Nitrates to high!!!

i just did this thread but i am writing it again cause i do not c it.

two weeks ago i had bought a lionfish but he was too hard to keep so i went to get rid of him but in the proccess of catching him i accidently knocked a giant can of opened flake food into the tank. at the time i did not check the nitrates cause i knew they were high. ever since then i have been doing small water changes and last night i did a 25% water change. i thought that would do the trick but i just checked my nitrates a second ago and they are at 40 ppm! the strange thing is thta my fish are ok. the day it happened my trigger got ick but i medicated the tank and everybody was alright. how do i lower the nitrates quickly so that there are no long term damages to my system.

 

Did you test before and after you did a water change? You might have disturbed the sand bed releasing detritus which would raise the nitrates. The flake food will result in a spike in phosphates as well as nitrates eventually if I remember correctly. Phosphates will encourage algae growth if you don't take care of it. Did you vaccum the spilled food up with your siphon?

 

i checked right after the water change, so you say you think its the sandbed. i certainly hope so. i will check tommarow because i think i might have disrupted the sandbed and the water is foggy from the change. also i was looking up algea scrubbers, do you know anything about this and how to buy them? thanks for the help

 

do you think it would be safe to do a 50% water change tommarow since i did a 25% water change today or should i wait

 

Continue to do water changes and monitor the levels...what kind of filtration are you using on your tank? The reason I asked is because many filtration methods people use trap nitrates(eg. bio-balls, bio-wheels, canisters).

 

i have the ammonia test bottles one and two and the card but i dont have the directions. can someone give me the direction lol, thanks

 

i am in the proccess of adding a sump with a refugium that has cheato algea but i havnt connected the two yet because i added more sand to the refugium to get a deep sand bed and am waiting for it to cycle. right now i am just using an aqua clear 110 filter with ammonia remover pouch. i had the carbon pouch in as well but i am finishing off the kick ich treatment and had to leave it out.

 

Do you have a protein skimmer? If not, you should really invest in one.

 

yes i have an octopus, sorry i didnt think to mention that. i also have a UV sterilizer. the UV sterilizer was really for a pond.

 

i just checked my ammonia levels and they look to be zero

 

Don't panic -- nitrates at 40 are not going to be harmful to most fish. Inverts, yes, but fish will withstand those levels just fine. Keep doing 25% water changes a couple times a week to get them down, but don't do anything drastic as long as your ammonia and nitrites are both at zero.