nitrates too high

[ramz28]

I have a 125g fowlr tank with a 55g sump/fuge. The tank was running for over a yr b4 everything died except a yellow tang. There is a flame angel and the same yellow tang in the tank now. i started to get the tank back to normal and added 100lbs of dried base rock from petsolutions. the fish look and eat fine. my rock is changing from white to yellowish brown. i believe that is good. i have 4 scarlet hermit crabs 2 perpermint shrimp and 20 nasarius snails. the fuge is 6in dsb with 30lbs of lr. my water reafdings are:
salinity 1.022
ph 8.2-8.4
po 2ppm really high?
no roughly 20 ppm
ka 420ppm
the test was done 2 days ago. i had lots of brown algae on the glass as well i assumed it was overfeeding so i have not fed the tank in 2days and left the light off. the algae has mostly gone but my NO has went to 40-80ppm i did a water chagne as well 2 days ago. what should i do to bring this down? thanks

 

[KathyC]

What is your ammonia reading?

Don't skimp on feeding the fish - they still need to eat and stressing them while you are making all of these changes by not feeding them is a poor idea.

Do another water change to try and bring it down further.

Is there a skimmer running on this tank?

 

[NYreefNoob]

new rock is causing tank to cycle again

 

[ramz28]

unfortunatly i was thinkin it was my new rock. i do not have the ammonia test result right now i will post asap. Yes there is a corallife super skimmer rated for a 250g tanks in my sump. it does pull a good amount of mate. If my tank is cycling how long do u think this will last ? and how bad will this be for my 2 fish? should i move them to my hospital tank? it is a 20g with 3inches of sand and 30lb lr. I was going to turn it into a small reef tank.

 

[KathyC]

If the 20 is cycled, then I'd say move them. If you have a cover for it, better yet as that is a little small for them but better than exposure to ammonia.

No way to tell how long the cycle will last, you will know by what your test kits tell you. Not safe to put the fish back in until it is done.
Be patient!

 

[TheSherm]

Is there any other filtration besides the skimmer? Bioballs or pads or socks?

 

[ramz28]

there is the sump/fuge with socks on my drains. They are moved into the 20 and doing fine. i will check/change water tonight if i get home early enough. if not ill do it tomorrow.

 

[NYreefNoob]

honestly id invest in a better skimmer. even though it says rated for 250g reality is more like 75g and after the addition to the rock probably a month or so before it fully cycles again, and wouldnt do a water change till it fully cycles otherwise your slowing the cycle down

 

[seldin]

Sorry, if I misunderstand, but am I correct that you added 100 lbs of base rock and you did not let it cure, before putting into tank with livestock?

If that is true, that is not good. Sounds like from your post, that you are saying your tank is cycling. If that is the case, then that will create stress on your fish, etc.

It would have been much better to let your live rock cure in a temporary bucket(s) or tub with just a heater and a pump, and after the cycle, it could be placed in tank.

Please take a reading of your parms. If your ammonia and/or nitrite is anything but 0, then, your tank is cycling.

 

[ryangrieder]

how about simple powerheads as well? i did not see anything about that. if you did then sorry, but flow is a big factor as well. make sure you have a few powerheads. if you have the money, look into a mp40. if not then a tunze or a few hydor 4 will do it. putting one behind your rock and 1 or two in front.

ive always, ALWAYS had high nitrate levels. just be happy thats all you have, nitrate is not as deadly as other pars being off. my nitrates were always 100+. off the charts reading. also, make sure your using accurate test kits. dont be going off of them API test kits or anything. i personally like SERA test kits and salifert. API use to say i was at around 140 nitrate, and SERA says around 50-60. the first thing i did to finally get rid of them was increase flow. that helped alot. the second, and best imporvement i have ever done to my tank was switch my salt to esv. it was amazing. i finally today only have about 5-10 nitrate. i have never been that low before when i was using instant ocean. now its finally down.

i also highly agree about the skimmer.

 

[seldin]

For me, the nitrate nemesis is my sand bed. I used to have a DSB and got rid of it a while back. I noticed nitrates in my display tank all of a sudden get high. Out came the vacuum and I vacuumed half the tank's crud and low and behold nitrates back low. Plan on vacuuming the other half this week, Now I keep sand bed around 1-2 inches.

In my frag tank, I am going to try a bare bottom tank with live rock. See how my parms go there...

 

[ramz28]

sorry for the late response, yes i do agree my skimmer may suck buts its better then none at the moment. if and when i can afford it id buy a new 1. @ seldin, u didnt misunderstand anything. that is exactly what i did . didnt kno i was going to cause a cycle. The fish are doing well in a separate tank so the cycle is happening. are my snails introuble? @ryan no powerheads at the moment. is the purpose of the powerheads to keep stuff from settling? I just did 2 different tests. I originally had mardel 5 in 1 test strips, it says my nitrates are 20ish nitrites 0. everything else is still in spec. My api test kit says nitrates 80ish. api test kit was a gift, wanted salif didnt get it . I am also using IO salt i read this was pretty good salt. is there something better? I have a few older sub filters from FW tanks can i just use those as powerheads? powerheads just move water right? thanks

 

[ryangrieder]

Power heads and extremely important. Any still water most likely becomes nitrate water. Flow is mandatory in the tank. Its a pump made to add flow to your tank. Go pick up some hydor power heads, they are good and effective and not too pricy. Test strips, dont use them. API is always over accurate. Next 20 bucks you have, pick out a real nitrate kit.

