High Nitrate Levels - Please Help!!

I don't think it could hurt, Andy!

Good luck and keep us in the know!!

 

I agree with Sparky. I, too, have no filtration units. Just an el-cheapo (soon to be replaced) protein skimmer and live rock. If you go with just biological filtration (live sand and live rock), I think you're problematic nitrates will decrease loads.

How much live rock do you have? And how big is your tank? I apologize if I missed it in a previous post.

Peace.......John.

 

Hi again guys,

Just did a full water change but kept the one main filter so I've hopefully retained some of the healthy bacteria.

Picking up my 2 new rainbow crabs in about 10 hours. They also have a Gost crab too so might check him out but not sure if its wise to have him with the rainbow crabs. I might post a few photos of them when I get them if anyone's interested?

I'm going to look more into biological filtration I think - so thanks for the pointers.

Oh, and its a 60litre tank with 15 litres of water in it. The rocks are just normal rocks as opposed to live rocks.

Just when I thought I was getting more knowledgeable about aquarium setups!!! :-/

Thanks for the pointers guys,

Andy

 

Dude, are you talking "base rock" or rocks that you found lying around outside?

 

They were proper, sealed rocks that I bought from a local aquarium

 

This might be a stupid queston, but is this tank FW or SW? Luna

 

Whew, OK. I got worried there for a moment!!!!

 

Brackish. Ive got about 3g of aquarium salt for every litre of water

 

I agree that it could be you filters, one quick way of testing it is rig it up to a bucket of fresh water and let it run for a day or so. Then test your water and see what the levels are. The other thing is it could be your rock, again remove some rock and place in a bucket of clean water, leave and then test the results.

Good news is that you are at the early stage but it is worth getting everything right before you start adding new additions to your tank.

Good luck.

 

Test the "mineral water" you are using to do the water changes. Just to make sure it's not your problem. I have purchased reverse ozmosis water from my local aquarium store before when I was having some high levels myself, in despair i tested the RO water and found that the nitrate levels in the RO were already high. I never thought i would have to check that, i just took it for granted that the RO was clean. Come to find out, i had to change my source for water. Just a suggestion, considering you've done much everything else to no avail.