Does cleaning the tank cause a nitrate spike?
- Thread starter AngieW
- Start date
My oh my, the people and moderators have changed, but the attitudes are still the same...
Instead of being confrontational, rather address the issue so newbies reading this forum could learn.
Regardless of weather the "stuff" you're cleaning was in the tank before you started the cleaning, IF the cleaning operation has killed any organisms (e.g. coraline algae), and these dead organisms are not removed from the water, they will start to decompose, and will thus cause an increase in the amount of dissolved organics, ammonium, nitrite, and ultimately nitrate. Depending on the quantity of "organisms" killed in the cleaning process, the volume of water in the system, and the efficiency of the filtration system (be it live rock, a trickle filter, a fluidised bed filter, or whatever), the total amount of nitrogenous compounds may cause a serious spike, or an undetectably small increase - you should be able to judge this, knowing how much "stuff" you killed in the cleaning process...
Hope this helps to clear up the confusion
Hennie
Instead of being confrontational, rather address the issue so newbies reading this forum could learn.
Regardless of weather the "stuff" you're cleaning was in the tank before you started the cleaning, IF the cleaning operation has killed any organisms (e.g. coraline algae), and these dead organisms are not removed from the water, they will start to decompose, and will thus cause an increase in the amount of dissolved organics, ammonium, nitrite, and ultimately nitrate. Depending on the quantity of "organisms" killed in the cleaning process, the volume of water in the system, and the efficiency of the filtration system (be it live rock, a trickle filter, a fluidised bed filter, or whatever), the total amount of nitrogenous compounds may cause a serious spike, or an undetectably small increase - you should be able to judge this, knowing how much "stuff" you killed in the cleaning process...
Hope this helps to clear up the confusion
Hennie
I agree with new reefer, bad behavior on our parts. But if you want to really throw your weight around, go ahead and lock it. Mods don't scare me, when they know how to handle responsibility and authority. Your attitude as a mod is very scary however and I will make it a point to communicate this with the other moderators.
Meanwhile, to get back to the subject, my point was and still is, that our opinions are way too varied. If a person asks a question and receives these types of responses, just who the heck are they supposed to believe has the correct answer? Basically, they can pick one and hope for the best or ignore all. What good is that? This thread just happens to be only one example.
BTW, New Reefer, thanks for the reminder. I left this forum for awhile because of this stuff and now I'm as guilty as the rest.
No one is throwing anything around here. I personally dont see how you agree, yet want to argue the point, makes no sense.
It does NOT help the poster recieve a clear answer to there question for members to argue in a thread.
Opinons are opinions, just like facts, you cant argue with either. My suggestion would be if you want to state your opinions from experience, do so, and accept that others may have different experiences than you have had. If you want to state somethng as fact, then back it up with documentation from other sources.
One more off topic post, and this thread will be closed. Lets all respect each other..
AngieW good luck with your tank, sorry this thread has went a bit off topic..
Blue
Thank you, Bluiez, but I'm not agreeing or disagreeing and correct, it was off topic. My apologies... I will start another thread, if I choose to continue this discussion, but folks are missing my whole point anyway. Along a the this line, my complaint has been submitted to the Marine forum moderators.
Well, I tested again last night, nitrates were still high. I've just done a water change and will do a test again in a bit to see if that helped. If my nitrates are still high, I'm sure you'll see me back here going "Waaaah!" 
And yes, it does get confusing sorting through the information, but I understand that this hobby is like everything and that people will have different (and passionate, lol) opinions so it's up to me to sort it out and decide which ones I'm most comfortable with. I'd love it if it were easy and someone could just transfer all the info to my brain by osmosis but sadly, that prayer has gone unanswered
And yes, it does get confusing sorting through the information, but I understand that this hobby is like everything and that people will have different (and passionate, lol) opinions so it's up to me to sort it out and decide which ones I'm most comfortable with. I'd love it if it were easy and someone could just transfer all the info to my brain by osmosis but sadly, that prayer has gone unanswered
Oh, no worries, I belong to several forums for different hobbies. These things happen no matter what the topic. Wouldn't the world be a boring place if we all thought exactly the same?
I do appreciate a variety of opinions, so thank you to everyone who tried to help me out. This learning process is kind of painful sometimes, but that's okay as long as I don't kill anything in the meantime!
I am having a huge nitrate spike right now. My Xenia closed up, and I knew something was wrong...lol.
I don't think cleaning the sides, like the glass will cause all that big of a spike, but if it was covered in mass amounts of algae (like a crazy bloom), it'd probably raise stuff when you scrub it off. Maybe phosphates or nitrates, who knows.
I had to pull out all my rocks to get a fish out lately...which really disrupted the sandbed, and MAN...fighting that nitrate!
I'm trying not to do my waterchanges too fast, but I did 10% yesterday afternoon and 5% this morning. Might do some more this afternoon.
But lesson learned...leave the bottom alone if you can.
I don't think cleaning the sides, like the glass will cause all that big of a spike, but if it was covered in mass amounts of algae (like a crazy bloom), it'd probably raise stuff when you scrub it off. Maybe phosphates or nitrates, who knows.
I had to pull out all my rocks to get a fish out lately...which really disrupted the sandbed, and MAN...fighting that nitrate!
I'm trying not to do my waterchanges too fast, but I did 10% yesterday afternoon and 5% this morning. Might do some more this afternoon.
But lesson learned...leave the bottom alone if you can.
Waaah. So I tested and my nitrates are still showing at about 40. Eek. This after a slightly more than 10% water change and giving the water a few hours to settle. I'm at the point of believing I have filter issues. There's no filter in the actual tank, only in the refugium, and since we know squat about this thing, it's decided to work only intermittently in the past week. I took some pictures of the refugium set up, could someone identify what type of filter that is on the right so I can start researching (okay, this is my husband's department since I'm an engineering idiot) the optimum conditions for getting the system to run right?
Also, should I consider an in tank skimmer/filter?
and because those are just ugly pictures, here's one more aesthetically pleasing now that the tank is clean, at least.
Also, should I consider an in tank skimmer/filter?
and because those are just ugly pictures, here's one more aesthetically pleasing now that the tank is clean, at least.
