Nitrate levels

[mingwen1611]

hi all...

my nitrate level's been pretty high.... bout 100 ppm? is there any other way to bring it down other then changing water? cause... bout one and a half weeks ago... when i changed my water, the following day i tested my nitrate level.... and it was still the same... and my LPS aren't opening

can someone pls advice me on what to do... thankz....

help greatly appreciated...

[trader_best]

use algone? or e best is get AZ-NO3, damn effective man...

[sunnymau]

what tester are u using? if it is tetra, u have to divide it by 4.4

[mingwen1611]

where to get algone? wads AZ-NO3? where to get it? cost?

i using Salifert test kit... the results keep showing 100 ppm... the darkest pinkish purple......

[marcvelous]

Yes, I second AZ-NO3. Very very effective though a tat expensive.

Depends on tank size and livestock but better add an pir pump to prevent oxygen level crashing and your fishes die of suffocation.

AZ-NO3 will also cause some corals to not bloom so beware.

BTW, anyone knows how long it takes for the bacteria to break down a given amount of NH3 --> NO2 --> NO3? 1 week?

[Eric]

hi all...

my nitrate level's been pretty high.... bout 100 ppm? is there any other way to bring it down other then changing water? cause... bout one and a half weeks ago... when i changed my water, the following day i tested my nitrate level.... and it was still the same... and my LPS aren't opening

can someone pls advice me on what to do... thankz....

help greatly appreciated...

When you do water change, do you siphon the sandbed as well? If no, all the dead stuffs will still be stuck on the sand beds and you will have a nitrate spike again.

[Infinitereef]

Adding chemical is treating the problem and not the cause. Unless you found the cause and fix it, if not you going to keep spending money.

Tell us a little bit about your system? Does it have LR? How much and how many times you keep. Are your using some kind of Power filter with the filter cartridge? Do you have protein skimmer? What is your Bioload? Water flow?? How often you change water? What kind of Salts you use? Etc, etc.....The more details you gave us, the more we can pin down the cause.

[mingwen1611]

how to siphon the sand bed? stirring it? but wun stirring it cause a spike in Ammonia and Nitrite?

my tank is a 3 ft tank... erm... dimension not too sure... have LRs.... how many kgs also not very sure..... using a Berlin sump... got protein skimmer if i'm not wrong itz a weipro 2011... not to sure i started out with what salt but eventually changed water with Scientific Formulae Sea Salt... i change my water like once or twice every 2 mths... or when something crops up with the water...

bio-load:

1 Flame Angel

1 Cleaner Wrasse(Doctor fish)

1 pair of true percs.

1 Cleaner Shrimp

1 Fire Shrimp

1 Boxer Shrimp

[Infinitereef]

Are you feeding heavily? You may like to have more frequent water changes. Twice a month maybe? If you employ any kind of power filter or canister filter, you have to clean it very often eg. every week.

If you have little LR, buy more LR will help with Nitrate.

Check your new salt mix for Nitrate in case your salts have nitrate.

[danano]

Infinitereef is spot on.

Besides, you may want to consider upgrading your skimmer and feeding your fish less and no more than once a day. And yes, adding more "cured" LR would be beneficial in the long-run.

Do you use a power filter or canister filter? If so, this could be one of the causes.

How long has your tank been up?

[mingwen1611]

not using any power filter or cannister... but just found a dead anemone at a corner of my tank... is it one of the reasons why my nitrate's so high? seems like it just died..... cos can pull out the slimy stuff around it..... and its kinda hard... where to get all those stuffs that can lower my ppm?

[damsel-in-distress]

You can order the AZ-N03 enzyemes online through our sponsor, eAquaNature. I am currently using it, underdosing ... just to be cautious but seeing a 10-20ppm N03 reduction every week. I am in my 3rd week of the treatment. In the meantime, hv installed a denitrator to permanently take care of the N03 problem for the long run.

[Michael Young]

If you have little LR, buy more LR will help with Nitrate.

I disagree. Nitrifying bacteria live in live rock and they convert NO2 to NO3.

[Jun Hong]

I disagree. Nitrifying bacteria live in live rock and they convert NO2 to NO3.

But am I right to said that "Deeper region inside LR has oxygen depleted area where can covert NO3 to harmless N2" ?

[KIM]

sorry for interupt but may i noe wat do u all mean by (CURED LR)

[Michael Young]

But am I right to said that "Deeper region inside LR has oxygen depleted area where can covert NO3 to harmless N2" ?

Yes, you're right that the deeper regions of live rocks do harbour anaerobic bacteria which will convert nitrate to nitrogen.

However, IMO, I feel that the nitrifying bacteria and anaerobic bacteria will simply cancel each other out. Live rocks aid in the nitrogen cycle but doesn't really eliminate NO3 because of the nitrifying bacteria living on them.

[Infinitereef]

What make LR the best filtration is that as Jun Hong said, there are oxygen depleted area in the LR that will do the denitrifying job of converting Nitrate back to nitrogen.

The nitrifying bacteria is mostly on the LR surface and the denitrifying is in the LR. You will always see that LR release air bubble, that is nitrogen gas.

Any important thing is that you want good water movement throughout your LR. Thus it is more beneficial to have LR loosely pack and not against the wall. The water movement will move the nitrate rich water into the LR and have the denitrifying bacteria do the job.

[Michael Young]

sorry for interupt but may i noe wat do u all mean by (CURED LR)

When live rocks are harvested from the sea, some bacteria as well as other living organisms living on the rocks will die off and begin to rot. That's the reason why newly arrived live rocks always smell. These are uncured rocks.

To cure the rocks, you need to put them in a seperate container/tank, hook up a protein skimmer and a couple of power heads to maintain good circulation for a few weeks. This is basically the nitrogen cycle where NH3/4 will be coverted to NO2 and then to NO3 when it will be exported by the skimmer. If you add uncured rocks to your aquarium, there will be an ammonia spike and all you livestocks will suffer.