Nitrate issue

Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to lower our nitrate reading ... or do we just have to wait it out a bit longer.

The tank has been up and running for about 3 months now (specs in the sig). We feed with 1/8-1/4 cube of froze brine or mysis shrimp once daily, tiny pinch of flake 3-4 times/week, Liquid Snow or Phytoplankton once every 1-2 weeks.

We do ~15% water changes about every 2 weeks and test water parameters once to twice weekly using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals liquid test kits. Things haven't changed much at all in 2 months ...

Temp -- 77-78 F
SG 1.024-1.025
Ammonia -- consistently 0
Nitrite -- consistently 0 since mid January
Nitrate -- runs between 20 - 40 ppm (On the same test run ... If you hold the tube directly against the white background the color matches the 20 ppm. If held about 1 cm away from the white background the color matches the 40 ppm)


Trying to get the nitrates down, we converted part of the sump into a refugium about 2 weeks ago. The sump is a AGA 20L. We used flow through aquarium dividers to divide the sump into 3 parts. The refugium is in the center part between the dividers and is about half the volume of the sump. We added a 3-4 inch bed of live sand between the dividers and some Caulerpa algae to the refugium.

None of our livestock seem to mind the higher nitrate levels; they all look happy and healthy, but it just seems a little scary having the nitrates up a bit. Any suggestions?



On a side note, we just set up a "Nano-Cube" 2 weeks ago which will become our quarantine tank. It is a 10 gallon tank, We added ~20lbs live sand and ~ 8lbs live rock to get it cycling. It had a 50% water change a week ago. Tested the parameters last night ... Ammonia, Nitrite and NITRATE were all 0. Seems odd that the Nitrate dropped so quickly in here. Small volume, small bioload, quicker water parameter changes?

 

Couple of questions here:
1. What kind of water do you use for water changes?
2. Have you tested with another test kit as that one could be bad?
3. Move any rocks or sand around lately?
4. Do you have a phosphate test and what was that reading?
5. When was the last time you cleaned / or changed the sponge filters in the pre filter or in the sump area?
5. Are all of your live stock present?

 

Here's some of the answers to your questions ...


I honestly never thought about trying a different test kit. Mostly because when we checked our replacement water the nitrates in it read 0 ppm. GOOD IDEA . I'll look into getting another kit today and get back with the results.



We us RO/DI as the base for our salt water changes and for top off freshwater.

I checked the phosphate in the tank last night ... it was 0.1 ppm

As far as I can tell none of the current livestock are missing ... about 2 months ago one of the cucumbers went missing ... never found any remains, did see him once him under a rock the next day but haven't seen him since. There's a bunch of snails and blue-legged hermits so I don't really know what goes on with these guys.

We haven't moved any rocks around, but the most recent addition was a hairy mushroom about 1 week ago. All of the corals look very happy, no dying areas and all polyps open on those with polyps.

As far as pre filters ... we don't have many; only 2 that I can think of ... one on the main return pump and one on the protein skimmer pump. I'll check with my other half but I think they were cleaned 2-3 weeks ago.

Thanks

 

Great detail, I would give it time the end of the cycle might be draging along. i would bring a water sample to the lfs and let them test it for free. The nano might cycle quicker because it is smaller with less rock and or the rock was in better shape. Why ls and lr in quarintine tank you have now taken the ability to medicate away frrom the tank. Also you might want to watch for that missing Cuke if it did go to the 7 seas of heaven it can Nuke the entire tank and could be a major cause for your nitrates. The tank is holding its own if the cuke is dead. I have seen 1 cuke wipe out 300 gallons of tanks in a lfs when it died.

 

Ditto what Mr. Phil said.
Plus the new LR and mushrooms could spike the tank but don't see it going out of wack that far without something dead in the tank.
I would move the rocks and find the missing cuke. If the crabs and such are gathered in one area that is where I would look first.

 

I went to the LFS yesterday ... They had a SeaTest low range nitrate test, but the kit was dated 1993 .

Looking into the fine print of the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test ... the insert says ...

"THis test kit measures nitrate as nitrate ion or "total nitrate." Other nitrate test kits that measure "nitrate-nitrogen (NO[sub]3[/sub][sup]-[/sup]N will give readings 4.4 times less than this test kit."

I guess this means our readings may be a lot less if we used another brand of test kit. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about the differences and what I am really measuring?




PS. The lr and ls in the nano was to "jump start" the cycling, seed the bioballs etc. And we haven't ruled out the idea of keeping it as a nano-reef yet ..... It just looks so COOL right now with the ls/lr.