Persistence paid off

[umbrellacorp]

Well after about 2 and 1/2 to 3 weeks of every other day water changes im finally down to a nitrate level of 15. I got down to 25 and was stuck there for a while and about to give up, but i kept it up. Thanks to Jenn and the rest of u who gave me suggestions and told me to keep working on it. Looks like im not gonna have to break down the tank after all. * knock on wood * thanks guys.


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[rdnelson]

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

Happy for you bud. Jenn has never given me advice that didin't work as long as I did what she says.

 

[frantz]

Did you ever narrow down exactly what caused the spike? I've read the original post but never saw a conclusion, just the solutions.

 

[ripped tide]

What test kits were you using?

 

[jennm]

Good job and keep it going for a bit longer. 15 is "ok" but if you don't stay on top of it, it will climb back up again, and I'd hate to see your hard work go to waste.

I'd be aiming to get them down to 5 or lower (as close to undetectable is always desired, of course). Once you get where you need to be, you need to keep an eye on things, so you can tell just how much water needs to be changed how often, in order to keep things where they need to be.

That's a mistake I often see - things get out of control when somebody isn't paying attention, they bust their rear to get things right again, then go back on "cruise control" thinking they'll stay good - and they don't. It's all about finding the sweet spot for your particular tank, to figure out how much water needs to be changed and at what interval, to keep things where they need to be. Once you get there, it should be easier. If it goes wonky again, it's a much longer road to get back to where it needs to be again.

Jenn

 

[umbrellacorp]

Frantz;724890 wrote: Did you ever narrow down exactly what caused the spike? I've read the original post but never saw a conclusion, just the solutions.

No i never did... Prolly being lazy and never doing water changes to begin with because using that crummy complete aquarium test kit led me to believe i was below 10 forever.

I now have a salifert, elos, and one other.. Cant think of the name but it cost 25 bucks. I usually test two of the three just to make sure. Im gonna keep up the WCs until i getcto 10 and then let it be for a week to see if it stays stable or starts rising again. Its been about 4 days stable now, but im gonna keep goin like Jenn says and at least get it to 10. Thanks!


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[rdnelson]

Just and FYI. Because I am so new to all this, I decided I would do a 10% water change each week. This has several advantages to me. First, if I do it every week I will do it every week. LOL If I start skipping a week I will skip two or three or...... Second, it not only removes the nitrates it helps replenish the trace elements. Some of the things that in low quatities in our tanks get used up overtime. Unless you are testing and manually replacing them, they will continue to drop. Doing water changes replenshes them because the salt mix has a certain amount. For me, that seems to be the closest thing to fool proof I can come up with so I stick with it. So far, my tank has responded with flying colors (knock on wood).

 

[dakota9]

Congrats!

Thought about sharing this link with you when I found it last week, but seems a bit radical and more than you obviously needed.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/nitratecontrol/ss/sbsnitratereduction.htm">http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/nitratecontrol/ss/sbsnitratereduction.htm</a>

Glad everything is looking up!

 

[umbrellacorp]

Oh the othet kit i have is a sera.


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[umbrellacorp]

Well i guess i was wrong. After 2 days w/o a WC (my dog is sick has to have surgery been distracted) my nitrates jumped back up to 20. Its been 3 weeks now. If i cant figure out the source of this problem then i guess ill just have to break it down.
My bio wheels arent turning very well plus a few of the sprayers was clogged but i unclogged them. Also i switched from a quad t5 ho to a dual t5 ho.. Could live rock die off be contributing to this just because of less light? Or the bio wheel have anything to do with it? Thanks again for any help.

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[jennm]

Gee it only went up 5, not 50. Don't be so fast to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Take off the bio-wheels. I didn't realize you had them, they can lend to the problem also.

Keep at it - you're almost there.

Jenn

 

[enderg60]

Ok maybe Im missing something, but if your nitrates are rising at 5ppm every two days, you have very wrong going on there.