 

[ramz28]

yea i said when i get a shance to go to the lfs im going to get a salifert nitrate test. by the way do u go to etown?

 

[ryangrieder]

yea i said when i get a shance to go to the lfs im going to get a salifert nitrate test. by the way do u go to etown?

ETown?

 

[ramz28]

englishtown raceway. i saw ur avatar has a evo, thought u might go to etown to race.

 

[seldin]

Here's what I would do, if I would do it all over again, which I did do, when I setup a another tank....

First, when I got into reefing, I bought things piecemeal and new at the LFS. Paid lot's of money, and got some good stuff and a lot of stuff that was priced way to high.

The 2nd time around setting up a tank, I researched a lot on MR and Reef Central, so I would not make the kind of mistakes you and "I made".

What I would do, is to think about getting your hardware, etc., from the For Sale threads on this forum. You can then get top notch equipment for great prices. So things like a skimmer won't cost an arm and a leg.

Just saves you a whole lot of money and time, buying the right equipment, being patient, the 2nd time around. FYI, even when I do a lot of research, and implement things like a new piece of equipment, observation is really key, because I still made mistakes, even after I did a lot of research. However, following the model of other successful research is how I learn.

As far as test equipment, you must get good test kits such as the Salifert, etc., and test.

Any inverts in the tank, while cycling will be stressed and you could lose them, along with any fish and if you had corals in the tank.

Since your tank, is cycling. On that tank, you just have to wait. Every tank is different, on how long it takes to complete the cycle.

Then, I would ( and this is hard ), under populate the tank with your reef animals and "get less fish" than you think a tank of your size can handle. Much frustration from reefers is those who over populate and get a heavy bio load, and then use all types of devices to reduce it.

Much simpler to just get less fish. Now, what I did, was realize ( from the forums), that you should still get your inverts, etc, such as shrimps and others, that don't put a heavy load on the tank and can help clean it.

A first tank, can be frustrating, and you are off to a good start, by learning from your mistakes and researching on the forums.

One thing, is that tanks go through stages, such as common problems when a tank is new, etc. Just be patient, learn from observation. The more I do reefing, the more patient I become. However, this is not my natural way... lol.

Good luck,

 

[ramz28]

Yea when i first started my tank well over a year ago, i just went to the LFS and spent watever they told me, and my tank was doing great for about 6 months. then the corner bead broke and 125g started to leak everywhere. i managed to move the fish to a diff tank and repair my 125. the fish were moved back into the 125 like a month later and everything was good. then about 3months later something went wrong and all the fish died except a yellow tang. my water parms where around 40ish for nitrates and everything else was right where it should have been. Then i added my 55g sump/fuge. and rearranged the 60lbs LR i had and the tank settled for about 2 months. I added 100lbs of reef rock and it was about 3 weeks later LFS tested my water and 0 nitrate 0 nitrites 0 phos 8.4ph and salin was 1.023. I was good and i added a koran angel and a clown sweetlips. angel died 3days later and sweetlips 2 weeks later. couldnt figure out why. LFS gave me a flame angel i put him in and just watched them in the dark with a flash light. i found out my tang was killing everything. so i quarantined him to the fuge for about 2 weeks then reintro him and everything was good. now i have the Nitrates being high again.

I added a "power head". ITs a rio 1700 i had brand new in a box from yrs ago.

My angel is not doing so well tho. They are both in my 20g quarantine, tang is eating and swiming fine. angel has been eating and swimming but i notice last night my angel was just laying on its side i thought it was dead i went to check with the fish net and it got up and started swimming fine and ate some spirulina. this morning same thing happened, what could be wrong? according to my API test kit, and the salifert nitrate kit nitrites 0
nitrates 0
phos 0
ph 8.4
salin 1.023
ammonia 0
any help thanks sorry for the long response. just trying to give as much info as possible.

 

[seldin]

Don't know specifically about angel fish. However, some fish do lay on their side when sleeping. I use to see my Hippo tang, squished between rocks and look like it was trapped and dead.

Similar to my Trigger that grew from maybe 1 inch to 5 inches. He would sleep curled upside down in a shell when young.

Again, not sure about your fish. If the fish are not eating, then, you will have to acclimate them to eat. Some fish, for instance like a Mandarin, is not recommended "by some" to be quarantined, because usually a quarantine tank, does not contain enough critters for it to eat...

Again, just some feedback.

PS. As I mentioned, I had a bout with high nitrates, so I every couple of months vacuum my sand and they drop really fast. So this is my tank, and your setup can be different.

I am sure, others will chime in and give some great feedback.

 

[ramz28]

my nitrates are down to less then 5, nitrites still 0 and phos is down to .5.