Water Params

[slinkyslink]

Hi, I wonder if any one can help me carried out tests today and they were as follows:
S.G.- 1.027
Magnesium - 1110
Calcium - 440
PH - 8.0
KH/ALK - 7.4
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Over the last month my nitrate has rocketed (thinking this maybe the reason my mushrooms and daisy coral is suffering). I have 3 fish (2 tangs and a Flame) 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 blood shrimp and 2 peppermints pus crabs and snails. I feed 3/4 block off frozen brine or other meaty food once a day, lighting is 2 t8 on for 6hrs a day for the last 2 months (had a brown like algea growing on the sand and rocks just come all of a sudden).
I have a Phosphate reactor with Rawphos in it, a skimmer, external cannister filter and a good water flow.
Any help would be great
Thanks Rich

[MR Teee]

Rich, how old is your tank?

What is its size?

What skimmer have you got?

Whats in the external cannister?

And exactly how much flow have got?

How many water changes do you do?


The parameters look pretty good. Mag is a little low, should be around 1350ppm.

Other than that the nitrate is a bit of a concern, as you have poined out. Answer the questions above and we can advise a little better.

[Tetley]

Hi Rich,

Are you using Salifert to measure Nitrate, if so when you check against colour chart, you are doing so by looking top down, or by looking through side of vial, if the latter the reading x 10.

If not, how much rock you got, what sort of flow do you have, what skiimer you running, what is water change regime, how much do you feed and what do you feed.

ATB

NOTE Must type faster (LOL)

[slinkyslink]

1 year old, 180L tank, V2 4oo skimmer, Hydor cannister which has a return flow rate of 700L/H, 2 maxi jet 1200 and 1 maxi jet 600, water changes every week of 15L and a 25L roughly every 6 weeks.

Test measured by looking from the top. and i feed 3/4 of a block of a frozen food by a dutch company (krill, brine etc mixed) a day or a vitimin pellet out of a dispenser and some seaweed on a clip once or twice a week

[Ben Shep]

I had the same thing and freaked.

Went along to the LFS with a bottle sample, and used their test kits.

All perfectly fine.

I took the test in for them to trial. Guess what, know matter how many times they tested it or how many vials they used.....as red as red could be.

My test kit was Salifert and still perfectly in date (runs out sometime in 2008).

I had wondered why my corals were not doing so well and assumed that the Nitrate readings must be high. In retrospect, the reason for poor Coral performance was that my flow rate was way too low.

Hope this helps.

Ben

[Tetley]

1 year old, 180L tank, V2 4oo skimmer, Hydor cannister which has a return flow rate of 700L/H, 2 maxi jet 1200 and 1 maxi jet 600, water changes every week of 15L and a 25L roughly every 6 weeks.

Test measured by looking from the top. and i feed 3/4 of a block of a frozen food by a dutch company (krill, brine etc mixed) a day or a vitimin pellet out of a dispenser and some seaweed on a clip once or twice a week

Hi,

Do you have media inside Hydor cannister, filter wool, ect ?

[mousehunter22]

Other than a dodgy test kit.......I had the same problem and my external was manky i gave it a good clean and things started to pick up, hth lee

[MR Teee]

So you have 20X turnover which is just about OK.

Do you have any sponge/media/bioballs in the cannister filter?

13% water changes (taking 25l) is a little low especially every 6 weeks.

I would up this to 35l every week, until the nitrates come down to below 30ppm.

Then get into a cycle of doing a 25l water change every week.

I would hazard a guess at the root cause of the nitrate being the amount the 2 tangs will poop (especially in a 180L tank) and that the skimmer is not rated to handle that.
Water changes wil manage the levels of nitrate, but to properly address them you either have to uprae the skimmer or reduce the bioload. It is only going to get worse as the tangs grow I'm afraid.

[jlowden]

rob i,ll get my test kit to you tomorow at work:D

[slinkyslink]

Inside the cannister I have ceramics and wool, i will have a clean out of the cannister as soon as poss. Iam moving house hopfully soon and was hoping to upgrade to a larger tank so the skimmer will have to as well. also with the new tank i was hoping to set up a sump (find that changing large water quantities really disturbs the tank) from this week i will up the water change

[MR Teee]

Yes ideally you should clean the cannister every week if you are keeping the media.

My advise would be to ditch the wool and ceramics as they serve no purpose in a marine tank.

Infact you don't need the cannister at all. Ditching that would probably help the nitrate situation alot. If the flow falls off alot then upgrade the MJ600 to a MJ1200.

[Tetley]

Hi,

As per MR TEEE, however, you could keep the canister filter and use it to run rowa phos, and carbon as and when required.

ATB

[slinkyslink]

The cannister was given to me by a friend when he was splitting his tank, I bought all his L/R I wasn't going to use the cannister but someone said that since you have got it you might as well use it to pollish the water and to pick up any loose bits suspended in the water. I would rather not have the wool in the cannister as when I clean it the wool traps air no matter how much i squeeze it some manages to get in then when i start it up it fills the tank with small air bubbles. But if i don't need it thats less clutter in the tank a 1 plug socket spare.

[slinkyslink]

I have carried out two 55L water changes so far and the nitrate level is coming down gradually another change on its way. have noticed my daisy coral stating to peep its head out now so the changes are doing some good.

[johnl69]

Theres a chart somewhere that gives you an ideas on howmany water changes it takes to reduce the nitrate to an exceptable level. ill post a link if i can find it, i think it said some thing like it would take between 25/30 10% water changes to reduce from 100ppm to 5ppm due to dilution and production of nitate is the system

[slinkyslink]

Have still got a long way to go then. But the signs from the coral are encouraging, patience in the name of the game.
Thanks Rich

[johnl69]

Have still got a long way to go then. But the signs from the coral are encouraging, patience in the name of the game.
Thanks Rich

that the way:D aslong as your exporting more nitrate then can be produce over a set time then the nitrate levels can only go one way DOWN:D:D

[slinkyslink]

Just to give you all an update on the nitrate problem, I have carried out 11 x 50L water changes as and when I could and have removed the ceramics and wool from the cannister, changed the rawphos in my fluidiser (ran out off rawphos so I thought i would give ultiphos a try, see how it goes). Just done tests today and these are the results

S.G.- 1.024
Magnesium - 1020
Calcium - 425
PH - 8.0
KH/ALK - 7.4
Nitrite - 0.1
Nitrate - 50

Still got along way to go but its gradually coming down.
Rich