my nitrates have gone through the roof

[bri74]

Hey guys I have been testing my water religiously since startup a year ago. every thing has always been great up untill a couple weeks ago all params are good Nitrite is 0 ammonia is 0 ph is 8.4 i do use a buffer on this rarely. however the nitrates have climbed steady from 0 up to around 80 to 100 in the last two weeks. I have been doing 5 gal water changes every 2 days but no luck what so ever. I have not changed anthing at all except the LR layout but it had been climbing before that anyways. I guess the question is where exactly does the nitrates come from I just dont see anything Ive done to make this level rise. I use RO water. The lion,black long spine,LTA, sea goblin and copperband is still in there. its a 55 gal with approx. 100 LBS LR and 60 LBS LS. Im starting to get worried here and to top it all off I gotta go back to work for 2 weeks on thursday and dont want to leave someone else with the headache

[Bifferwine]

Those nitrates are dangerously high. Most of those fish are very messy eaters and predators. My guess is that that tank is just too small for the waste that they produce. Why it's taken this long for the nitrates to spike, I don't know.

What kind of substrate do you use? Crushed coral will trap gunk and lead t nitrate spikes. What kind of skimmer do you have running? You need a strong skimmer to keep up with those types of fish. Have you been overfeeding? I would change more than 5 gallons. When you get the chance, I'd go up to 10 to 15 gallons.

I would also take a water sample to your LFS or buy a second nitrate test. False readings and bad test kits are all too common, unfortunately.

[bri74]

Hey Biff ya I dont know why it took so long for this to happen I mean I had the eel in there before and never had this prob. anyhoo I have been running the RO all morning just finishing up 10 gal. I have 40 LBS LS and 20LBS crushed coral on top of the sand. Was kinda curious about the nitrate test going to hell on me and was gonna pick up another today the API test kit I have is pretty old about a year so ya. Skimmer is a seaclone I know I need to upgrade but was just trying to get by till I get that 120 tank and a sump. And it has kept up all this time.

[Gio94sr20]

I also had this happen to me at one time, I did a lot of water changes and still got the same results, after adding more rock and feeding a bit less the nitrates went down, oh and I also added another skimmer, what a difference in the water and fishes. Good luck this was a big headae for me sometime ago.

[yote]

I figure that whats happened,is the sand has settled through the crushed coral.Now the crushed coral is trapping and holding waste and thats whats causing your problems.

[Oscarsdad608]

Are you using a canister filter. I was and I couldn't keep my nitrates down. I switched to a sump/fuge. I now have 0 nitrates every time.

[Bifferwine]

In my old tank, a combination of canister filter, crushed coral substrate, too many fish and a dead sea cucumber sent my nitrates shooting up to 150. Got them back down to normal by fixing these things one at a time.

[bri74]

I added the ls first then the cc so its on top of the sand bed so not sure if that could be a prob?? Cansiter filter yes but I removed the media a few weeks ago so its just running moving water. I did get a new test kit today its a red sea thats all that was available locally other than a API that I was using. Gonna try that after a 10 gal water change tonight. Thanks for all the help.

[bri74]

Ok did the h2o change 10 gal. and retested after everything mixed a bit. everything is great until the nitrates which I did last just keeping my hopes up! they are still high but not as high as the API test kit said so I will do another h2o change in the am and give it another shot before I have to fly out. BTW the red sea test kit seems much more professional. I think I like it better any thoughts??