Nitrate levels off the chart

[hummi22689]

I decided to buy an established reef tank instead of starting from scratch.  It is a 90 gallon with a 29 gallon sump( runs about 1/2 full).  I brought home close to 70 gallons of the original water.  It has been set up and running for a few weeks now.  It currently has about 2" ls, 70 or so lbs lr, a yellow tang, and 2 blue damsels, along with hammerhead corral, frogspawn, a small start of star polyps, and a crap load of aptaisia.  Their is no clean up crew, which I was going to add immediately, so I tested my water. 

Amonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: test only goes to 160 ppm, and I am there at least.
PH: 8.3

I have done a partial water changes, about 15 gallons and have another 20 gallons aerating now.  I have added de-nitrate.  I cannot get my nitrates to go down.  I really need to get a clean up crew and peppermint shrimp to start working on the aptasia, but afraid it will all die off with the high nitrates.  Any ideas??  I had an outbreak of brown algae, which is cleared up and now I am having a green algae problem.

[slandis3]

Welcome to the club.

Are you using ro/di water if so what is the TDS? What kinda salt are you using? It may take several water changes to get them back down. If you bought the tank from someone and move it did you disturb the sand bed?

[Ashlar]

Do you have a new brute trash can that you could use to do a massive water change? A 30-40g water change should cut your nitrates in half. You may have to repeat that a couple times if it's really that high.

[lazylivin]

Like the rest have said dilution is best. + 1 Large water changes. Just make sure you match the Salinity, Temp and Aerate the new Water. Hopefully it is just a result of the move and the tank didn't have Nitrate issues for a long time. If that is the case it may take lots of water changes to bring it down.

[hummi22689]

The sand bed may have got disturbed during transport, but we tried to avoid that as much as possible.  I did pick up a 32 gallon trash can this weekend, and have water aerating/getting up to temp in it right now.  I am using distilled water, Instant Ocean salt.  Planning to do the next partial water change (20 gallons) this week.  Then I will do a bigger one (30 or so gallons) the following week.  I will continue the water changes until it improves.  If I didn't have fish and coral, I would probably just empty it all out, trash the sand and start over, but I have no where to keep them until it cycles through again.  But, that may still be an optio if things don't improve.

[HUNGER]

u should be ok just do the water changes and keep an eye on it

[ohioreef]

Reference the distilled water, I've heard that some companies use copper tubing in the process and that there could be copper in the water. Not sure if that's true, I read over on RC when I first started.

A RO/DI unit is a good investment.

[hummi22689]

As for the distilled water, I will be refilling the jugs with RO water, not sure if it is RO/DI though.

I think I may have found a major contributor to my nitrate problem.  When cleaning algae off the tank tonight, I bumped one of the rocks, causing a cloud of debri (detritius maybe?) to come out/off of the rock.  I am running a 700 gph pump on my return that has 2 directional things (my terms are great here) that I would say work as poweheads.  I also added a canister filter (Rena XP3) with a jet nozzle to work for more current.  Media in it consist of ceramic whatevers and denitrate.  I know the canister can serve as a nitrate factory if not careful, but I needed somewhere to add more denitrate.

In case you haven't figured it out, this is my first salt tank, but I plan to add another unless this one drives me insane first.

[ohioreef]

Blast all the rocks with a powerhead or turkey baster to get that detritus into the water column. Then hopefully it will get filtered out. Maybe try running some foam in the canister until it clears out. Just make sure you clean it often as it will not help your nitrates any.

[Ashlar]

Or you could use a 5g bucket filled with new SW to 'rinse' the detritus off. (This assumes you can get each bit of live rock out without causing the whole thing to collapse..)

eta: And getting the detritus off the rock will open up the pores in the rock, which will give more surface area for denitrifying bacteria to colonize!

[hummi22689]

I guess I am on the right track then.  I did aim the powerheads towards the rock and I used my little scraper thing to fan the rocks. It was quite nasty.  Looked like it was snowing in my tank.  I will do that a few more times and then do my next water change. 

[lazylivin]

Reference the distilled water, I've heard that some companies use copper tubing in the process and that there could be copper in the water. Not sure if that's true, I read over on RC when I first started.

A RO/DI unit is a good investment.

I read the same Gary. It is one of those hobby myths. Distilled Water is Pure H20 and much better to use then RO water. RO water is typically about 50 - 150 TDS where as Distilled Water is 0

[ohioreef]

Thanks for setting it right, Brian. I wondered if that might be the case.

[hummi22689]

decided just to tear the tank down, replace sandbed and start over.  It will be a lot easier than trying to fix someone elses major mistakes. 

[larrynews]

mine were off the charts about 2 years ago and my tank did great, i just did more water changes and go some nitrate sponge stuff, and over about 8 months it came down, i lost no fish or corals and most of mine are sps and they grew great. mine were well over 250, i went years with out testing then one did and WOW. but it back i guess i havent tested again in about a year.....if you havent torn it down yet try this, and see what happens maybe even replace a rock or 2 if you can with new rock..good luck

[Steve]

Just curious but are you running a protein skimmer and any filter socks?

[hummi22689]

protein skimmer yes, unsure of brand but I have a feeling it is crap since it is giving me tea colored water in the cup.

Looking into the filter sock thing.  not exactly sure where they go?