high nitrate in tank .

hi all i have a 94 lt river reef tank live rock , live sand , 4 fish little critters some corals living in this tank all are healthy at moment . all other tests are fine except nitrate with is very hight even after a water change . i have cut right down on food im feeding fish and animals .

Does anyone have any advice on what could be the problem ???

and would a skimmer help ??

p.p.s tahk is 5 months old

thanks trish

mangrove if you check their are a few mentions of it here i will try and find and direct you.

here you go

www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...mit,10/limitstart,0/

Hi Trish.
For the moment i would use a nitrate removing resin or similar to get the nitrates down.
i would bring a sample of the water to your LFS to have it double checked for nitrate. Just to make sure it is not your test kit giving high readings of nitrate.

I dont think a skimmer is the answer here. It wont remove the nitrates directly. It will remove some of the compounds that end up as nitrate. But probably not enough to reduce the nitrates significantly.

Your filter media could be to efficient and the filter could be like a nitrate factory.
What type of filtration are you using?
What type of filter media?
Has the nitrate just increased recently or over the last while?

hi trish
as said before if you are using filter media this could be the problem and it is not needed. if you have a tank with a back compartment(which i think you do) remove all the bio balls, ceramic rings, sponges. leave one small sponge, to take particales out of the water.wash the sponge with ro water once a week. then place live rock rubble in the comaptment, a bag of carbon is an excellent addition aswell. then just keep doing water changes,and only feed once a week untill the reading comes down(which they will) any of the nitrate binding products are a waste of money and without a skimmer to remove the waste it leaves makes it pointless imo. are you using tap water for your water changes as some tap water readings can be as high as 50, this is why ro water is always best.
what is your readings.
any chance of a picture
regards
paddy

Hi Trish

External biological filters are usualy a No No for reeefs. ( can become a nitrate factory) Live rock is the best filter media. reduce the feeding regime which is usualy the culprit, tap water can give high nitrate readings, R.O is the best way forward. Let water stand and airate for 24 hours before use. if you can afford a skimmer get one. even a cheat air drien one will help.
Russ

here is pic of tank

sorry cant up load pic . yes there is a compartment in back of tank i already have rubble in there , i did what u said this morning all rings , carbon,, balls etc out of back. left the rubble and floss in there did another water change skimmer is on way , have not feed fish today they kept looking at me ,will they starve ?? .

thank you all so much for your help and advice
lets hope it works .

trish

russ i buy my salt water , i dont use tap .

hi trish,
what skimmer r u getting.
keep doing water changes, try do 1 every 2-3 days untill you get it down. i know its expencive but its the only way. the skimmer isnt going to make a huge difference.
i dont like promoting chemicals, but prime is very good. you can use some every time you do a waterchange this will help speed things up.
how high is your nitrate by the way?
and no they wont starve but they will make you feel very guilty but its in their best intrest in the long run so keep it to 1/2 a week for a few weeks till you get the nitrate down to 15-20ppm

Check this out, it works and in a small tank easy to keep an eye on, dont overdose, but long term find out whats causes the Nitrate input.
www.melevsreef.com/vodka_dosing.html

In my opinion a Skimmer of any type IS esssential.( For salt water) it will give you a good idea of water quality. Overfeeding will cause a high protien levels will show as muck in the skimmer. forwarned is forarmed,
What causes high nitrate ?
For water to be safe for the tank inhabitants it needs to be Nitrate free. as soon as you add food the fish start producing Waste.
Waste = Amonia, so we employ some type of filtration to break it down into Nitrite, this is still a No No. but a good filtration system FULLY MATURED will convert the Nitrite into Nitrate which in turn gets broken down into SAFE water by the fiter.
If the tank has fully matured and your Nitrate readings rise then there is cause for concern, usualy it can be traced to a few common faults. The main ones are overfeeding, a dead or dying occupant or an innefective filtration system.
The best filtration for a reef system is Live rock,(expensive but no more than dead fish) a good flow through the rock. this is achieved by installing the rock in a Sump and having the water flow passing through it. or in the tank with the power heads placed in such a way that the water circulation drives the water towards and through the rock.
A point to remember is always airate and let a new salt mix stand for 24 hrs min, before adding to tank.
When topping up evaporation loss always add FRESH water not salt water as the evaporation does not remove the salt contents. adding salt water will icrease the salinity.
This subject could run into a dozen pages, this is intended for new commers and to help those with problems.

I would agree with comments, Nano systems just dont have the room and the baby skimmers I seen/used are all just not up to the job, rather spend the €100 on ro unit and do a 20% water change a weeks!
I have had many tanks over the years but nano are horrible to keep perfect and if new to hobby 9/10 will turn you off marine completly. A teaspoon of vodka every 3 days and a 10% water change every week seems to keep my RR94 ticking over. But tearing it down now to move it so have to deal with a minor cycle soon

I would do water changes over next 2 weeks now and get the levels to at least 50% of what the are now.
Your tank is 94 litres I think. so less 20 ltrs for rock/sand that leave ya with around 70. So if you have lets say 100 PPM NO3 levels "V high" then if you even replace 35 ltrs you will reduce it by 50%.
To be safe swap out 25ltrs or a large jerry can of RO every week and in 4 weeks you should be on top of issue.

But too much new water can also harm the tank. Old saying "Nothing good ever happens fast" should be engraved in all marine systems.
I would stop feeding now, I would check the food you are feeding flake is full of nasty stuff to foul your water, maybe for a few weeks buy some frozen food and put cube in net and wash with ro water even tap, but get all the gunk off so the mysis or whatever is clean. then dump that in tank.

I think it's the filter not keeping up with feeding and you are just over feeding.

I feed once or twice a week and I have clowns/angel/gramma and 4 others, all are fine and a little slim.

You only need to feed alot when putting in a new fish or breeding, keep them slim and loose the Nitrates.

I missed the point of it being a Nano!!!!!!!!!!! sorry, but the overfeeding seems the possible cause.

thank you all so much for advice . i bought prime am using it at moment , i wwas feeding frozen food to fish but i was not washing out before putting in tank . i am hoping this is the reason for nitrate been hight i got it down a bit ., so fingers crossed it will keep going down ., i am not sure which skimmer i am getting yet , its just a small one to put in back of tank ,hoping it will keep water clean .

trish