Nitrates Pushing 160 Ppm!!!

[D_Hood87]

i went out of town for a week or so and had my wife take care of my tank and she now has told me she was feeding 5 to 6 times a day..(big mistake)...when i left my nitrates were between 5 and 10 ppm, when i get home i can plainly see that ALL of my fish are not doing too good so i start testing and i have NEVER seen that color red before on any test...nitrates are almost 160 ppm i did a 30 gallon WC and it brought them down to about 80 ppm did another 20 gallon change and no change at all still sitting at 80 ppm..so thats a 50 gallon change in two days on a 90 gallon tank with 180lbs of LR and 20 gallons or so in the 30 gal sump...what do you think i should do?? another WC, dose suger, im only feeding them once every other day


oh yeah and the tank has the most god awful smell to it so im pretty sure it is the fack that she fed them in a week what would have taken me over a month to feed...
sorry for the long post just wanted to give all the facts

[Rich D]

Do you have a skimmer and/or fuge? 80 ppm is still very high so you should probably do a couple 15-20% water changes a week. Dosing sugar, vodka, or Ethanol could help too but you have to be extremely careful with your dosing ammounts or you could end up with even more problems.

[D_Hood87]

i have a skimmer and basicly my sump "is" a fuge, crash side is just large enough for my skimmer,then large fuge, return side is just large enough for my return pump<<<---thank god for my ATO haha

[chimmike]

major, major water change is in order!!

[69.nova.ss]

im pretty sure chateo will help reduce nitrates

[D_Hood87]

and i have 40 gallons RO/DI mixed ready to go but i wasnt sure if doing any more changes that close togather would cause any adverse effects

[jterrell]

Many small water changes will take nitrates down without stressing the livestock.

[JAG107]

it will take a while to get nitrates down with carbon dosing, better stick with water changes for now

[Rich D]

+1 for cheato, caulerpa is also known to grow faster therefore removing more nitrates but it comes with a risk of becoming sexual...

[D_Hood87]

alright so this is what im thinking...im going to get some caulerpa, do two 20 gallon water changes(prob more but that is all i have ready for now), and keep my wife away from anything that has to do with any of my tanks..

when i get all this under control would you recomend carbon dosing?? i have herd real good things about it, but i have also herd desaster stories what do you all think??

[D_Hood87]

.and thanks for all the fast responses they go a long way

[BuddhaKiss]

I've never had to deal with nitrates that high, but IMHO, I'd go with WC's and maybe the addition of of some more macroalgae. I wouldn't do anything too drastic as that would probably stress out your livestock again. Keep it slow and steady. In regards to the carbon dosing, you said your nitrates were between 5 and 10 ppm before this issue, which is pretty decent. So I don't necessarily see a need for it if you go back to your normal husbandry practices.

[Sisterlimonpot]

+1 for BuddhaKiss,

Macro algae and carbon dosing won't do anything right away. it takes time....

[what'scoral]

I heard black mangrove seeds like 20 of them will reduce nitrates over night.

http://www.michiganreefers.com/forum...light=mangrove

[OwenInAZ]

Stop feeding for a few days. Your fish and corals will be fine (assuming you don't have any clams or something like that) and it will stop the influx of nutrients. Skim and WC's.

[Jova]

I'd say stop feeding for several days (your fish will be fine), do small water changes every couple of days, and maybe get yourself some of that nitrate sponge... kent marine makes it I believe.. put a bag of that in your sump to help out... It's just gonna take time... You're not gonna get the levels back down to 0 in a day or two, and if you did, that probably wouldn't be healthy. Just take the proper steps and give it time. Hope this helps!

[D_Hood87]

im trying to take the steps to get everything i need to put in a 75gallon display fuge w/ 8"+ DSB in the room behind the DT.. plenty of room for mangroves, Macro, and live rock. im going to be doing small WC(15gallons) every day untill i see massive improvements, and then 15gallons a week just for some extra up keep. and not feeding anything for a couple days. anything else you all can think of??

[tmz]

I would do a 50% water change and then 20 gallon changes per day for three days. Normally I prefer smaller changes but 160ppm NO3 seems to require more immediate action. I would also run extra GAC and skim wet. Employing a filter sock or even a canister filter with sponge filters which would be cleaned every day might help remove some pariculate matter. I would also blow out the rock and puff the sustrate to inusre I removed as much decaying matter as possible.