Help please!!

First I want to say that I am sorry for the long post but we are dumbfounded on this issue and so is "our" fish guy as well as our neighbor (who cultivates and sells corals)... So I am hoping that someone here might see something we have overlooked.

So my husband and I have pretty much always had tanks in our home from freshwater to brackish to marine... In the past we have had a 250 gallon corner custom built tank which always ran fine, a 100 gallon brackish tank which ran fine, a 55 gallon reef tank which had its issues but never ones that we couldnt figure out, and some other smaller tanks as well.

About 4 months ago we upgraded from the 55 mentioned above to a 125 and had no issues. We transferred all of the water out of the 55 and added to that, we transferred all the rock and added to it as well. The fish we had at the time transferred well (yellow tang, niger trigger, maroon clown, and 3 chromis) and I only say had because we no longer have the tang (he was killing others so he went back to LFS and he killed the clown). We did not have a sump on the 55 and therefore did not originally have one on the 125 but have added one since. The problem is that we had no water quality issues when we set up the 125 as far as testing showed but after we added the sump the nitrates have skyrocketed and will not come down.

We have done weekly 20% water changes since the sump was added (in January) and finally the last three days have done 30% 1st day, 40% 2nd day, and 30% 3rd day. Now the nitrates go down for about an hour after each water changes then skyrocket again. We have cut down feedings dramatically (almost starving them) and added a nitrate reducer compound which was "full" in three days.

Here is what we have as far as filtration, lighting, fish , and rocks right this moment:
125 gallon tank 6ft long
100 pounds of live rock in tank and 30 more in sump
120 pounds of live sand
water changes include "swishing" rocks to remove debris and vacuuming sand
mega flow model 4 sump (took bio balls out since it was used previously)
vertex 180 protein skimmer
green algae (purchased for sump)
1100 gallon per hour return pump
hang on back overflow
two metal halide xm 250 db 15k
2 t5 flourescents that are blue (forget the term)
2 t5 flourescents that are pink/white
2 blue led clusters (for moonlighting)
phosphate reactor
3 "dust" sock filters throughout sump to catch anything the skimmer misses
6 pumps in tank of different strengths

fish include:
Niger Trigger
Yellow EyeTang (which since this problem has developed Cryptacryon (sp?))
fire dartfish
two yellowheaded gobies
5 chromis
cardinalfish
blue devil

inverts include:
a couple little tiny hermit crabs (hitchhikers on rock)
emerald crab
several mexican turbo snails
several smaller snails
coral banded shrimp

corals include:
calaustrias (sp?)
several different rics (about 30)
all kinds of polyps
star polyps
mushrooms
birds nest
galaxias

fish that we just lost due to the ich out break (which I think was caused by the poor quality of the water i/e nitrate spike)
Coral beauty angel
flame angel (yeah yeah I know but they actually did well together)
copperbanded butterfly (but he wasnt eating to begin with)

I do have a QT tank but I currently have a baby baby Naso in there so moving the others in with him is not an option right now.

Any thoughts on this? Again sorry for the long post just trying to give you guys as much info as possible... Please feel free to comment, criticize or whatever.

Oh forgot to add water parameters as of this morning:

Salinity @ 1.025 (we keep it a bit high as the corals thrive on it)
Phospates 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 160
alkalinity 10dkh
calcium 540 (due to high salinity)

we add
zoe twice a week
garlic in food once daily (unless a fish is refusing food than we dose the tank)
stronium (sp?) twice a week

I posted this on another forum as well and well no responses so...

 

I'm gonna say relax and replace your test kit- or at least take a water sample to your LFS for testing. No way your Nitrate is 160 as everything would be dead long before it got that high.

 

thats lethally high nitrates, are you sure your test is accurate? also if you are having that bad of nitrates I would test the source. I dont generally "swish" my rocks around as that can cause nitrates/ammonia to spike from releasing all the bio material collected in the rock and substrate. you can baste the rock gently with a turkey baster, but I wouldnt go much further then that imo. do you have a refugium or a place in your sump you can have one? if so try adding chaeto algae to absorb some of it, I had nitrates in my nano, but after adding chaeto, the nitrates went to 0

 

Well I am sure it is not the test kit as my neighbor (who cultivates corals) also is an owner with the Idaho Aquarium and brought their (more expensive and accurate) test kit home because he thought the same thing and both tests tested exactly the same. I was thinking the same thing - everything should be dead but its not and even the opposite... my rics and calastrias are open bigger than ever??? The green algae that I mentioned in the OP is chaeto (just couldnt remember the name) so in essence I technically do have a refugium area in my sump. I am not sure what else I can do except water changes and cross my fingers lol...

 

What test kit are using to test this?

I agree with both Nano and Mr. Bill, everything in the tank would be dead if nitrates were that high.

You're results are either skewed either from using an expired test kit or due to user error IMO.

Do as suggested and have the LFS test a sample for you.

 

Oh and when I say swish this is only the top rocks that collect the most and a turkey baster is used for the lower rocks sorry for the confusion on that

 

might seem off topic, but is your neighbor licensed to cultivate?

 

Reef Monkey we posted at the same time lol I had a friend (who owns the big Idaho Aquarium) bring his kit cause he said the same thing - both tested the same... When the problem orginally started (3 weeks or so ago) I did have the LFS (2 in fact) test it and it tested the same... I also (just for the sake of it) have been testing my QT daily to see the difference and my QT tested 0 which it also tested on the aquariums kit and the lfs.

 

IME/IMHO~ When it comes to marine tanks the less you have your hands in the water, the better off the system will be and the less you'll have to deal with annoying issues.

 

LOL as far as I know he is... I just know he buys them, grows them, and sells them... cultivate might be the wrong word... I think some have called it propagate? I just do the research on the corals I want to have and whats needed to care for them lol so I dont know much beyond that...