Help! Problem with water!

Batmanjay28

Batmanjay28

AC Members
Aug 22, 2006
492
0
0
Oregon
Everything is doing great in my 55G reef tank. But for some reason My Nitrates are way to high and I have no idea why it is. I was gone for 2 days out of town and now things are bad. Everything else is good though.

I was thinking that my mother that was watching the tank for me must of added a LOT of food into the tank for just 2 clownfish. Could this be the problem? If so what would be the best thing to do in this situation? I really don't want to lose any of my corals.....that would be bad.

I have a sump and the tank as well as a protien skimmer. What should be done to help out my situation? Thanks
 
Try and remove as much uneaten food/detritus as possible (if you can see any) and then do 10% water changes every day or so to try and get the nitrates down while testing every day. This might not even be necessary, though, as high nitrates aren't deadly, they can just cause problems with nuisance algae, so don't be too worried- a few water changes and I'm sure your levels will drop:) One of the more experienced members might chime in with more useful advice if I've got it wrong!

-Ben
 
If you have a sump with submersible protien skimmer... I have seen elsewhere is to also try and use a powerhead to blow into the creavaces that normally don't get a lot of flow and where food would settle during/after a feeding. So hopefully you can get it stirred up again and get it down into the sump where your skimmer can get a chance at it as well.

I don't know how well this will work since it has been a couple of days, but if it was more food than your clean up crew could handle it might be worth a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom