High nitrates even after water changes

[Engloid]

Well after finding that my nitrate kit was garbage, I also found nitrates were off the chart . Calcium was high too so I did water changes with instant ocean instead of reef crystals. I have done two wat er changes in a week, big ones...totaling the entire 200 gallon box of salt. Nitrates are still about 50. Tips or ideas? Im thinking do a big change once a week till its an acceptable level. I don't want to change so much it screws up the biological cycle and I have ammonia spike.

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[_Alex_]

What are you using as a water source


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[Rob.D]

Do you have a skimmer?

It may take a few months of water changes and reduced feeding to lower your nitrates. 50 nitrates is a big step in the right direction from where you were, as you stated, I do believe dropping your nitrates too rapidly could cause stress to your system, although I'm not sure an ammonia spike would occur.

 

[Dowtish]

And also something to consider is that IO salt mixes with ALK very high. Do large WC's could bump that as well. Which will not be good either. You could be having large swings of multiple parameters.

 

[EvilMel]

I don't think dropping your nitrates too fast is the problem. It would be whether you drop the numbers of your good bacteria as you decrease your nitrates, IMO.

I think doing big weekly water changes for a month or so is completely fine. Maybe not 100g? Is that a third of your water volume?

What's your total water volume?

You may also consider adding some large polyfilters and/or carbon.

 

[cee]

Where did your nitrates start at? How many water changes and of how much volume each did you perform? It may be that ending at 50 ppm is exactly where you would expect to end up given multiple smaller water changes. Also, as the guy from wichita points out, if you freshwater is garbage it won't get better after adding salt. Did you test the FW?

 

[EvilMel]

By large weekly water changes, I just mean no more than 25% volume.

 

[Engloid]

What are you using as a water source


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I have an RO filter.

Do you have a skimmer?

It may take a few months of water changes and reduced feeding to lower your nitrates. 50 nitrates is a big step in the right direction from where you were, as you stated, I do believe dropping your nitrates too rapidly could cause stress to your system, although I'm not sure an ammonia spike would occur.

MRC-3 beckett skimmer. .taking a lot of gunk out. It builds up aboit an eighth inch of solids on the inside in just a few days, not counting what comes out in the collection cup.

And also something to consider is that IO salt mixes with ALK very high. Do large WC's could bump that as well. Which will not be good either. You could be having large swings of multiple parameters.

My alkalinity was about 6.8-7 so raising it some shoild be ok.

I don't think dropping your nitrates too fast is the problem. It would be whether you drop the numbers of your good bacteria as you decrease your nitrates, IMO.

I think doing big weekly water changes for a month or so is completely fine. Maybe not 100g? Is that a third of your water volume?

What's your total water volume?

You may also consider adding some large polyfilters and/or carbon.

Changing out two brute garbage cans and a 55g drum changes out all water in my sumps. ...leaving the 55g refugium and 220g tanks full and draining nothing from them during water changes.

Where did your nitrates start at? How many water changes and of how much volume each did you perform? It may be that ending at 50 ppm is exactly where you would expect to end up given multiple smaller water changes. Also, as the guy from wichita points out, if you freshwater is garbage it won't get better after adding salt. Did you test the FW?

I did two changes as mentioned above, about four or five days apart.
Nitrates were over 200. Yeah...bad.. I guess dropping to 50 is good for now but as Mel mentioned I didnt want to keep doing big changes to the point it created problems. I do have a lot of rock so messing up biological filtration may not be a problem.

I will check nitrates in the RO water. Thats what you are suggesting, correct? Oh...Mel...I'm running carbon now.

Im thinking about a 55g change each week from here.

I think I may be on a good path/plan, but wanted other opinions.

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[cee]

So, at 200 ppm a 50% water change would drop it to 100 ppm. Then another 50% water change would drop it to 50 ppm, exactly what you're seeing. Mystery solved!

 

[EvilMel]

Dave, that's what I wondered...if the math of his water changes would make sense, which it obviously does.

If you water change a larger percentage, you'll drop the nitrates faster but you're making bigger overall changes to your system too, which isn't a good idea. I mean, it's definitely better to keep your tank stable and smaller water changes more often would do that. But I am kinda of the opinion that when the tank is in trouble (like when your nitrates are high as crap), it's better to just go ahead and make big water changes anyway. It's risky but so is having super high nitrates.

 

[CoryC]

i had a similar problem with my first tank once, and read on doing stepped water changes. I took 80% out, went back up to 40% back to 20%, back to 40% back to 20% and up to 100% volume. Personally I think there are far less bacteria in your water as in your rock and sand so unless you do huge water changes extremely often you'll be fine. i only had to do this once, and levels were under control and saw no ill effects.

 

[Engloid]

I figire if I wasnt seeing a huge dieoff at 200 then now that im down to 50 I should stop the big changes and drop slowly. After spending $50 on salt in one week due to this, I may have to heed advice of others and get more consistent with waterchanges.

 

[Rob.D]

I may have to heed advice of others and get more consistent with waterchanges.

I've only been in this hobby for 3 years and learning something new almost every day, still tons more for me to learn.

 

[Engloid]

I've only been in this hobby for 3 years and learning something new almost every day, still tons more for me to learn.

Im lucky it was an issue with a crappy test kit...or at least thats what my excuse is....or I'd get the waterchange lecture from Mel and deserve it.

 

[cee]

i had a similar problem with my first tank once, and read on doing stepped water changes. I took 80% out, went back up to 40% back to 20%, back to 40% back to 20% and up to 100% volume. Personally I think there are far less bacteria in your water as in your rock and sand so unless you do huge water changes extremely often you'll be fine. i only had to do this once, and levels were under control and saw no ill effects.

Correct, there are virtually no bacteria in the water column. Most of the nitrate-reducing bacteria resides in you sand bed or deep in anerobic pockets of your LR. My secret theory is bare bottom tanks suffer from a lack of anerobic bacteria and hence need more "help" to keep nitrates in check.

I've never known high nitrates to outright kill anything unless algae gets out of hand and chokes out livestock.

 

[mike007]

Are you feeding corals? I had a problem with liquid coral food and had to back off. Also i find that most nitrate problems are caused by overfeeding fish.corals etc. Also i recommend vacumning the sand bed when you do water changes. Just do a little off the top. Good skimming, cured live rock ,and circulation is all you need. You have to figure out why you have high nitrates and fix the problem. Water changes are only a quick fix.

 

[Engloid]

Are you feeding corals? I had a problem with liquid coral food and had to back off. Also i find that most nitrate problems are caused by overfeeding fish.corals etc. Also i recommend vacumning the sand bed when you do water changes. Just do a little off the top. Good skimming, cured live rock ,and circulation is all you need. You have to figure out why you have high nitrates and fix the problem. Water changes are only a quick fix.

I don't feed corals a lot and when I do I have to target feed. Too much water to try a d dose it all to feed. I don't feed the fish a lot either. I think the biggest problem was frequency of water changes because I was trusting my tests....and the nitrate kit was bad. Its been thrown away and I bought a new salifert.


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[benjh729]

Well after finding that my nitrate kit was garbage, I also found nitrates were off the chart . Calcium was high too so I did water changes with instant ocean instead of reef crystals. I have done two wat er changes in a week, big ones...totaling the entire 200 gallon box of salt. Nitrates are still about 50. Tips or ideas? Im thinking do a big change once a week till its an acceptable level. I don't want to change so much it screws up the biological cycle and I have ammonia spike.

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I tested my source water... no nitrates but high nitrates in mixed instant ocean saltwater