Home Built

My Nitrite is at 40ppm and Nitrate is .05ppm. I just added AmQuel plus to try and lower it.

 

I'd ask why is there any filter padding in the 3rd chamber ? and you be far better off pulling the filter padding and placing a good grade of carbon in the stream to avoid the green water from turning your tank water to a yellow color . With nitrites that high the system is still cycling and not ready for a fuge really and any life stock to supply the lageawith a source of nuturients to feed on.. But with nitrites at 40 and if this is a matured system you have a problem and amquel is not a magic bullet and not a good idea for the system either ..

 

How old is the tank? You shouldn't have any nitrites if your tank is stable and established. Nitrates are normal in a tank, anything below 20ppm is normal and safe, but nitrites at a detectable level can be toxic. To me, I think you need to double the amount of LR in your tank to be able to handle the amount of anaerobic bateria to break down the nitrites. Keep an eye on your anemones, they do not take to NO2 well at all.

 

I think the op got those backwards (I do all the time) because nitrates are the higher ones and nitrites are smaller number. Can you verify that christopherlp?

Do you have any old sponge filters in there? My nitrates just this week jumped up to 40 and I cant tell if it's because of the sponge filter I just removed or the cyano dying off.

 

I do have a filter sponge in it but no carbon should I put a carbon base filter on it? If my tank is not ready for a fuge what do I do now? The tank is about 3 months old and 55 gal of water is about 4 years old i transfered all the water from an old tank.