Nitrate Spike!

[Samhain]

Blaaarrrrgggghhhh! I added my first fishies a week ago. Been checking levels daily since then, with no substantial changes. I was looking for an ammonia spike as I introduced fish food, and the fish started converting it to poop. Yesterday, everything was sitting on 0. Today when I check levels, ammo is 0, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is nearly 80! WTH????!!!!:shock:

I've mixed up the 5 gallons I had on hand for an emergency water change (will be changing it tomorrow morning, since I know fresh-mixed water can be caustic). That's going to be roughly 10% changed tomorrow morning, and I'm planning on an additional 30% exchange tomorrow evening, with a level retest following that exchange. Depending on what I get back on that test, I'm planning on 20% exchanges for the following three days. When finished, it will be a 100% water change over the course of 4 days (assuming that my levels deem it necessary).

Does that sound sufficient for handling the problem? Does it sound aggressive enough? I'm trying to be a little on the aggressive side, since I noticed a couple teeny tiny white spots on each of my fish, and we all know what that means...... And also, any suggestions on what made the nitrates spike without the other levels changing at all? And why so quickly?:question:

 

[BL1]

Do you have corals? If not, you don't need to take such drastic steps. Fish can/will be fine in tanks with nitrates well over 100. It's the corals and inverts that need lower nitrate levels.

I would recheck your test results just to be sure. And if they're right do the 10% change and test the following day. See where you're at and then do 20-30% changes once a week till you get the levels down. Like I said, you don't need to worry and it won't need to be fixed over night.

 

[little_fish]

+1 bl1

 

[Samhain]

I do have one coral, a little Duncan with a single head. He seems to be doing ok, still out and waving his tentacles around. I'm really quite fond of him already. Watching him "eat" is soooo cool! So I don't want him hurt by the nitrate spike.

 

[BL1]

He should be fine. After my power outage, my nitrates got up to 40 too, most of my SPS died but my LPS (like my duncans) all did pretty good and grew a lot while I got my water params under control. I think you'll be ok if you take it slow.

 

[Samhain]

Thanks for the reassurance. I've been worried sick and kicking myself for not having water ready for something like this. Amazing how attached I've gotten to my little wet pets over the course of the last week! Especially my coral. I don't think anyone outside the hobby would understand being attached to something like a duncan. He's a little odd even for plant people, much less your mainstream dog-and-cat types (and no jumping on that either; I have two dogs in the house too).

 

[Samhain]

Did the 10% change this morning, retested this afternoon, and nitrates are 30. I'm holding off on an additional change until I check tomorrow's level. If it hasn't gone down from there, I'll do another 10% and retest. The white spots on my fish are gone, so maybe that was a false alarm. I hope.