Nitrate Skyrocketing

Hello all,

My tanks been doing quite well recently, however I did my test today (I do mine weekly) and my Nitrates went up well over 120ppm . Zoanthids started closing up this morning a little, everything else looks fine. Last week I was at around 10ppm, and today thats what happened to my guys.

Nothing has died, no water changes (within the last two weeks), added R/O freshwater twice this week. Refugium with an ATS, LR and Chaeto, skimming once every other day (which it collects hardly anything). Nitrites 0, PH 8.2, Calcium 380, temp 76 (although we've been having a heatwave last few days and the water got up there for a few hours). I'm doing to do a 25% change after I get off the forums to help reduce the NO3.

Now I know that nothing happens by accident in this hobby, so I'm trying to figure out what could cause that. No deaths, cutting back on feeding (I was trying to get below 10ppm so I can add an SPS frag or two), top offs using R/O only.

Thanks,
-G

 

did the fish or PH stir up your sand bed?
calc is a little low.
what lighting is on your fuge?

why dont you skim everyday? if your shooting for sps full time skimming is needed

what is your skimmer?

 

Nothing has been stired up recently.
Calc is a little low but from my understanding this wont affect Nitrates.
Lighting is 3 clip on lights with 5500k Bulbs

I don't skim everyday as since I added Chaeto and the ATS the skimmer's production dropped about ~80%.

I've got some marineland skimmer thats rated for 120gal on my 29 gallon tank. Though marineland is crappy its the reason I tried to use other means of nutrient export.

Thanks for the Quick Reply,
-G

 

yea it wont i was just noting the calc as its important for coral growth.

but on to nitrates.
whats the wattage of the clip ons(state if its only one bulb or combined for all three)
how big is the fuge area gallons?

i would run a skimmer 24 7 unless you have very low bioload. some skimmers take a while to start working efficently once they turn on, so you could be limiting its performance during the on hours. if nothing else it will provide gas exchange.

 

That does seem odd..
You should fill out the ASAP form so people can have more insight.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/asap/asap-please-start-here-54456.html
Mainly wandering how much bioload you have/feeding schedule and amounts.

 

i agree with above about skimmer - just let it run all the time - it'll work better and it aerates the tank.

what are the clip on lights? (just curious - haven't heard of that before)

as for spike in nitrate, odds are there's something dead you haven't noted yet, unless you've got a "nitrate bomb" that got set off somewhere, which usually is a deep substrate bed that got stirred somehow. on that note, tell us more about your tank (we know 29 gal, tell us about sump, LR amount, substrate type and depth and inhabitants)

 

This happened to me once, and I still never found the cause.
As other's said, skimmer needs to be on full time. Always. Do a 30% water change. Stop feeding for the time being. When you do your water change, blast the rocks with a turkey baster or powerhead and siphon all the stuff that comes off them as well.
Also, if your not already, run some carbon.

 

Its the darndest thing... Nitrates have now droped to 60ppm. Nothing changed, just did the water change a few days ago (at which point it was @ about 80ppm). So it appears to be dropping, but the sandbed looks fine, not disturbed.... Mystery...

Will consider usign my skimmer again, but I think I need to be reconvinced about that. As my skimmer was hardley pulling anything off after the installation of my other nutrient exports. Ohh well back to the books! Thanks for the replys, am hoping in time I can find something to explain this.

-G

 

Skimming

Skimming may tank up to 3 days to produce real waste IMO. So if you stop running it after 2 days it will restart, you'll never skim anything real IMO.

Good luck,
Mike

PS If you have bioballs maybe a clump of stuff fell off it?

 

dude has a good point - anyone have real info on how long a skimmer has to run to collect/remove DOC?