New to Saltwater and Very High Nitrates

[ADOPTABOBBY]

I have had my 75 gallon Tank up for about 7 months now. I just cant find a way to drop my nitrates that spiked about a week ago. I found this site to me seemed very useful. So if anyone could help I really apperciate it. It's a Fo/Lr by the way.

-Water Parameters

Ph 8.2
ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate at least 20 changes from day to day from 15 up to 35 maybe 40

-Equipment

Emperor penguin 400 filter

Seaclone Skimmer I am getting a new more powerful one next not sure what type would be best some help with that would be great too.

Penguin powerhead at 170 gph

About 130 lbs Live Rock

Crushed Coral Substrate bad move should have mixed at least with LS but was free

Coralife Deluxe PC 2x65 watt 10000K 2x65 watt Blue atinic

-Live Stock

2 - Blue Devil Damsels

1 - 4 striped Damsel

2 - True Clown Fish

1 - Valintini Puffer

1 - Green Brittle Star

1 - Cleaner Shrimp
Recent Loss

Arrow crab mysteriously disappeared

And my Yellow Longnose Butterfly yesterday died this was strange I feed them everyother day the feeding was yesterday and he ate great nothing was wrong went to work at 4 pm came home around midnight looked in his cave he was alive and moving woke up at 9 am he was lying there dead the brittle star and a bunch of hermits were on him I just thought that was strange.

If anyone can help me just lower the nitrates and give a good skimmer moneys not a issue just want quality i will never go for a cheap skimmer at a cheap LFS.

Thanks

Robert Kunz

[wwest]

First off welcome to Talkingreef. :)

Have you tested the water you are using for the water change? Also what time of water is it? And how much are you feeding the tank? Over feeding the tank will lead to nitrates.

Its not uncommon for a green brittle to do something like that. They are nicknamed the green death star. They are very large and evil stars.

Do you have a sump?

[saltyreef]

I used a Coralife skimmer on my 30g & have a Kent Nautilus EX on my 90g. The Coralife has been great and would recommend. The Kent is still new to me, but so far it seems to be doing a great job. That SeaClone is probably not doing the job you need it to. Started out with one and quickly replaced it with a Coralife model. SeaClone just didn't have the quality to their product.

A good clean-up crew, quality skimmer and routine water changes should help keep the nitrates down.

[JayBeDriften]

I have had my 75 gallon Tank up for about 7 months now. I just cant find a way to drop my nitrates that spiked about a week ago. I found this site to me seemed very useful. So if anyone could help I really apperciate it. It's a Fo/Lr by the way.

-Water Parameters

Ph 8.2
ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate at least 20 changes from day to day from 15 up to 35 maybe 40

-Equipment

Emperor penguin 400 filter

Seaclone Skimmer I am getting a new more powerful one next not sure what type would be best some help with that would be great too.

Penguin powerhead at 170 gph

About 130 lbs Live Rock

Crushed Coral Substrate bad move should have mixed at least with LS but was free

Coralife Deluxe PC 2x65 watt 10000K 2x65 watt Blue atinic

-Live Stock

2 - Blue Devil Damsels

1 - 4 striped Damsel

2 - True Clown Fish

1 - Valintini Puffer

1 - Green Brittle Star

1 - Cleaner Shrimp
Recent Loss

Arrow crab mysteriously disappeared

And my Yellow Longnose Butterfly yesterday died this was strange I feed them everyother day the feeding was yesterday and he ate great nothing was wrong went to work at 4 pm came home around midnight looked in his cave he was alive and moving woke up at 9 am he was lying there dead the brittle star and a bunch of hermits were on him I just thought that was strange.

If anyone can help me just lower the nitrates and give a good skimmer moneys not a issue just want quality i will never go for a cheap skimmer at a cheap LFS.

Thanks

Robert Kunz

Adoptabobby, welcome the Talking Reef! As far as your Nitrate problems go definitely answer Wwest questions. Using none RO/DI water for water changes or even a tank setup can lead to a whole slew of problems. As far as my opion I would personally consider replacing your Penguin 400 which combines mechanical and chemical filtration with a overflow conversion box and a sump or refugium. The Penguin is great for fresh water tanks but usually when the media is used up. Very quickly in about 1 month in my experiences it starts to leach all the nasties back into your water this defeating the purpose. Also you Protein skimmer is okay to get you started but requires alot of tuning and re-tuning over time, also in my personal experience. So that is probably another thing you can do to eliminate the nitrates.

I would have also suggested a natural way of removing the Nitrates by the addition of a Clam but your lighting is not recommended for the housing of Clams and your Valentini Puffer would consider it a wonderful treat once you placed it within your Aquarium.

[Phurst]

I'll add another vote for checking your source water. Outside of that, Nitrates are the end result of decomposing waste. Clean, clean, clean. Vacume detritus out of the CC substrate (a notorious nitrate factory), if you have bio-wheels on your penguin filter, ditch those as well, and clean the filter pads at least weekly. You have plenty of live rock to do your filtration for you, so don't worry about harming the bacteria on the pads. A better skimmer would also go a long way towards helping. Do you have a sump?

[ADOPTABOBBY]

Have you tested the water you are using for the water change? Also what time of water is it? And how much are you feeding the tank? Over feeding the tank will lead to nitrates.

-I use Ro water from my LFS I just did a water change yesterday and checked the meters.

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Nitrates 0

-I feed about a half a cube of frozen mysis shrimp and switch with frozen marine cusine which is a carnivore food but they all like it and i feed every other day.

Well aware of overfeeding produces Nitrates used to feed every day nitrates jumped almost to a hundred then stop for 2 days and started everyother day now i just cant get them down past 15 usually there around 20



Do you have a sump?

No I do not really understood them much I looked at them and seemed confused on how they worked people put live rock in them and made a refugium I know i dont have to much knowledge at the moment but i try to learn as much as i can everyday.


Robert Kunz

[Phurst]

I think a sump/refugium would really be of benefit here. Where is your skimmer located currently?

[ADOPTABOBBY]

In the middle on the right half with the powerhead blowing at it from all the way to the right not sure if this is good i thought it was.

Thanks for all the quick replies everyone

Robert Kunz

[Phurst]

In the tank?

Nothing necessarily wrong with that I guess.

Do you have the room, inclination to install a sump/fige?

[wwest]

Any chance we can get a picture of the setup?

[ADOPTABOBBY]

Not sure if you mean a hang on ref or not but i have plenty of room on the bottom of the tank or i can take off the emperor penguin and fit a hang on ref which would be the better choice?

The skimmer is a hang on skimmer my tank has a left and a right glass top and its on the right side towards the middle of the tank.

[Phurst]

Ah, I see on the skimmer.

You would be better off with an under the tank sump/fuge. more room to work with.

[ADOPTABOBBY]

Alright I am looking into them now what would a good brand of choice be and should i put live rock and do the macro thing or is there a different way not sure what to do with a sump?

Thanks

Robert Kunz

[Phurst]

There are tons of possibilities. At it's essence, a sump is just a tank with some baffles it in to control flow/bubbles. They're easy to DUY if ypou are handy, otherwise, a pre-made one is fine.

Here's an excelent primer on sumps in general.

Melevsreef.com - What is a Sump? (http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html)

[ADOPTABOBBY]

Thanks for all your help will get back once I get everything up and working thanks a ton Phurst and everyone else this should help my nitrate problem.

Take Care

Thanks

Robert Kunz

[CarmieJo]

Hi Bobby,

You have lots of good advice already so I will just say :welcome: to TR.