Nitrates

[Dean]

Please help, I have a 30 gal tank that has been up since Feb '03. Even with weekly water changes, I can not get my nitrates under control. Is there any suggestions on what I am doing wrong.

[Jenn]

Hi Dean. Welcome to MAAST. What livestock and filtration do you have in this setup?

[kaiser]

Rather than doing weekly waterchanges do them monthly and change a higher quantity of water.
Kai

[captexas]

Without knowing any details of how the tank is setup, what kind of water is being used to do water changes, how much water is being changed out, how much food is being given to the fish and more info, there is no way to give any advice yet.

I definately would not recommend reducing water changes without knowing anything more than what little Dean posted.

Dean - Please provide us some more info and hopefully we can help you then. It could be something as simple as feeding too much or something to do with what you are using for filtration. It could also be the water you are using as tap water is not good if you are using that. There are several possiblities and that is why we all would like to know more.

Chris

[Tim Marvin]

Take out any bio balls and media and wash 3/4 of it. Add some plants and do some water changes. Only feed enough for the fish to eat in a couple minutes. Don't feed so it falls to the bottom. This should take care of it.

[rocketeer]

I chased nitrates for a while before I found out my test kit was no good.
Jack

[Dean]

I chased nitrates for a while before I found out my test kit was no good.
Jack

Tank has 3 inches of live sand, has good growth and colaration throughout, approaximately 60 lbs of live rock that is covered with coraline growth. Water movement is powered by a 20 gal, 30 gal powerhead and an Emperior 400. There is also a protien skimmer.

Livestock includes 3 fish, a percula, zebra damsel, and blue tank (all approximately 1.5 inches), an anemone, 2 shrimp, 8 crabs, and a mussel. Soft coral includes a toadstool leather, finger leather, 3 zenias, 3 cults, 2 star polups (3 inch diameter) 2 mushroom rock ( 3 inch diameter) and several zoos.

Thanks for any advise

[jay3]

I have a suspicion that you may have been adding new creatures slowly since starting the tank, and the newest addition may not have been to long ago, right?
If this is the case, you have been increasing your bioload and your bacterial growth may still be lagging behind. Stop adding to the bioload in the system and let it stabilize.

[captexas]

Dean -
On the Emperor 400, are you using the biowheels? If so, you need to remove them. Also you need to rinse out any filter pads you are using in it every few days. The biowheels and filter pads can collect a lot of junk in them that slowly decay producing nitrates until they are removed. Emperors are great filters for freshwater tanks and are good for water movement/carbon treatment for saltwater tanks, but that is about it. Hope that helps.

Chris

[Dean]

Jay
Yes I have been adding a new coral about every 3 to 4 weeks. I will stop adding, any idea how long it will take to stablize the water.

Chris
No I do not have a biowheel; however, there are two filters that I was told not to change. The bacteria was suppose to be good for the tank, I take it that this was not correct. Will risen them tonight. Should I remove them completely and just use it for water movement? Are the filters even benifical to the tank?

Thanks for your advise.

[brewercm]

I use the two containers to run charcoal in them. Will also run the filter pads every so often but usuall for not more than a couple of weeks then remove them. I left my bio wheels on and don't appear to be causing any problems but I've heard of some that remove them, just my 2 cents. I did remove the bioballs from my sump since they do collect a lot more waste that does build up.

[captexas]

Dean -
I used to have two Emperor 400's on my freshwater tank. There are two rotating wheel on the front that the water sprays on. Those wheels should be removed. The other filters that have the filter floss material on it are ok, but you should rinse them out fairly often. If you have RO/DI water, rinse them with that or if you use tap water let it sit out and dry. Putting the filter pad back in wet with tap water will introduce other chemicals into the tank water.

Chris

[::pete::]

On my 400's I clean the pads regularly, but before rinsing them I get the copepods (?) off. The pads are loaded with them almost as if they breed there.

[matt]

Dean;

2 questions: 1) Are you getting alot of undesirable algae, like slime? 2)Are you using tap water or R.O./D.I. water for your tank? If you're using tap water, that's part of the problem, I bet. If you're not getting any algae, I wonder why not? Usually with high nitrates you'll have algae blooms. Since your tank is a little too small for a deep sand bed, I'd try setting up a caulerpa and/or xenia refugium, the bigger the better. That's a good long term solution, but it's going to take some time and, of course extra room and some money. Your soft corals, if they're healthy, will actually help to lower nitrates a bit. I'd do a couple of big water changes, like 50%, if your nitrates are really high. I'd also check with a different test kit. Probably the filters you were told not to remove are the biowheels that Chris is talking about. It is true that they can contribute to higher nitrates, but it sounds like you have sufficient live rock and enough sand to have some anerobic areas. The deal with the bacteria is that there are two kinds (sort of) one lives in areas of high oxygen, like on the biowheels, and converts ammonia to nitrite, then to nitrate (actually two different bacteria strains) The other important bacteria live in areas of low oxygen, like deep in the pores of the rock and down in the sand, and these convert nitrate to free nitrogen, which then bubbles out of your tank. Are you seeing any bubbles on the sandbed? In a small system, or with sand that's too coarse, it's tough to keep enough of these bacteria alive to reduce nitrates effectively. The caulerpa refugium will allow you to grow caulerpa algae which will take up nitrates by growing, then you periodically harvest away the excess caulerpa. But it takes a lot to really reduce nitrates. Xenia does a good job of this too, but you need higher light in the refugim to grow it.

hope this helps
Matt

[Dean]

I do not have the biowheel on the Emperior and all water comes fromHEB, no tap water. I do have some coulerpa in the tank but it produces very little bubbles within the tank. Algee is growing onboth water return form my sprotein skimmer and Emperior. A little slime but not much. Mostly green algee. However, it is not going crazy either. I do have some coulurpa but is not pulsing like it should, just waves in the water. There are 3 nice size zenias. May have to do water change and clean filters. will also check on test kit also.
Thanks for the advise