Nitrates

[RyanP]

So i rearranged my LR the other day before i did a water change. The day after that i took a nitrate reading and it was almost double what it was a couple days b4. Could this been a result of me sifting the sand and moving the rock around? Im thinkin there might have been some debris that was trapped under the rock and when i moved the rocks it free'd it.

 

[julsy]

sand will hold nitrates, so sifting the sand will cause a spike if you arent careful, how long has the tank been up?

 

[RyanP]

around 2-3 months

 

[julsy]

yea, you stirred up some stuff that never got exumed in the cycle

 

[mr.reef24]

So i rearranged my LR the other day before i did a water change. The day after that i took a nitrate reading and it was almost double what it was a couple days b4. Could this been a result of me sifting the sand and moving the rock around? Im thinkin there might have been some debris that was trapped under the rock and when i moved the rocks it free'd it.

that's exactly what did it when you moved the LR and sand you disrupted the nitrate cycle and released it back into your system.

mr.reef24

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Your spike is more then likely from re-arranging stuff, you could do a water change to bring it down.

 

[RyanP]

So whats the largest WC i could do? Ive got about 30 gallons mixing now.

 

[mr.reef24]

50%

mr.reef24