If it were me, since you only have a 36g, I would do 2 90% water changes and see what happens. If your nitrate still rise at that level, I would slap a sulphur denitrator on it untill what ever is leaching nitrate is done, then remove it and put a algea scrubber on there to keep things at bay.

 

[mph84]

Have you thought about adding a reactor with something like seachem denitrate? I had amazing results on my old 55 gallon. I had about the same problems and within 3 days nitrates were undetectable. I run mine in a two little fish reactor with a maxi jet 600. Good luck and get the "breaking it down" idea out of the equation!!!! Just stick with it and work out the problems. Happy reefing. Let me know if you need any help i'm not too too far away

 

[umbrellacorp]

JennM;726637 wrote: Gee it only went up 5, not 50. Don't be so fast to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Take off the bio-wheels. I didn't realize you had them, they can lend to the problem also.

Keep at it - you're almost there.

Jenn

well the thing is.. if its going to jump 5 in 2 days, i cant imagine how much it will jump in a week if im going to do weekly water changes. I dunno.. like i said, ive been doing changes for about 3 weeks. Ive changed out the ALL the water almost twice. Im pullin out the bio wheels and ill keep trying. Thanks!

Edit:

mph84;726652 wrote: Have you thought about adding a reactor with something like seachem denitrate? I had amazing results on my old 55 gallon. I had about the same problems and within 3 days nitrates were undetectable. I run mine in a two little fish reactor with a maxi jet 600. Good luck and get the "breaking it down" idea out of the equation!!!! Just stick with it and work out the problems. Happy reefing. Let me know if you need any help i'm not too too far away

yeah i was going to purchase the denitrate but the bag has to be put into something with slow GPH.. both my filters produce way more than 50gph.. so i have no place to put it unless i just let it bob around in the tank, or possibly rubber band it to a circ pump? ill check out the reactor.. also thinking about getting a uv sterilizer.. unfortunatly im a little short on funds at the moment, my dogs surgery is adding up to be almost a $1000. Ill keep up with the WCs for a while more and then see what i can afford to do.

Once again thank you all for your help and advice.

 

[frantz]

Keep at it! Although I'd be more concerned with finding the cause than just throwing gear at it. I mean you have to keep the conditions safe for your swimmy friends, but I hate just looking for band-aid solutions. JW, how deep is your sand? I've read that sometimes when its between 1-3 inches it can cause problems with the cycle because anaerobic bacteria doesn't always remain in anaerobic places. Anyone else with thoughts on this?

 

[dakota9]

Agreed! Rip those biowheels off and never look back. That could easily be the source of your problem

 

[jennm]

I don't think the biowheels are the only cause of the issue but they may be hindering forward progress.

Jenn

 

[ripped tide]

Nitrate does not just magically appear because of bio wheels. Nitrates are the result of amonnia bring broken down into nitrite and then into nitrate. Bio wheels are effective at breaking ammonia and nitrite down to nitrate, but you may want to look at this a little farther up the line.

How much are you feeding and how often?

If it is more than once a day, and if it takes your fish longer than 1.5 mins to eat the food, you are over feeding(IMO)

If you have eliminated all possibilities that could be the source of your nitrates, and you are still getting them, try changing your filter cartridges weekly. I know that sounds expensive, but look at it like this: the filter cartridge traps waste, as the waste accumulated in the pad, it breaks down, guess what the end result is.... NITRATE!

If you remove the waste manually before it can break down, you should lower your nitrates.

The h20 changes are important, but obviously not enough.

 

[umbrellacorp]

I dont feed at all.. I havent for weeks. I have nothing to feed lol. I have been changing my regular filters and my polyfilters bi-weekly. Ok something weird happened.. Took the bio wheels off and my skimmer immediately started skimming like mad. It hasnt skimmed anything for weeks. Now its basically overflowing. Kinda weird.. Thought id mention it.


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[ripped tide]

You might just be cursed