Nitrate

[Viking2627]

I measured my nitrates in they are at 80. I just did a ten percent change 5 days ago. I am going to do another change of ten percent tomorrow. The issue for me is that I am making a salt change to instant ocean reef crystals. Should I do a ten percent water change weekly? Is Bi- weekly two much until the Nitrates are at zero?
Tank info 46 gal, protein skimmer, Nitrates 80, Cal 560,

[SGT_York]

10% changes won't do much for your nitrates? Is the tank new?

[mcgyvr]

yep..lots more info needed..
and yes There is a darn good chance though that 10% each week is pointless..
And obviously if you don't find the source of your nitrates you are going to be chasing the nitrate dragon for ever...

[Viking2627]

Tank is two months new

[Viking2627]

Do a 20 percent change?

[thegrun]

I would make a 50%-70% water change matching the existing tank's water temperature, salinity and pH. It is important to first figure out where the nitrates came from, however or they will soon return. Usual suspects:
Overfeeding
Not cleaning mechanical filters every 3-4 days
bio-balls
Leaching from old live rock taken from a poorly maintained tank

[asylumdown]

yah a 10% change is only going to drop your nitrate to 72ppm, not a huge drop. To make any sort of a dent on nitrates with water changes you need to do very large water changes, or tons of small ones in rapid succession. A 50% water change will still leave you with 40ppm nitrate, which is generally still too high.

What do you have in the tank for dedicated denitrification? Are you using live rock or cycled dead rock? A deep sand bed? Do you carbon dose at all? Run biopellets?

It's a new tank, so if you've got a shallow sand bed/no sand, are using mostly dry rock, and don't have any dedicated system or process in place to handle nitrate, I'm not surprised that your levels are this high. Even a minor amount of feeding in a tank with no capacity to export nitrogen will quickly lead to very high levels if your'e only doing 10% water changes. Regardless of the source, you need to set a system up that deals with nitrate at the rate your tank produces it, otherwise you're only option will be to do massive water changes and starve your fish. Eventually a system to deal with the nitrate will establish itself, but unless you are being intentional about it, it's more likely than not that the 'system' will be unchecked growth of luxuriant problem algae.

[bertoni]

Large water changes can cause as many problems as they fix. I'd be cautious about that. If the tank has an underlying issue, the nitrate level will rise fairly quickly after a water change. Also, nitrite can confuse nitrate test kits, so it might be worth checking that parameter, if you haven't already.

Fish and soft corals will be safe with that nitrate level, so I'd likely avoid doing anything drastic if the animal are okay.

[Viking2627]

I am new so please don't laugh at my lack of knowledge. lol. I have gotten so much different advise from different lps that my head is about to explode. My first mistake was setting the tank up with no help at all. I wish I could start the process over but it's to late for that. The good news is all of my animals are doing just fine. I set the tank up with tap water and no clue what type of salt as it was just in a white bag.I have not put any supplements into the tank once it cycled. I think I waited to long to do my first water change. I am now on a weekly 10 percent change using RO water with Instant ocean reef crystals. My tank is 46 gallon. I have a shallow sand bed, with approx 40lb of live rock. I have 2 clowns, 1 yellow tang, 12 hermits, 2 emeralds, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 sand sifting star, 2 turbo snails, 1 bta, 1 purple sebae new addition not doing well have had it a week, 1 hammer, 1 small torch, a few zoa, small button polyp.
My parameters are as follows. Salinity 1.025, Calc 560, nitrates 80, phos 179?? alk .25
I am an animal lover and I am checking my parameters every day. I keep a 5 gallon bucket of RO water ready to go at all times.

[bertoni]

There are lots of ways of dealing with a nitrate problem, so I'm not surprised that you got a variety of advice. As long as the animals are okay, I wouldn't worry.

Did you reverse the alkalinity and phosphate measurements? Alkalinity at 179 ppm is fine. Phosphate at 0.25 ppm is high enough to be an issue over time.

I probably would cut back on feeding, since that's likely the source of the nitrate and phosphate. In addition, some GFO (like PhosBan or RowaPhos) would help with the phosphate.

I tend to be lazy, so I tend to suggest fixes that are easy to do. :) There are more active approaches, like lots of water changes, but in this case, I suspect the levels will rise back up fairly quickly.

[dppitone]

Nitrates at 80 isn't a catastrophe. Especially if you don't have sensitive corals, which I would guess you don't in an 8 week old tank. It won't hurt the fish. What skimmer do you have and how has it been working for you? Try cutting down your feeding a bit as you're doing the water change routine and with some time the system should balance out.

[reefguy24]

Not cleaning mechanical filters every 3-4 days

Sorry to hijack....but we need to clean our mechanical filters every 3-4 days?

I have a nano with a sponge filter in the 1st chamber....

Also, I notice when I do my weekly 25% water changes that in the 2nd chamber, (underneath my chaeto) there a massive TON of "debris" and biological particles floating in the area.

Will a skimmer help solve this problem? This is for a 24ga nano

[bertoni]

The filter might need cleaning every 3-4 days. That depends on a lot of factors. If the water parameters are okay and the animals are doing well enough, I wouldn't worry. A skimmer might help bullet-proof the tank, and they generally are useful to run, though.