Sudden Nitrate Spike

[JHixon]

I tested my tank this past weekend and everything seemed fine. Ammonia was a little high but that's taken care of. This morning I woke up and the fish seemed like they had lost some of their color, and the crabs were crawling around like they were hopped up on something. My dad tested the water while I was at work and the nitrates were REALLY high, like over 80 PPM. PH was a tad low but nothing major, and the rest of the tests seemed ok. Any Ideas? At the moment the tank is FOWLR. 2 Dominoes and 40 to 50 lb of LR.

[FishinInTheDark]

Firstly, you need to do a good sized water change ASAP to get the nitrates down.

Next, let's figure out the cause of the nitrates. Is this a new tank, or has it been established elsewhere for a while? You may have inherited a nitrate problem. What, and how much, are you feeding? What is the substrate, filtration? What are the exact water perameters?

[MikeS]

[quote="JHixon"] My dad tested the water while I was at work and the nitrates were REALLY high, like over 80 PPM. [quote]

Verify these results yourself before you do anything....

other than that, I totally agree with Conni's advice...

MikeS

[JHixon]

I checked them when I got home yesterday. They were over 80 PPM. The tank belonged to my uncle, so the possibility of my inheriting a nitrate problem is entirely possible. I have 2 penguin 400's hanging on the back of the tank. That's about the extent of it at the moment. I feed the fish roughly twice a day on flake and shrimp. This, also will be changing, as I am used to feeding frosen food in my 6 gal.

I am planning on doing some plumbing this weekend to increase my water flow. Before that I am going to do a large water change.

[Sugar Magnolia]

What kind of substrate is in the tank?

[JHixon]

It's some of that wet sand stuff you can buy at the fish places. I believe that's what he put in it. It may also be a mix of that and some cycled sand from the bottom of a tank that belonged to fish store owner we used to hang with.

[FishinInTheDark]

Make sure you have new filter inserts in the Penguins, and clean them well. Also, if they have biowheels, you'll want to remove them. They are nitrate factories. Cut back on that feeding to the bare minimum, and definitely consider switching to frozen foods. A series of water changes will help. You'll want to save up for a nice skimmer to help too. Skimmers don't reduce nitrates per se, but removing organics from the water before they break down certainly lessens nitrates. Another idea would be to add a refugium full of macroalgae which will consume nitrates as it grows.

GL,

[JHixon]

I believe I have a skimmer that come with the tank. I'll see if I can't implement that. The filters do need to be replaced. I know that if the carbon gets to a point where it's overloaded it will begin dumping contaminates.

How much would a couple of full grown damsels eat anyway? None of the fish in my 6 gallon had a chance in hell of getting this size.

About the bio-wheels. Why do they even have those things in there if they are just going to build up nitrates? About every filter I've seen has them.

The refugium I'll research further. I've seen a great tutorial on how to build something with pvc and a mag drive to increase water flow. Is there anything similar for setting up a useful refugium?

And thanks for all the help guys.

[wwashowi]

Get rid of the bio-wheels!!!! I assume you have live rock in the tank right? Thats all you need (basically).. I have now idea why the wheels are there other than for fresh water tanks or possibly tanks without rock.

Throw them away.

Todd

[JHixon]

Will do, they're gone. I do have live rock, about 40 lbs of it.

This is the protein skimmer that he sent here with the tank:

http://www.redseafish.com/Product.asp?dir=&catid=98&subID=35&proID=121

Problem is I can't get it to fit with the glass in place on top of the aquarium. Is there an external option?

[FishinInTheDark]

I would recommend saving your money for an AquaC Remora or a BakPak skimmer. They are both very good hang-on type skimmers in the medium price range. The one you have is marginal at best.

[JHixon]

Arrighty, I'll add that one to my wish list. I did a very large water change yesterday and I took out the bio-wheels. I tested the water a few minutes ago and it's still prettu high so I guess I'll do another water change soon and continue to do so until it drops.