Nitrates

[Don4921]

hey i have been having trouble lately with my nitrates in my 210 and in my 65
my 65 gallon is a reef tank and the 210 is a predator tank
in the 65 my protien skimmer broke and was w/o it for about a month i finally got a skimmer for a 150 and put it in there and nitrates dropped from 100 to 10 still had some but definately improvement its has been 2 weeks since then and now the nitrates are at 100 again does this make sense?

in the 210 i have a 35g berlin sump with twin skimers in it and the nitrates in that tank have always had nitrates at 100 i even tried a 100 gallon water chanage and the nitrates didnt budge.

i clean my sand every two weeks and every other week i do a 25 gallon water change the fish seem fine but i want these nitrates to go down

plz let me no if i need to give more info

 

[welsher7]

how much liverock do you have in your reef? what is the stocking list for the reef? how long have the tanks been setup?

 

[BIGgourami]

is your test kit broken? if it an API Marine then you have to shake the test bottles before use otherwise you'll get skewed results. i think that happened to me once. i kept getting perfect results but my nitrates were way high.

 

[AnDr3w]

A denitrator is screaming your name. Don, DON! I'm at Big Al's!

 

[AnDr3w]

Test your tap water too.

 

[clopez21]

Think about setting up a Refugium

 

[Don4921]

its been setup for 3 years
i have about 30lbs of lr
ive have recently switched to r/o water to see if it would improve water quality but still no luck
what is a nitrate detoxifier?
is there a pic?
stock list of 65:
yellow tang
pair of maroon clowns
two small high hats
yellow finger leather
purple finger leather
snails
small zenia and kolt coral

 

[Reefscape]

may sound silly, but, has anything died in your tank that you know of and is hidden from view in the rock? Could always try a nitrate reducing route..How do you clean your sand? do you just syphon off the surface or do you stir it up a lot?

After switching to RO water, you many no notice a quick change, it could take a couple of water changes using RO before it starts to make a drastic reduction...

Can you get somebody else to check your nitrates using another test kit..100 seems obscene really and i woul dof expected some effects on the fish with it that high, especially the corals..

Niko

 

[Don4921]

now that u mentioned it a just had a fairy wrasse die in there w/o cause and it didnt remove it for a day but i dont think that was the cause

sometimes i really stir up the sand but i cant get to the sand in the back
usually i lightly stir it up and suck the toxins out
also would i need to replace the sand in the tank i havnt ever done that
if i need to replace it should i take all of it out or only half?

 

[Reefscape]

Well, i dont recomend stiring up the sand bed as you do, that is not really going to help the situation..and i agree that the wrasse dieing would not be cause of high nitrates...did you manage to get somebody else to test your water for you?

if you wanted to replace the sand in the tank, use Aragonite sugar grade, Caribsea sell that sand i think..When changing it, do it in 4 parts and leave a week at least in between changes..

Niko