NITRATE help. Won't go down, fish are dying.......

[ThatNewFishGuy]

Before adding anything else into the tank besides the 2 clown fish and the rock and sand, tested the water every other day. Nitrites and Ammonia never went above 0. The PH never changed from 8.2, and the nitrate would sometimes maybe go to 10.... but after a water change it was back at 0. So I figured it must of cycled.

Yup so you absolutely need to see that ammonia spike. The live rock that you initially added should have been uncured so that it jump starts the cycle. The dead crap on the live rock is what causes ammonia to rise. Definitely do not do any water changes when your cycling the tank. That just slows down the process even more. Don't worry about testing pH. You can test nitrite if you want but your main focus should be accurately testing the ammonia and nitrates.

After your last couple of posts, I don't think it was really the 9 lb's of new live rock that killed everything anymore. Now I'm 99% sure your tank never cycled and that was the cause of death (due to an increase in ammonia when adding the fish).

In regards to pet store advice. It's pretty much something every new reefer experiences. I had a bunch of fish store experts tell me this and that was the cause of whatever problem I was experiencing. It wasn't all bad, some of it was good solid advice. But I would just advise to ask questions online before you drop cash at the lfs/petco. It might be a cynical perspective to take, but at the end of the day, the lfs/petco is there to sell you stuff.

Chances are you probably won't even need to make a thread for many of the questions you might have as a beginner. The same questions have been asked and answered hundreds of times before and a quick google search usually gives you alot of insight.

Can you post any pics of your setup?

 

[Animal4]

Hi I think it's a prime case of trying to run before you can walk
When I started up my tank I added the sand and water waited 2 weeks then added the live rock waited 2 weeks got the water tested every week (you can add what's called "stabillity " )
What this does is keeps everything as it should do follow instructions I waited another 2 weeks keeping an eye on the water conditions then when it all seemed to be ready I waited another 2 weeks before I added any fish and you should only add 1 fish at a time wait for the bacteria to build up then test before you add any more I call it the 2 week rule never had any problems I've been keeping marine fish for 12 years successfully

 

[FreshyFresh]

This tank may have had a sustainable cycle going, but when you swapped out the entire API hang-on-back filter for the new canister, you basically took your beneficial bacteria supply away. Most of it anyway. You should have put the seeded bio media from the API into the new canister.

 

[Duckie]

From everything I have read the 20 ppm nitrates is already borderline high for fish only. Add more nitrate sensitive animals (coral, shrooms, nems) and suddenly even 5 ppm is too much. At least that is what I hear. On my own SW tank (started on may 12th this year) I am always seeing zero ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I don't believe that my refugium is responsible for all the nitrate export as it is too small for that (holds about 15 gallon in my 30 gal sump during operation). The protein skimmer is more likely the main reason for the low amount of nitrate. The plan was to go slow with the stocking, but that did not happen. It is pretty well stocked for being not even two months old. The only mistake so far might have been the scooter blennies (we got two females) which only time will tell if they are going to make it. One was really really skinny when we bought her (still is) and we didn't know about their special diet and finnicky eating. Very deceiving to call them blennies - wish they would use only "scooter dragonet" as common name. If they live through the next few months, then they might have a fighting chance. Even in the 75 gallon DT with about 70+ pounds of LR I have no delusion that a big enough pod population can be sustained for even one scooter. So every day or two we shake some alufa out from the refugium to get a few pods for the blennies into main tank.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I can't find the article(s) at the moment, but there's studies that have concluded that nitrates even as low as 20ppm continuously, shortens the lifespan of fish. Like said though, obviously some fish/critters are more tolerant to it than others.

 

[Duckie]

I can't find the article(s) at the moment, but there's studies that have concluded that nitrates even as low as 20ppm continuously, shortens the lifespan of fish. Like said though, obviously some fish/critters are more tolerant to it than others.

Compared to freshwater fish (where some will do just fine at 20ppm), I believe saltwater fish in general are a lot more sensitive.

Were the articles for both salt and fresh? Be interesting if you could find them.