NITRATE confussion

by **puffedupseagull** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:04 am

I have a nitrate complication, one thats not a huge issue but confusing.
My tank holds approx 700 ltrs and has about 200kg of LR i have 13 fish, mostly small clowns, chromis, my biggest is a yellow tang. I have a sump with calupera in a refugium, and have lots of flow through out tank. i also have a canister filter in line with bio balls, noodles and filter wools. My feeding is kept to a real minimum while experimenting this problem. every second day i feed 1 frozen tablet of brine shrimp, and 1 of a mixed dinner. My problem is that my nitrate jumps in strange ways. Why is this ???? i change 200 ltrs every Sunday.
Today i checked my nitrate level as i do every sunday, and it read 20ppm, i also checked my new water that i was putting back in 0ppm. I tried something different, and changed 350 ltrs of the water. Approx 15-30 mins after change, my readings where 0-5ppm (great), but 3 hours later they climbed to 10-15ppm (shit). Surely the fish don't crap that hard. I use a brand new API test kit.
So could it be the canister filter?? or something i have missed
please help. As my tank looks great, but costs me a bucket load in water changes and no real great result.

by **gdeeber** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:32 pm

I would attribute it to the canister filter. I use to have a skimmer and two HOT bio wheel filters and my Nitrates were always 5 - 10 and no matter what I did I could not get them down to 0. Then I installed my sump with a refug. and got rid of the filters. Low and behold that first week my readings were 0 and have been that way since. A good test would be to unplug your canister filter for a day or so then test your water and see what happens. I feel confident you'll find it was the canister filter that is your culprit

by **dick_headers** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:50 pm

Leave the canister, but take out all the filter medias ( specially the bioballs, you don't really them ) and leave the carbon in it. The water will pass through, but won't hold any detritus ( your cleaning crew and refugium will break it down ), meanwhile the carbon keep your water extra crystal clear...IMO

by **fihsboy** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:22 pm

Bio Balls....take em out and your problem should be fixed.

by **puffedupseagull** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:00 am

I was thinking the bio balls where the culprit, bastard of things hey. Thanks guys will take them out today, and keep you all updated on the results. Hopefully my refugium might fix the problem quickly.
Heard that maybe i should slowly take out media, one at a time. bio balls first and then week later next media to sustain bacteria in canister, is this true.

by **dick_headers** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:03 am

Yeah, it is true but not in your case. Your refugium will handle and recover the loss.

by **puffedupseagull** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:30 am

Took everything out of canister this morning, there was some shit in there hey.
Replaced with activated carbon my canister is a 5 tier, so i have nothing then carbon nothing then carbon etc.
Will keep updating on nitrate levels.

by **puffedupseagull** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:25 am

Done a test today after everything settled down in tank from the disruption, and nitrate levels are on the low side of 5-10 ppm in the test color region. Thats already 10 ppm lower than the morning. Hey we might be on a winner here. Thanks Dick Headers and Fishboy

NITRATE confussion

8 posts