High Nitrates

[ReeferMadne55]

Hi guys, so I am brand new to this community and I figured I’d ask a few questions. I have been keeping aquariums on and off most of my life. I just recently started getting back into the hobby and I set up a new 40 gallon FOWLR tank about a month ago. I used Fritz Turbostart 900 to cycle the tank with some fish food as an ammonia source. Once everything looked good and cycled I added two clowns and a Bicolor Blenny. They are all doing very well and eating. I noticed about a week ago that my Nitrates spiked to like 80 ppm out of nowhere. My sandbed started getting a very small amount of diatoms and green hair algae (turned my lights down to like 40% due to this). So I decided to do about a 40% water change and my nitrates are now around 40 ppm. My ammonia and nitrites have both been reading at 0. I am pretty cautious about over feeding and I only use RODI water. Unfortunately I do not have a skimmer yet, as the shipping was delayed, but it will be here next week.
So I am curious as to where these nitrates came from?

My main question is should I keep doing water changes to get the nitrates lower? If so how much and how often? I do not want to strip the tank of all the beneficial bacteria.

And my last question is, What is everyone’s opinion on chemical additives such as Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Reducer? I’d like to stay away from stuff like that unless it truly works.

Thanks for reading my novel lol. I truly appreciate any help and I can tell this will be an awesome community.

 

[ichthyogeek]

What are you feeding the tank? Flakes? Frozen? Live? If feeding frozen, make sure to drain the frozen food, and try to rinse it a little bit to prevent phosphates/nitrates from rising.

If the nitrates are too high for you, then do a water change. You won't stunt the beneficial bacteria in the tank if you do a water change or 5 or whatever. They're mostly living on the rockwork/sandbed/glass.

I'm personally a big fan of macroalgae as nitrate reducers. I have no experience with IO Nitrate reducer.

 

[WIReefer]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[ReeferMadne55]

I’ve been feeding LRS Reef Frenzy Nano frozen food. I have not been rinsing it actually I was unaware that I had to. If I do like one 50% water change every day until the nitrates get lower, is that safe?

Side note: Like the first week I had the tank, I had one small clown in there that went missing. At the time I did not have the top screen on the tank. I picked up the rock, Checked the sandbed, checked the filter and hosing and checked everywhere around the room on the floor. I could not find this fish. At the time there were no other fish or crabs or snails in the tank. I never saw a spike in ammonia or anything. Eventually I just gave up. Not sure if this missing fish affected anything but I wasn’t picking up on chemical differences

 

[Reef.]

You don’t say what your phosphate is?

If no corals why do you need to have a light turned up? Have a light but it doesn’t need to be even at 40%.

yes I would keep doing wc, get your nitrates down to around 10-15.

Sounds like the fish caused the spike, it takes time to decay.

Your food doesn’t need to be rinsed.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

Well I bought the light because I was hoping to dabble into some lps corals once the tank got stable. I have never kept corals before. The API test kit I bought actually did not have a phosphate test included. I will go pick up a phosphate test kit tomorrow.

 

[Reef.]

Having the light is cool, I would turn it to the lowest intensity until you have corals, on a new tank algae doesn’t take much to hit, so might as well wait until you need it, it will help a lot with your algae.

A lot of people don’t rate API tests, I would try and pick up either salifert or Red Sea.

 

[proxy001]

This is the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia==>nitrite==>nitrates. Perfectly normal. The algae bloom is normal too in a new tank. Happened to me every time I cycle. Give it some time, let the live rock turn brown. Keep feeding the fish normally and check for ammonium and nitrite to make sure you have enough bacteria in your setup. 80 nitrate is not going to kill the fish. You can change a bit of water. Bacteria is not in the water but in the rock and sand bed.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

I have been contemplating saving up for some of those Hanna Marine checkers. Seems worth it to me in the long run. For now though I will buy a different testing kit.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

This is the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia==>nitrite==>nitrates. Perfectly normal. The algae bloom is normal too in a new tank. Happened to me every time I cycle. Give it some time, let the live rock turn brown. Keep feeding the fish normally and check for ammonium and nitrite to make sure you have enough bacteria in your setup. 80 nitrate is not going to kill the fish. You can change a bit of water. Bacteria is not in the water but in the rock and sand bed.

