Help me lower my nitrates...

A

AH-99P

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Jan 12, 2006
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Hello,

My tank has cycled and is doing well... the only problem i have with levels in the tank are high nitrate levels. I had been using an AP nitrate test kit, which was giving results between 80 & 160... and following advice on here, I went out and bought a second test kit.

My salifert no3 test kit result comes out at a much lower result than the AP test kit (which i have been told may be due to age). The reading is: a colour between 25 & 50...

Either way, such a high nitrate reading is surely cause for concern? I have no idea what is causing the high nitrates or how to lower them? I've seen a couple of people mention kent's nitrate sponge... would this help?

AH-99P.
 
Introduce us to your tank--what's in there, filtration, other parameters, etc, and what your maintenance routine is currently. It could be that you have something building up nitrates, could be that your water changes and bio-filtration is inadequate, could be too many fish, etc.
 
Tank: Hagen Tropiquarium 88 (35Gallons)
Substrate: Coral sand (deep bed)
Live rock: 15Kg - Premium Fijian
Power head: aquaclear 402
Canister filter: eheim 2028 (brand new bits inside)
Heater: Tronic 200W

Current Levels:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
PH: 8.2
Nitrate: 25-50
Salt: 1.022
Temp: 25.0 - 26.0

Fish: 2 x Green Chromis
Critters: Millions - came with live rock, worms, anenomies, feather dusters, snails etc etc.

There was probably nitrate in my original water as I obtained the water from an established tank after a friend performed a water change. Personally I feel the buildup was as a result of doing "the humane cycle" using a raw king prawn and leaving it (as advised on forums) until it was gone...

I see there are mixed views on canister filters... personally (coming from a freshwater environment) i find them beneficial with regular maintenance. The canister filter media was all new and cycled with the tank... After the cycle with the prawn I removed the top filter layer (white pad) and replaced as it was a dark brown from all the gunk it had been picking up. and I also gave the bottom layer a quick rince in salt water to remove any debris that has slipped thru and cleaned out the bottom of the canister.

Since the cycle I have performed 1 x 10% water change (this did nothing to the levels) and 1 x 50% water change... this took my nitrate levels down to 25-50. I am using RO water from LFS and using nitrate free salt.

Hope that gives a bit of an insight into the setup I have.
 
Back to back water change of up to 75% is recommended when using any fishless cycling method to remove the nitrates that do build up during the cycling process. I encourage doing as many water changes as needed to bring nitrates to less than 5 ppm prior to stocking.

And while, yes, power filters are great for FW, in SW they require much more maintenance to prevent them from trapping solid wastes, which cause high nitrates if not cleaned frequently.

I'd go with 2 50% wateer changes, and keep on the maintenance of the power filters. If you see them start to spike, understand that you'll probably hear many recomendations to pull the filter media from the entirely, or at minimum, put in pre-filters that can be easily swapped out and cleaned 1-2 times per week.
 
25-50 is fine if you are doing FOWLR (you can go up to 80ppm in that set up), if you are doing a reef you want it as low as possible.
 
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