No change in Nitrates after water change

rbell219

rbell219

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Nov 12, 2005
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I did routine maintenance yesterday and my nitrates stayed at 10 ppm. I tested the day before and the day after. EVERY time I test they are 10ppm. It was a 25% water change. I have a wet/dry with bioballs and am in the process of removing them. Yesterday I took the first 1/4 of them out and will continue for 3 more weeks until they are gone. I inspected them closely and I have to say they look like new.
It's a FOWLR;
Sal 1.023
Ph 8.3
Alk 3.75
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0
Calc 380
It's an API liquid test. Why wouldn't the Nitrates drop? It's dead on 10 every time--no lighter, no darker.
 
What does it measure fresh out of the tap? The nitrates may be in your tapwater. If so, you'll have to remove them before a water change.



rbell219 said:
I did routine maintenance yesterday and my nitrates stayed at 10 ppm. I tested the day before and the day after. EVERY time I test they are 10ppm. It was a 25% water change. I have a wet/dry with bioballs and am in the process of removing them. Yesterday I took the first 1/4 of them out and will continue for 3 more weeks until they are gone. I inspected them closely and I have to say they look like new.
It's a FOWLR;
Sal 1.023
Ph 8.3
Alk 3.75
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0
Calc 380
It's an API liquid test. Why wouldn't the Nitrates drop? It's dead on 10 every time--no lighter, no darker.
Click to expand...
 
that's not even an issue to really worry about. you pobably a little overstocked, but that much of nitrate is no big deal at all. i wish that would be the mount i had.
 
I agree with BadRoma1, 10 is not really an issue unless you have some really sensitive corals. Depending on the number of fish you may never see below 10. The bioballs in the wet dry are a nitrate maker, they were in my case. It took me about 3 months to get my nitrates from over 120 to about 5. It has been at 0-5 for over a month now. It took 2 months to cycle the denitrator alone. I had the same problem in the beginning I would do almost a 1/2 water change and the level would not drop below 20 for months. The nitrates in the tank seemed to double themselves instantly. I am sure the gunk in the bottom of the sump area below my empty bioball area added to the problem. I do have some fish in the tank but I think the skimmer, doing mainly a wet skim, and the denitrator help keep it low.
 
Did your bio balls "look" clean when you took them out? Like I said--I took some out and they looked clean. I expected a "nitrate factory bio ball" to look like an old biowheel--gunk all over it.
I'm just shooting for optimum and I dare to think I can achieve five. I want to make this a reef, but I want to make sure I can keep the water right first. I thought my trigger and his cow like waste was the problem, so I cut back the feeding to once a week--no help. I've got plans for a new home for him, and a refugium for the 55. I think that will get me there, then it's time for the corals.
 
They didn't look clean, but they were also about 10 years old when I took them out. It may depend on the age of your system as to the gunk build up. Most of the gunk got collected by the overflow prefilter as well as the polishing pad before it even got to the balls. When I took the polishing pad off they got more gunk on them. Do you normally clean all the sponges? Mine had to sponges and 1 polish pad. What kind of bed do you have in the tank? Sand how deep or Crushed Coral? Do you pull alot of foam from your skimmer?
 
I have the prefilter sponge ---cleaned daily. Three weeks ago I got rid of the filter pad in the drip tray. I've never used the polishing block that would have gone after the bioballs..

My sand bed is about 3" deep. I used CaribSea bio-active live sand in a bag. I'm going to buy about 5 lbs of actual live sand from my LFS and seed the bed with critters. I hope I can get them to pull a little from all their displays and refugiums--this way I should get a good diversity.

My skimmer pulls dark black gunk out constantly. It has the drain tube attached, but I usually clean the cup out twice weekly before it gets so full that it starts to drain itself.
 
If your nitrates read at 10 ppm and you do a 25% water change, they are dropping to approximately 7.5 ppm. If your API test kit is the same as my API test kit, it reads 0, 5, 10, etc. You won't be able to detect a change until the nitrates drop to 5 ppm. The test isn't sensitive enough to measure anything between 5 and 10 -- it's just 5 or 10.

Nonetheless, 10ppm is nothing to worry about, even if your tank was a reef. Anything < 20 ppm is ok for most reef inhabitants.
 
I suspected that about the test but I wasn't sure. Thanks everyone for the replies.
I always heard and read that 5 or below was what you wanted to shoot for for reefs, so I wanted to get some opinions.
SO--now I wait out the silicates and diatom bloom and all is good for now---Thanks again.
 
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