I appreciate all the advice. Is it advisable to leave the sandbed alone instead of vacuuming it during wc’s?

 

[proxy001]

yes , dont change water everyday , dont stir up the sand. Let it get dirty a bit. The ONLY one thing you dont want is ammonia. If water parameter in check get a clean up crew.

 

[Reef.]

I have been contemplating saving up for some of those Hanna Marine checkers. Seems worth it to me in the long run. For now though I will buy a different testing kit.

Me too, I plan on getting the phosphate ULR one, the other tests I don’t do so often so not worth getting and don’t seem to be as praised as much as the phosphate one, so I’ll leave the others.

 

[proxy001]

Me too, I plan on getting the phosphate ULR one, the other tests I don’t do so often so not worth getting and don’t seem to be as praised as much as the phosphate one, so I’ll leave the others.

I just got the phosphate one. God I love numbers as opposed to color guessing. 0.2 and 0.5 is very different. Most tests are hard to read.

 

[Reef.]

I appreciate all the advice. Is it advisable to leave the sandbed alone instead of vacuuming it during wc’s?

you will have people on both sides of this argument, some clean some don’t, I clean my sand bed each water change and also mix it up a couple of times a week, if I know dirt is in the sand I want to remove it, I can’t see why you would leave it there, but some do...I would read up on this and come to your own decision, like most stuff in this hobby, get loads of advice p, do a ton of research then do what you think is best.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

Apparently they are releasing a low range nitrate checker soon as well. Been keeping an eye on that I’m sure it will sell out fast.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

you will have people on both sides of this argument, some clean some don’t, I clean my sand bed each water change and also mix it up a couple of times a week, if I know dirt is in the sand I want to remove it, I can’t see why you would leave it there, but some do...I would read up on this and come to your own decision, like most stuff in this hobby, get loads of advice p, do a ton of research then do what you think is best.

I’d prefer to vacuum it to make it look nice but yeah I have heard advice on both sides of that argument.
I may just go straight for the ULR phosphate checker right off the bat honestly

 

[Reef.]

Apparently they are releasing a low range nitrate checker soon as well. Been keeping an eye on that I’m sure it will sell out fast.

yes, if it turns out to be good then worth picking up, but the salifert nitrate test is easy to do, so I’m in no rush for it, the phosphate test is hard to read as the colour change is such a light shade so the Hanna phosphate URL checker is definitely on my must have list.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I used to be a “don’t vac the sand” person. And then I realized it was a giant nutrient trap. I can see where people come from in terms of not disturbing any microfauna, but there’s a lot of dirt that gets stuck in the substrate and causes algae blooms too. Incompromise and therems a nice undisturbed area in the tank, but everything else gets vacuumed.

 

[ReeferMadne55]

yes, if it turns out to be good the worth picking up, but the salifert nitrate test is easy to do, so I’m in no rush for it, the phosphate test is hard to read as the colour change is such a light shade so the Hanna phosphate URL checker is definitely on my must have list.

Yeah I just bought some Salifert tests just now. But I will buy the Hanna phosphate test.

Sorry to come back to this again but do chemicals like Seachem pristine or prime Or the IO nitrate reducer have any credibility?

 

[ReeferMadne55]

I used to be a “don’t vac the sand” person. And then I realized it was a giant nutrient trap. I can see where people come from in terms of not disturbing any microfauna, but there’s a lot of dirt that gets stuck in the substrate and causes algae blooms too. Incompromise and therems a nice undisturbed area in the tank, but everything else gets vacuumed.

That’s what I’ve been doing so far. Just left a little area alone in the back but the majority has been vacuumed every few days or so