High Nitrates 100 PPM

[ProudMom]

Hello everybody and thanks in advance for trying to solve this mystery. I have a 125g SW tank with (2) 250 Watts MH 10k and a 29g refug.

In the refu I have Caluoera and Spaghetti algae to help with Nitrates.
My tank was nitrates free for about 2 years. My tank was fine yesterday until the evening when I found the water cloudy and most of my calupera in the refug dead or about to. My Nitrates were about 5 ppm and the amonia about .3 ppm.
This morning my nitrates were 100 PPM and the amonia .1ppm.

This is my question I do not think my handfull of calupera dying caused it, yet everything in my tank is alive, so was is the problem.

Salinity 1.025
Calcium 400
PH 8.2
Temp 75

9 Fish and 3 Seahorses and mixed corals Sps and Lps.

I got the nitrate to less than 20 ppm this morning using Amquil but I am spkeptical because I have clams and seahorses and I am afraid they get affected.

[KEOKI]

When setting up my refugium I was reading somewhere here in reef central on what type of plants to use. One of the posts noted that when using calerpa algae, you should also use various other types of algae.

Apparently if or when the calerpa (grape type) dies (you can tell when the plant turns transparent or white) it immediately releases all its nitrates that it absorbed when alive. This is different than when your algae is healthy and the tips that are growing are transparent or white. You should put several types of algae in your refugium to prevent this. I am currently guilty of this and have been looking for other types of algae to keep this from happening in my tank.

Not sure if this helps...,

Try some other types of algae. spagetti, blade etc.

[DrHank]

Yes, calurpa is well known to die off and can crash a tank. Next thing that I would do is a large water change to try to further reduce nitrates. Make sure you've removed all the calurpa. As long as the cheato (spaghetti) looks good leave it alone.

You may also want to run a poly filter or other nitrate remover to help pull down nitrate. Good luck!

[nemodude]

Did you see the thread about using sugar to reduce your nitrates? It's right here in the advanced topics forum. The guy said that in one month he reduced his nitrate levels from 100+ ppm to less than 2 ppm. You should check it out. I found it to be a very interesting solution to a very troublesome problem.

[SgJsg35]

Ihave been having trouble with nitrates and have been thinking about trying the sugar dosing, so far I dont have the guts to put sugar in my tank,will it harm anything?

[nemodude]

I'm not sure if it will or not. It sounds like it won't, but I would ask the guys on the sugar thread about this before experimenting with anything.

[billy72]

Would you happen to known the thread ?

Wonder how many cubes hes used per volume?

[SgJsg35]

where is the sugear thread nemodude ?

[jfl14609]

was the amaquil the normal or the plus the plus can cause false readings

[ProudMom]

Amequil. My nitrates are now around 5 ppm with amquil, removing the calupera and 20% water change thank God.

[ycnibrc]

here it is sugar thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=898931&highlight=dose+sugar

[nemodude]

Thats one of the threads. There are a few more, here in the advanced topics forum. Just do a search for sugar or high nitrates.

[xenon]

Your welcome :)

http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, I prefer Caulerpa racemosa to most other macroalgae in my refugia. When I've tried to grow Chaetomorpha, the Caulerpa simply grow faster and outcompetes it. So IMO, Caulerpa may be a more efficient way to go.

It has never sporulated in my aquarium (more than 10 years), so that does not concern me. Maybe folks that do have such events are not dosing iron or keeping it pruned adequately.
FWIW, I detail many ways to reduce nutrients in these articles:

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

[john f]

Your nitrates were not 100ppm.

Nitrite interence in the nitrate test kit was misleading you.
Ammonia spike, followed by nitrite spike, then incresed nitrates.
But nitrite causes something like a 100 times higher nitrate reading (ie: 1ppm nitrite may cause nitrate to read 100ppm)

I'm not sure of the exact magnitude of the interference, but it is large.......Randy???



John