the 12. My corals are doing fine but not to happy with the high nitrates. I have 2 clowns, an orange skunk clown, a small snowflake eel probably around 6-7 inches, a blue chromis and a yellow tang, so i dont have a lot of fish, i dont know whats causing the nitrates to stay high and i dont know how to get the nitrates down as the water changes arent seeming to be working. I just added a bigger skimmer to my tank so will this help with the nitrates? Any ideas on how i can get them down?

 

[Gators27606]

If you want your nitrate to come down you need to do a much larger water change. More like half of your water (60 gal). Then do 1 to 2 gallon water changes a day unit your nitrates come down to your liking.

Good luck

 

[tektite]

Lowering nitrates is simply a matter of dilution. A 5 gallon water change on 120 gallons of water is 0.4%, so doing that 5 gallon water change would only bring your nitrate levels from 12 to 11.5. Essentially your two 5 gallon water changes per week are only lowering your nitrates by 1 ppm per week, which is easily being replaced by fish feeding so you don't see any change. What kinds of corals do you have?

 

[wendy32693]

Flowerpot, zoas, mushrooms, candy canes,gbta, kenya trees, frogspawn but its tissue is starting t receed and the blue anthelia. I had to get rid of my hammer that I only had for a week the tissue was receeding very fast, could that have been caused from the nitrates. I will start trying to do larger water changes, its getting costly buying so much ro/di water but if I can get it down faster.by doing a large water change I will.

 

[Reggie]

The cheapest way for RODI water is to buy your own filter. You do not have to get a huge 1,000 gpd unit a simple 75 gpd will work just fine. Once you get the nitrates down I would recommend 10% water changes a week meaing 12-15 gals depening on a convenient measuring method. Perhaps a 30 gal plastic rubber made trash can with a small circulation pump for mixing the salt over 2-4 days before you do your water change.

 

[tektite]

Not entirely sure about the gbta, but all the other corals like to have nitrates in the water. A level of 12 is definitely not too high for them, they will actually benefit from it. Fast tissue recession in LPS is most commonly caused by diseases like brown jelly or low magnesium levels. Low iodine will also cause them to not extend well but I doubt it would cause tissue recession quickly. What are your calcium and alkalinity levels?

 

[Ostentum]

Increasing your bacteria population in your tank will also help lower them quicker. Prodibio Biotim and Biodigest is what I used, lowered mine from 15 to undetectible in a few days.

 

[wendy32693]

Calcium is around 480, alk im not sure on I have to get more tests for that.the frogspawn doesnt have brown jelly its just receeding. My flowerpot is starting to receed to a tiny bit, I can see a small spot of white skeleton on the base.

 

[KyleH]

My thoughts....

Consider adding macroalgae such as chaeto in your sump on a 24hr light cycle that can help lower nitrates, but I would start to consider looking at other factors that may contribute to poor coral growth. How about your lights? You mentioned that you just changed over to the 120, are the lights adequate to keep your current corals in the new position? I am wondering if you are having die off.

If this tank had any old LR or sand from the previous setup, some of it may be dying off. How long has this been running, and it may take 1-3 months for LR / sand to adjust to to the new lights and flow. During that time, nitrates may get released.

consider 10% weekly (or more) of water changes in general. Use more if you are trying to reduce nitrates, maybe 15-20% each week (or 3-5% each day). Getting your own RO/DI unit may be a good investment--for a $150-250 setup, rodi costs may be down to $0.05-$0.25/gal. A cheaper alternative is to buy a TDS tester off of ebay for around $7-10.00, and measure the local water machines. There is one near my house has < 3-10 TDS which is what I use for my nano tanks. One of the LFS sells their "freshwater" with 60 TDS that I believe they use to mix their "saltwater". Anything under 50-70 TDS is okay, but the lower to 0, the better. I think just RO water is around < 70 TDS, and RODI is < 10 TDS (or 0).

-KyleH

 

[wendy32693]

I have cheato if my fuge with 24 hour light, I will get my new lights in tomorrow I will have a 10 bulb t5 fixture. I just bought some reef iodine and magnesium to put in the water to help, I switched my tanks over about last month. But a hammer wouldnt die off in almost a week because of inadequate lights could it? It could be from low magnesium like tektite said.because ive never added a supplement for that. I will do a large water change and see how it goes from there. Thanks

 

[tektite]

Definitely don't dose for anything you're not measuring, except maybe iodine because hobbyiest test kits are very inaccurate with it and it gets used by a lot of things (even skimmed out). I would mark nitrates off the list of why your corals aren't doing good though since you only have softies and LPS and they both like nitrates.

 

[wendy32693]

I will get a test kit for magnesium before I put that in. so its ok not to test for iodine and still put it in? on the iodine it says 5ml for every 10 gallons and best results dose weekly, would every week be a bit too much? Would adding iodine like every two weeks or three be better

Its just my lps corals I'm having trouble with, the softies are doing great.

 

[tektite]

You can always start with less and increase if you see positive results.

 

[wendy32693]

Alright thanks

 

[CBBSteve]

Hi, Wendy.
IMO, the main reason you've got higher nitrate levels is because your tank in not fully matured. Your nitrogen cycle is not going to completion, meaning the nitrates are not being reduced to nitrogen in your tank. That reaction takes place in an anaerobic environment - deep within your live rock or under your sand bed where oxygen doesn't exist. It usually takes a couple of months for that part to mature. Do like CRVZ says and get some Prodibio to help move it along. And be patient...

good luck,
Steve