High Nitrates

[reefuge]

Hi everyone. I have a 46 gal bow front w/46 pounds live rock, 60 pounds live sand that is 5 weeks old. Have 5 damsels, 5 Mexican turbos, 5 blue leg hermit's, 1 peppermint shrimp and a sand sifting sea star. PH 8.2, ammonia, nitrite at zero 1.026 spec grav temp is 79. Nitrates are at 20ppm since week 2 and will not go down. I do 10% water changes weekly. Have wet dry filter that I use as sump for protein skimmer/heater with no bio balls. Should I be concerned or just patient with nitrates? My protein skimmer is a Sea-clone 150. I have read that they are not very good. Could this be the reason for the high trates? It seems to produce a few oz of green skim every day and a half. All inhabitants appear to be healthy and happy. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[flfirefighter13]

just a thought check it with another kit or have a store check it, I recently had a brand new kit read all screwy, Took me 3 weeks to figure out I had a test kit problem not a nitrate problem.

[reefuge]

Great idea. I'm using Saltwater Master test kit made by aquarium pharmaceuticals, is this a good kit or not? I'm still gonna have lfs check also. Thanks for the advice!

[flfirefighter13]

Thatsthe same kit i use most of the time. I also now have a bunch of salifert kits due to the fact that they have a control test to ensure your getting accurate readings. It has gotten to the point where I have 6 salt tanks so Im actually using the dip test strips on a regular basis now and only busting out the chemical kit when stuff is looking funky, Or when i just get the urge to confirm something. This has given me no problems on a cycled fowlr tank, since your tank may still be cycling you may want to keep a closer eye on it than the dip strips allow. Call me crazy but i like the reduncy of severla test kits to check eachother. Hope that helps!

[JoeESSA]

Seems like many people I talk to don't think 20ppm is that bad. Personally I want 10 or less...

[GMAX]

What are your trying to keep? Softies and LPS? It will be fine. Clams use Nitrate so they might be a colorful addtions. Only if you plan to keep SPS would I get really concerned about Nitrates at 20 or less.

[reefuge]

Planning soft and lps, but not for several more months. I want to make sure I am good and cycled. I read alot of posts from folks that say nitrates are at zero. Wanted to make sure I am not doing anything wrong. Good advise about the Clams, maybe that will help balance things out. Thanks for all the advise, I'll just keep doing what I am doing and double check my readings with lfs.

[neuroslicer]

The nitrates won't hurt the critters but that level of nutrients will encourage algal growth, which you don't want (unless you don't mind hair algae everywhere, or scraping phytoplankton off the glass daily). I would get a decent skimmer. I switched from a Sea Clone to an Aqua C Urchin Pro (if you've got a sump) or a Aqua C Remora (if you'd rather have a hang on). Also, your sand bed is a bit young to be doing full duty at nitrate conversion. So don't add any more bioload to your tank until you've gotten a better skimmer and until your sand ages another month or so.

[drummereef]

Sounds like the sand bed isn't really a DSB. Some people have had succes at keeping shallow sandbeds without problems, but to have a viable dsb for nitrate reduction, it should be approx 5 inches. Probalby just a nutrient sink at this point. I added an inch or 2 to mine and have had nothing but good results. The other thing is the skimmer. I would upgrade to a better, more efficient skimmer. Like the Aqua C mentioned above or better.

[reefuge]

neuroslicer, thanks for the advice. I have not heard or read anything about the Aqua C Urchin but it looks exactly like what I need as my sump is small. I will definatly look into that one. Any ideas about where the best prices are?

[outy]

besides your skimmer not cleaning enough you can feed less every other day to help cut down.

larger water changes will help. if you a nitrate issue phosphates are sure to follow. you will need some kind of phosphate management. a fuge will help with nitrates and phos.

when i added my fuge as the macro algea grew you could almost see the hair algea receding

[Poorcollegereef]

hey, I will vouch for aqua C skimmers! I got a remora pro after a long battle with nitrates and it has worked wonders. Also a ball of chaeto helps too. Now I was fighting nitrates around 15ppm and could get them down to 10 after water changes but they would work their way back up. Added the remora, chaeto ... and being guilty of increasing my bioload by 66%... and now my nitrates are 2-4ppm nitrates and still going down. I would upgrade the skimmer and some macro algae if you have a lit sump