Nitrates!

[FlameHawk]

I'm about to go insane. For the last part of school this year I was really busy with that and two jobs, and my dad had been feeding my fish. I think that is how I ended up with nitrates, for the first time since I set up my tank about 3 years ago. He fed them too much. Needless to say, I don't let him do that anymore but I can't get these nitrates to go away! I have done about 100 gallons worth of water changes in the last two weeks [75 gallon tank]{RO} which hasn't done ANYTHING and started using Seachem de-nitrate about a week ago. Since the directions on the bottle of the de-nitrate say that you can't have a flow rate of more than 50 gph, [which I do] I wasn't really counting on that to work too well anyway. It's a FOWLR, 6 small fish, 100 small snails, brand new skimmer, powerheads, 250 gph filter. Is my only option to do water changes until my arms fall off??!

 

[BigC]

Whats in the filter.
Regards
BigC

 

[FlameHawk]

There are 4 foam pads, carbon, and I filled up two mesh bags with the de-nitrate.

 

[smudger72]

There are 4 foam pads, carbon, and I filled up two mesh bags with the de-nitrate.

I am going to take a guess that the response is going to be
"get rid of the foam pads"


http/www.fishforums.net/content/Marine-a...-of-the-basics/

I think it's covered there.

 

[SkiFletch]

If it's holding steady at 20ppm, that's really not that bad... The only way to get it down lower is BIG water changes. Like 100% water changes.

 

[FlameHawk]

Hmm I never thought of the pads as being bad ... especially when I clean them regularly and see all the junk they catch for me! But I guess there's stuff I can't see that could be bad. I only have storage for 20 gallons of RO so a 100% change wouldn't happen any faster than like 4 days. Thanks guys I will remove the pads and see if that helps anything. Also I just thought of something... how the heck do u clean the intake and outflow tubes on a filter?!! I dont have a ginormous pipe cleaner...

 

[PortValefanjosh]

Hmm I never thought of the pads as being bad ... especially when I clean them regularly and see all the junk they catch for me! But I guess there's stuff I can't see that could be bad. I only have storage for 20 gallons of RO so a 100% change wouldn't happen any faster than like 4 days. Thanks guys I will remove the pads and see if that helps anything. Also I just thought of something... how the heck do u clean the intake and outflow tubes on a filter?!! I dont have a ginormous pipe cleaner...

if you can not do 100% then you could always use a poly fillter instead, i did a 100% water change in one day the lfs got fed up of seeing me that day as well.

 

[dilbert]

I would emphasize what SkiFletch says and add that phosphates are more dangerous regarding algae. You can have a red lime outbreak with 0.01 ppm nitrates too as red slime is capable to get nitrates from dissolved nitrogen gas that is always around as it comes from the air.

Also, I would guess that the skimmer isn't very effective and probably needs some adjusting.

And, it takes some time to get all the rotten food to dissolve.

I guess that two weeks is not enough to tell something definitively.

 

[FlameHawk]

Well the skimmer is brand new and I set it to work exactly how the instructions said to... and since removing the pads I have brown algae..... and no reduction in nitrates. This is retarded and hopeless.

 

[Musho3210]

leave the foam pad if you clean them regularly (at least once every 3-4 days)

 

[Crazy fishes]

Can I just ask how are you testing for nitrates? I ask because I had the same problem of nitrates holding at 20ppm and after 50 liter water change they remained firmly at 20ppm. The problem was my test kit!! I was using API and red sea which are less than satisfactory (lets say you can get a better reading if you just guess). I changed to salifert and surprise surprise the nitrates were less than 10ppm. Just an idea.

Regards

 

[dilbert]

Yes, and I got an easy method to be on zero nitrates all the time.


I used two API nitrate test kits, one bought in the UK and one ordered from the US, and both show always zero when below 30 ppm while Dry-Tab and Salifert show the actual figures between 0 and 30 ppm.

 

[Crazy fishes]

The tests, I believe, should be used as an adjunct to just plain observation. I think it is easy to get so focused on the numerical values and not really take in to account the observed health of the aquarium. We see our tanks pretty much every day (well I do as soon as I open my eyes in the morning it is the first thing that comes into focus NOTE: that is not because I am obsessive and sleep wrapped around the glass walls but because it is at the end of my bed honestly LOL) and so we get accustomed to the behaviour of our fish, corals and other inverts. It is easy to see when they are not behaving in their idiosyncratic ways and then tests are helpful to get some objective data on the water quality. I think if things are looking healthy in the tank then don't really worry that the nitrate is at 20ppm. Just continue with say 20% weekly water changes until the level comes down and then revert back to the 10% or so.

Regards

 

[Musho3210]

The tests, I believe, should be used as an adjunct to just plain observation. I think it is easy to get so focused on the numerical values and not really take in to account the observed health of the aquarium. We see our tanks pretty much every day (well I do as soon as I open my eyes in the morning it is the first thing that comes into focus NOTE: that is not because I am obsessive and sleep wrapped around the glass walls but because it is at the end of my bed honestly LOL) and so we get accustomed to the behaviour of our fish, corals and other inverts. It is easy to see when they are not behaving in their idiosyncratic ways and then tests are helpful to get some objective data on the water quality. I think if things are looking healthy in the tank then don't really worry that the nitrate is at 20ppm. Just continue with say 20% weekly water changes until the level comes down and then revert back to the 10% or so.

Regards

Well said, agree completely.

 

[bitfishy]

just thought i'd add -i had the same problem, it took two months of weekly 30%water changes to get the nitrate down. i t drove me crazy and i never found out what caused it. Two weeks? you just started lol!!