Mystery Nitrates.

[mad pierre]

Ok Im confused again (yes it happens a lot recently).

Ive just tested my 4ft tank and the nitrates have climbed from 5 to 25. Thing is, as you may be aware, I lost most of my fish about a month ago and the survivors were moved to QT. There is only a couple of shrimps, 5 banded stars and some CUC left in the tank (plus corals)
I have only been feeding very liitle, frozen marine mix (maybe a third of a block every 4/5 days).
there is about 85Kg of live rock in the tank, plus about 10mm of sand over the front 6" of the tank.
As stated, when the fish were in it was quite heavily stocked and fed at least a block a day, but the nitrates ran consistantly between 5 and 10.

I was expecting the nitrates to have gone completely with all that LR and no fish to create waste.


There is about 75 gal in the tank at present and it is being turned over by a Tunze 6080 (8000lph) and a Seio 850 (3400lph I think)

Anyone suggest where it has come from?

regards

Peter

[sinaarrgghh]

Are you sure your test kit is not wonky?

[mad pierre]

Are you sure your test kit is not wonky?
Its a salifert and I tested my RO with it which showed nil.

Peter

[fishie]

that level of nitrates whilst not what one aims for should not make one iota of difference unless you intend to stock hard corals. Mine run from 10 to 50 and on a really site day 100 no probs here WHY WORRY

[ROB]

As said unless you plan on keeping SPS then not a real problem although we do tend to want better than we have lol,

when the tank was mt did you still run a skimmer also the rock could be leaching nitrates back out?

I had zero or near to zero for about 8 to 10 months then bam 100 got them down to 25 but no lower corals seem ok on it and I now have a couple of LPS,
I am not that heavily stocked fish wise,

Rob.

[mad pierre]

Hi Guys, thanks for the input.
Im not worried about the level, just where the nitrates are coming from as I'm not feeding.
I was under the impression that the LR should reduce the nitrates present, not increase them. If thats not the case then why do we spend all that money on live rock? Or am I getting this all wrong

Peter

[mousehunter22]

Im not certain but i beleive LR turns the lethal nitrite into nitrate which is less harmfull and thats what we pay so much for it for:D

[ROB]

Im not certain but i beleive LR turns the lethal nitrite into nitrate which is less harmfull and thats what we pay so much for it for:D

Top answer to the point it is what I was getting at in a round about way lol,:D,

Rob.

[Tangman]

Hi i think it all depends on what your rock is like, how live is it are there signs that its live is it full of critters etc. Its not these that do the work but the bacteria deep inside the rock but it all helps in the process. Also the bigger the piece of rock the better it is at denitrifying. HTH Twiggy:D:D

[mad pierre]

The rock has come from various sources, some from my lfs, probably about half from other reefers, and some from Macca. They are nearly all fairly large pieces, the smallest probably about 2kg, the biggest over 10kg, some open and some Boulders.

Its just a thought, but the hair algae that I was troubled with for months hasnt come back with its usual vengance.
Its still there but no where near as much since the last scrubbing, which I had put down to lower nutrient levels (feeding). Obviously with the rise in Nitrates this isnt the case, and thinking about it now, its probably because the lights arnt on nearly as much.
I wonder if something has been leeching nitrates into my tank all along, and previously the algae was absorbing it but now cant due to lower light levels?

What do you think, and if its possible, what would be the likely sources for the leeching?


Peter

[treeboa]

substrate ???

[angel1]

Mine are stuck at 20 and never budge and i was feedind a sun and a nem every other day.:)

LILYANN:p

[mad pierre]

substrate ???
Possibly, but there is only about 10-15mm of sand at the front of the tank, and it was syphoned every water change so there shouldnt be much detrius buildup in it.
I am wondering about the egg crate. Mine is over all the rear 18" of the tank but is not raised off the bottom. (It will be next time). I was wondering if detrius had built up in the little squares under the rock, as they would make a good trap, and is now disolving into the water.
I will see in about six weeks as I am moving, and will have to strip the tank. (boy im really looking forward to that....Honest:()


Peter

[angel1]

Possibly, but there is only about 10-15mm of sand at the front of the tank, and it was syphoned every water change so there shouldnt be much detrius buildup in it.
I am wondering about the egg crate. Mine is over all the rear 18" of the tank but is not raised off the bottom. (It will be next time). I was wondering if detrius had built up in the little squares under the rock, as they would make a good trap, and is now disolving into the water.
I will see in about six weeks as I am moving, and will have to strip the tank. (boy im really looking forward to that....Honest:()


Peter

Ive made that mistake with eggcrate:( but i like my scaping now so im reluctant to empty the tank and sort it out!:eek::)

LILYANN:p

[treeboa]

my eggcrates that way, but sits on 3/4 inch pipes as well so its off the bottom, the substrate though is a pain and tbh i wish i had not gone that way as its now worked under the rockwork, sand shifter stars dont help here nor does the flow i have which blows it from the front a bit, stripping and moving is fun, though get ready for the honk when you disturb the bed mate

[mad pierre]

my eggcrates that way, but sits on 3/4 inch pipes as well so its off the bottom, the substrate though is a pain and tbh i wish i had not gone that way as its now worked under the rockwork, sand shifter stars dont help here nor does the flow i have which blows it from the front a bit, stripping and moving is fun, though get ready for the honk when you disturb the bed mate
Did you have anything holding it back?
I am planning a 25mm vertical strip about 6" from the front of the tank running full width. Sand would be banked up in front of it giving a slope to about 5mm below the top. I intend to have a large seio behind the glass strip to blow all waste etc (that falls through the eggcrate) to the Bottom scavenging weir.

Thats the plan anyway.

Peter

[treeboa]

yeah i have that in place as well as a barrier, trouble is you still get some over the top, stars and snails move it around, bottom scavenging sounds like a good idea, i have the return from my sump flushing under mine, trouble with that is any muck passing the sump ends up in that area - cant win lol, one reason i have the stars in my tank, hopefully they decend on anything edible, two sand sifters and 3 serpents, seios aint bacb but they bloody ugly lol, if you hide them you have the problem with maintainence as well, they do sludge up in my experience, what about a tunze nano pumps, you can put pipe fittings on them to make the flow go were you want, the added advantage of a mag mount as standard as well, then again what return from sump are you using ?? if a 6500 then you can pipe those to backflush the reef

[Timo]

Try dosing Prodibio Bio-digest. This will boost the bacteria in your live rock which makes it filter much more effective.

[mad pierre]

Allready got a seio 1100 so saves on costs. Am planning on using it with the end deflector on and cutting a square of eggcrate next to the opposite side of the central weir so it will just drop in to place vertically.

I like my rockwork with three main piles- the two back corners and a front central one with bridging pieces so that the weir and equipment will be hidden but easily accessable.

Dont want to use the returns (or3500 and Eheim 1260) due to possible syphoning problems should one fail.

Peter

[treeboa]

to save that happening i have a syphon break - hole just below the water line, then if it happens the syphon stops as air gets dragged in, we get a few drop outs a week here, works well for me