nitrate issue....

ok... starting to get frustrated...

ammonia...0
nitrite....0
ph...8.2-8.4
NITRATE...20

do water changes every 10-14 days....i have 36 gallon bowfront...so usually change 5 gallons of saltwater...

changed feeding from 3 times weekly to twice weekly...

load:
anenome
2 skunk shrimp
1 yellow tailed blue damsel
just added clownfish on 6/17/09
cleaning crew...bout 15-20 crabs/snails

thanks
Wade

 

sorry...
i have the octopus 100f...protein skimmer with filter chamber...

 

What sort of substrate do you use? Do you have a sump? A skimmer? What sort of equipment are you using?

 

What do you have in the filter chamber on the skimmer?

 

You'll find that most peoples Nitrate is 20. Its not really a problem.

 

nothing im thinking of adding a little baggy of carbon and ammonia reducer...

what you think??

 

the tank is only 3 1/2 months old...so hopefully get better as tank matures...

i have 2-3 inches of agregate on bottom...and about 2 inches of live sand on the top..

 

You can get some media to remove the Nitrates. But 20 isn't a problem, especially for a fish only as I see you have no corals.

 

Like said before 20 isn't too bad but if you want to get rid of it you still could look at some possible causes especially if it keeps on rising since the tank is so young.

Your substrate could be trapping waste although in 3 months I'm not sure how much could really get down there. I assume your aggregate is something like crushed coral? Unless you clean that regularly it is notorious for trapping organics and causing nitrate problems. I think that it will probably end up on top of your sand eventually as well since it's less dense.

Running carbon in the filtration area is not a bad idea, you shouldn't need ammonia reducer though if you have enough live rock in the tank.

Also have you doublechecked your reading against another test kit or had your LFS test it for nitrates? If you're constantly getting a reading of 20 maybe your kit is off.

 

if you want 0 nitrate use sulfur denitrator. this nitrate filter does really works. i have tried everything to lower my 20ppm nitrate from upgrading to a quality skimmer, increase flow, bought 1.5 pounds/gallon fiji rocks, use ro/di water and water change once/week but nothing seems to lower my stable 20ppm nitrate. i bought a sulfur denitrator from ebay and now my nitrate is 0 for two months now.