My nitrates are out of control. I purchased my system 3 years ago from a neighbor for $600, he was losing his home . It was under cared for when I got it. We moved it with no problem and got everything going again within 3 hours. He did not have any salt so we had to use the same water. The small fish store we have in town did not have salt in stock.
Knowing nothing about saltwater I took a sample to my LFS. Everything was OK except the nitrates were off the scale. I worked and read, then I applied what I read... Now 3 years later my nitrates are still very high, like 80.
Whats odd is that this AM they were at 20, when I got home they were about 80. I tested again and came up with the same reading. I did not know they could change that quickly. My ammonia and Nitrites are zero. I expected a slight rise in both as the rock I took out and washed had to restart their cycle, I did see a small rise in Ammonia for about 2 days. Nitrates remained at an undetectable level.
For the past year I have spend very little time caring for it. I added RO/DI water every other day and cleaned the glass every other week, maybe.
About 2 weeks ago I got the bug to get it looking nice again. I washed some of the upper LR to remove the very thick Algae that was growing. I replaced the PC light system that had 2 year old bulbs with a LED setup (smart move). I have done 3 30 Gal water changes over the last 10 days that included vacuuming the junk off the surface of the sand bed. I removed everything from the sump and cleaned out the mess that was on the bottom. I set it back up with one section as a Refugium and the second side full of cycled LR from the tank. I have a little bit on Micro Algae in the refugium. It appears to be doing ok, not washed out but its too soon to say it is growing. I have 18 watt PC hood and a 18 watt grow light bulb on it.
I built a DIY de-nitrater 2 years ago, never got it cycled. Gave up on it last week and shut it off. I plan on removing it this weekend.
I am concerned that my newly added snails and crabs are going to die from the nitrate level.
I have another 30 gals circulating right now, I plan on a water change on Friday. Bio load is not really heavy.
Any Ideas on my next step? Is there something I am missing?
Nitrates cause gray hair! *r2
Knowing nothing about saltwater I took a sample to my LFS. Everything was OK except the nitrates were off the scale. I worked and read, then I applied what I read... Now 3 years later my nitrates are still very high, like 80.
Whats odd is that this AM they were at 20, when I got home they were about 80. I tested again and came up with the same reading. I did not know they could change that quickly. My ammonia and Nitrites are zero. I expected a slight rise in both as the rock I took out and washed had to restart their cycle, I did see a small rise in Ammonia for about 2 days. Nitrates remained at an undetectable level.
For the past year I have spend very little time caring for it. I added RO/DI water every other day and cleaned the glass every other week, maybe.
About 2 weeks ago I got the bug to get it looking nice again. I washed some of the upper LR to remove the very thick Algae that was growing. I replaced the PC light system that had 2 year old bulbs with a LED setup (smart move). I have done 3 30 Gal water changes over the last 10 days that included vacuuming the junk off the surface of the sand bed. I removed everything from the sump and cleaned out the mess that was on the bottom. I set it back up with one section as a Refugium and the second side full of cycled LR from the tank. I have a little bit on Micro Algae in the refugium. It appears to be doing ok, not washed out but its too soon to say it is growing. I have 18 watt PC hood and a 18 watt grow light bulb on it.
I built a DIY de-nitrater 2 years ago, never got it cycled. Gave up on it last week and shut it off. I plan on removing it this weekend.
I am concerned that my newly added snails and crabs are going to die from the nitrate level.
I have another 30 gals circulating right now, I plan on a water change on Friday. Bio load is not really heavy.
Any Ideas on my next step? Is there something I am missing?
Nitrates cause gray hair! *r2
