High Nitrate in a transferred tank

[jackamo55]

Hi all ,

Recently i bought a 25g tank off someone who had it set up with live rock and a few crabs . We transferred the whole set up to my house and i began to set up the tank . I used the same water , gravel and live rock . I also had to put the two crabs in there and a cleaner shrimp. I have been testing the water the last few days and there seems to be no problem with the ammonia or nitrites but nitrates seems to be 60-80 . Can any suggest why this might be or anything i could do do help reduce this .

Thanks for your help guys,

Jack

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

Nitrates are the end product the nitrogen cycle, so they are coming from the tank being overfeed, over stocked or regular water changes arent being done.

 

[wontonflip]

+1 fish...and I hope you meant sand or aragonite, and not gravel?

 

[jackamo55]

yeah sorry aragonite , its all still quite new to me . So should i just see if it lowers itself over the next few days ?

 

[little_fish]

it wont, the only way to get rid of nitrates are to do water changes

 

[jackamo55]

yeah that's what i thought . I have not been able to get hold of an R.O/D.I Water Filter yet but i have read about using distilled water from a bottle? Is this ok to to use if i add some tap water conditioner after ..

Thanks for all your help

 

[Sir Alex]

RO/DI water and distilled water are pretty much the same thing. Pure H2O. So that would be better than conditioned water.

 

[JustinsReefTank]

+1 Sir Alex. Less chemicals you put in the better

 

[jackamo55]

Ok so tonight i went out and bought some distilled water , but before i opened it i decided to test my tap water to see what was in it and both nitrite and nitrate levels were pretty much zero . So is is some other chemicals in the water which produce nitrate in the tank ? or am i super lucky have have good water :) I live in newfoundland , Canada if that helps ??

 

[little_fish]

You should test your newly made saltwater, not all of those tests work on both fresh and saltwater.

Also, how many fish do you have in your tank, what are you feeding and how much are you feeding?

 

[jackamo55]

So far i have no fish in there yet , just a hermit and a cleaner shrimp . I have been feeding once everyday with some of the frozen shrimp or bloodworm

 

[little_fish]

ok, i would stop feeding the tank until you get fish. The high nitrates are very damaging to inverts. I would start doing water changes every few days until you get the nitrates down, but you can add your first fish anytime.

 

[jackamo55]

yeah i was going to go get one or two today , was thinking damsel or chromis ? Any suggestions?

 

[sen5241b]

Stirring up old sand beds is known to cause big ammonia spikes! Detritus collects in there and shoud stay in there.

DID YOU RINSE THE SAND?

 

[jackamo55]

my ammonia levels have been very low everyday i have tested though !

 

[fastrd400]

Stirring up old sand beds is known to cause big ammonia spikes! Detritus collects in there and shoud stay in there.

DID YOU RINSE THE SAND?

Most likely the cause right there! Start doing water changes to bring your numbers down.

So far i have no fish in there yet , just a hermit and a cleaner shrimp . I have been feeding once everyday with some of the frozen shrimp or bloodworm

Stop feeding. You have nothing really to feed in your tank. Get your numbers down, then go get a couple fish.

 

[little_fish]

dont go with the damsel, they are the meanest fish you can buy. I would go with the chromis or a pair of clowns

 

[Waddi]

+1 On the chromis, great social and funny to watch fish