Serious Nitrate Issues! - Frag Outpost Forums - Coral Propagation and Reef Aquarium Forums

EvilTwin · 06-07-2006, 09:27 PM

I have been trying to combat a serious rise in Nitrates over the past two days. I have only one thought of what may have caused it, but need some advice. Frag and I chatted about this last night but things aren't any better and are, in fact much worse today. Two days ago I started seeing elevated Nitrates, maybe 10-15. Yesterday that number had climbed to 20 so I did a 10g water change. I currently have about 90g of water volume between sump and tank. Tested again but saw no change. This evening I test again and the number has skyrocketed to 80! The one thing I can think of that may be causing this is I had a snail die on me the other day. Before I even knew it, my cleanup crew had it out of the shell and was picking every scrap clean that they could find. Could this be the reason for the extra bioload? I see no increase in ammonia or nitrites. I changed another 5g today and need to check levels again. I have tested my new water and it is zero on the nitrates. Anyone have any ideas here?

Teeka01 · 06-08-2006, 10:03 AM

Do you have any corals that are dieing? Maybe that is part of your reason. I am just grasping as I am very new. Is your clean up crew okay? If your Nitrates are up, how is your ammonia level? If I remember right that is what kills the inverts. I am sorry I am not much help.

EvilTwin · 06-08-2006, 12:59 PM

Ammonia and Nitrite are zero. I am sure that is good and it is all a sign that waste in my tank is being converted to nitrates. Better to have nitrate than ammonia. As I said, it may have come from the dead snail and associated bioload. I have also been battling a cyano problem which I seem to have a handle on now but perhaps decaying cyano is adding bioload as well. My fish are all fine. My cleanup crew appears fine (except for that one snail). My invers have been good for the most part. Funny how most people say anemones are so hard to keep but that is the one thing that is continuing to thrive in my tank. My clowns are in heaven! I seem to have lost my original green button polyp but only after it spawned two more which seem OK. I added the two mushroom polyps which were opened up nicely when I checked them a little while ago today. I also added a kenya tree which also seems to be doing well. I have a xenia frag that has been withering over the past few months but is still alive. I'm still just as new at this so I take all the suggestions I can get. I'm wondering if I had been measuring nitrates wrong all along or something.

D12monkey · 06-08-2006, 02:12 PM

Well Evil Nitrates are the last of on the chain of decomposition. Meaning that you will first see Ammonia, then Nitrite, then Nitrate.

If you are see increase in nitrate levels after water changes check your water.

If you are running an R/O unit and do not keep it pressurized then that is your problem. R/O unit only work effectively if it is maintained under pressure. And what I mean about effectively is that they not add Nitrates when used.

EvilTwin · 06-08-2006, 02:24 PM

My water purification unit is not RO, only DI. I am about to go buy a good 100gpd RO/DI unit, just haven't got to it. I have tested the water coming from the DI and it is pretty darn pure. Definitely no nitrates, tho. It is still a mystery, though I was happy to see my new mushroom opened up some more today.

EvilTwin · 06-09-2006, 08:52 PM

I called around and checked out some places looking for Chaeto macro algae today to put in my sump/fuge. No one had any. I wound up getting a bunch of caulerpa so we shall see if that helps with my nitrate issues. I have 100 watts of pc lightingover the fuge which I plan on running 24/7. What i got is in the background of this pic:

EvilTwin · 06-13-2006, 08:30 AM

Well, I am probably NEVER going to do another large water change ever again! After preparing 40g of water, in advance, matching PH, salinity, SG I did a large 40g water change last night. I did such a large change after reading so much about it. I woke up this morning and mmy turbo snails and two turtle conchs are all dead. But what is really worse is that for the past month or so I have been enjoying watching what amounts to literally a hundred or more baby trochus snails crawl around my tank and continue to thrive. Every single one was dead. I could not find a single surviving specimen. Fortunately, my fish seem ok, my BTAs appear ok and my corals, while they weren't opened up yet, also look allright. I'll know more later. Frankly, I am at a loss, and really disappointed right now.

Teeka01 · 06-13-2006, 09:47 AM

I am really sorry to hear about your losses. As both of us is relativly new I know this can be fustrating at times. I wish there was something I could do to help.

EvilTwin · 06-26-2006, 10:07 PM

I thought I'd throw an update out there for those of you that care.

I have finally been able to get my water parameters under better control. I won't say it is under control yet but things have certainly improved.

One of the first things I did what buy a Pinpoint PH meter which I keep constantly running in my sump so I can monitor the PH. After the big PH spike finally settled down, my PH was down to around 8.1 and has remained in that area ever since with the assistance of some buffer. Each morning the PH is always a bit lower. I'm still trying to get things to balance out. Nitrates are still in the 40ppm range so I am still doing pwc's to bring that down.

I also purchased a 6 stage RO/DI unit and started making a bunch of water for the changes. I was a little surprised at how the RO/DI unit worked at first as it appears to waste sooooooo much water down the drain. The nice thing is that I am now making water that has a TDS of only 1 ppm (I got a TDS meter, too) so I now know that I'm not pumping nitrates into the tank from my tap water.

On of my other problems which I was ignoring for a long time was the fact that I had a really crappy skimmer. When I first got started with SW, I bought a Seaclone 150 skimmer and while it would occasionally work, it is very finicky and the general impression from people is that it is a terrible skimmer. So, today I wen and sprang for an AquaC EV-180 with a Mag7 pump. It should be here Friday. It probably seems like way too much skimmer, but at this point, I don't want to ever have to buy another skimmer for a really long time, even when I upgrade my tank again (which is inevitable in this hobby, I can see that now).

My last real remaining problem is that my cyano bloom is back. While the PH spike appeared to kill it all, it has come back in full force. Getting the nitrates down should start to help, as well as the new skimmer to get rid of DOCs. We shall see.

So, I'm now spending the money on things that I really should have spent a while ago. Hopefully it will get my tank's health where it needs to be. My corals appear to be doing much better now, except for the mushrooms which really got shocked by the PH. Hopefully they will come back. My solitary green button polyp has spawned two additional polyps before it suddenly started to deteriorate. The whole head withered away but the stalk remained. Now that the water parameters are much better, it has begun regrowing the head. This is really cool to see. The anemones are also still doing well. I actually moved them to a bucket of the old water while the tank was getting back to normal. They are back in the tank and seem no worse for wear. The clowns really missed them.

D12monkey · 07-08-2006, 12:49 PM

Cool... nice to see that you are getting your stuff together.