My nitrates or to high

My nitrates are reading over 200 I I'm not sure how to get them down. This is not a new tank, established for over 2 years. I recently traded in my grouper than cleanded the tank and stired the sand quite a bit.

My skimmer is not a 100% so I turned it off. I didn't a water change and the nitrates are still the same.

Salentiy 1.024
temp 78
PH 8.4
rite 0
amonia 0
rate 200

Live sand 2-3 inch and 30lbs of live rock

 

a very good skimmer will go along way to helping.
it may be worth it to replace you sandbed slowly over a month,(i wouldnt stir a sandbed in a old tank. it will through things out of whack big time)

a refugium will help alot too.

it may take a while because if the tank has been like this for along time the rocks may have absorbed a bit of nitrate, and are now leaching it into the tank.

whats your tank size, and livestock?

 

You can look into a denitrator also. Tangster makes and sells them. I would consider few big water changes also. It is really a band-aid approach, and something I don't usually suggest, but your NO3 is through the roof.

And I have to ask....what kind of test kit are you using?

Actually, I would like you to fill out the form at the beginning of the ASAP section, copy and paste. Then all questions will be answered that we need.

 

Be careful with a few big water changes, they could cause more of a problem rather then a solution...

 

Refugium!!!!! My nitrates went from 10 to 2 quickly.

 

I stirred a very small part of my sandbed and NO3 went off the scale. It has taken over a week to get back down to 20-40. We need more info here... Like how big is the tank with 30lbs rock

 

Is a denitrator the same as a phosphate reactor?

 

no a denitrator is a very long thin tube, that promotes aerobic bacteria at the beginning that use all the oxygen, so anerobic bacteria work on the nitrates in the rest of the tube.
a phosphate reactor, have media that aborbs phosphate in it(similar to activated carbon)

 

I would have to agree with Stevenbaker21...I battled nitrates for almost a year and could not keep mine below 50 ppm. After doing extensive reasearch I plumbed in a 10 gallon refugium to my 24g nano. I added some chateomorph macroalgae and was doing 15% water changes weekly. My nitrates went from 50 ppm to >5 ppm in about 2 mos. A denitrator coulnd't hurt as well!! Good luck

 

Ok I have a 55g 30lbs of lr 1-3 inch of sand I for got how many lbs. The tank is empty now I was changing to reef and doing so spring cleaning when I stired the sand bed. Is the refugium the same as a sump? I have a wet dry with bio ball not sure of the size.
I'm adding more base rock about 20lbs before I add anything else but I just wanted to combat this nitrate problem first. What is a dentirator and where can I get one?