Nitrate high

[parmaker]

My nitrate is high. I did a 10% water change yesterday. what can I do to get it down?

Ammonia--0
PH--8.4
Nitrate--20
Nitrite--0
Calcium--420
KH Carbonate--11
Salinity--1.023
Temp--78

[Avi]

Well, there are a lot of measures you can take but right now, before you get too involved with that, are you doing your water changes frequently...with good RO/DI water....and not overfeeding? Also...are you using an effective protein skimmer?
I have a FOWLR in addition to a reef and I know that the temptation can be to overfeed...not because of it being fun so much but because different fish have different nurishment requirements and preferences. So...let's go one step at a time. By the way, though irksome, the 20ppm isn't terribly problematic for a FOWLR...at least in the short run.

[parmaker]

the tank is 3 1/2 weeks old. i did at the start overfeed the fish i believe. No, I dont have a skimmer yet. I have 2 biowheel 350, live sand and 35 lbs of live rock. 2 koralia #2 and a max jet 1200 powerhead. I have only done one water change.

[parmaker]

the nitrate had been at 0 until I got fish. which is 3 chromis.

[woogy]

get rid of the biowheel and get more LR...and a skimmer:D

[parmaker]

in the process of adding more live rock slowly. I am going to order a skimmer

[knorsk]

just for the record I had a friend that had chromis in a tank that had reached 300ppm of nitrates and didn't die. I wouldn't worry unless you tank gets above 40 ppm. 20 for nitrates is good unless you want to start adding sensitive corals and such.

[Avi]

If you take the chromis out of the water and put it on a table and hit it with a hammer, that'll do it...all right...Just kidding. But that's right...First of all, adding the fish and feeding them did probably cause the rise in the nitrates. I agree that some more live rock and a skimmer would in all likelihood resolve the issue. If you do those as you seem to be intending, parmaker, and the nitrates don't for go down, then there are other things you can do. For example, if you don't have a refugium, try to add one to the system. We'll go farther than that if necessary. But, again, your nitrates aren't endangering your fish...what you have to ward off is some nasty, unattractive micro-algae growth.

[RAY HUNTER]

Don't skimp on the skimmer like I did! geta good one like the Euro Reef rs series. others here can help with anything you can think of. Do water changes like religion!

[chineseknife]

Fish in a 3 1/2 week old system?

[cpl40475]

theres now way that tank has cycled unless all the rock,sand and water came from an established tank already. then i would still be skeptical about it.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

My tank never had nitrites, the ammonia spike was less then .1 and it cycled. this rock (140lbs of Fiji) was shipped across the country (albeit on an airplane).

My ammonia hit undetectable within 2 weeks. after 3 I was adding fish. I even had the LFS confirm these results (and they use liquid reagents, not test strips)

So it is possible without the rock coming from an established tank. Walt Smith rock comes pre-cooked, if it gets to the store fast enough then you will more then likely not see a cycle.

[chineseknife]

API test kits? Or Salifert?

[r0bin]

20 ppm is not high.

[SReef]

If you can do a sump and refuge setup this will help with processing the excess nutrients in the water.