nitrates going crazy...treat with vodka??????

Hello all....I have had my tank going for about 5 years now but just recently switched from reef to predator....I am all of a sudden having a million problems with water quality. The only thing that i can attribute it to is feeding live food which is something that i never had to do with my reef tank....as nothing else has changed....i do not have my parameters right now i am going to get them retested today....but i have a 125 gallon with about 150 lbs of live sand and about the same in rock....my filter and skimmer both do 700 gph and i have a uv sterilizer and also 2 powerheads....i had my parameters checked about 4 days ago and everything was within normal limits but my nitrates were through the roof....my lfs told me to feed live food and my tank is now going haywire....i have since stopped feeding live and am feeding strictly frozen and fresh from the market....i lost a lionfish due to what we thought was amonia and then a dogface due to high nitrates....my lfs was out of nitrate tester and when they got some in my nitrates were through the roof....they are telling me that there is really no cure for this and the only thing they could suggest was to treat with vodka...does anyone know about this method and whether is is effective to reduce nitrates or not? I really need help I am getting so many suggestions from so many people but everything seems to not be working....I am losing to many fish and as you all know they don't come cheap.....any help would be appreciated

 

1. water changes. How often do you do them? I would double it...

2. stocking you can't stock as many big messy fish as you can small vegetarians. How many fish do you have?

3. The skimmer does 700 gph but what size tank is it rated for and what brand?

4. What does your clean up crew look like?

5. I would run bio pellets. Make sure you have surface agitation but this has eliminated nitrates for many people.

6. Try a refugium with macro algae

7. You can dose vodka, but it is a little at a time type of thing over a long period of time.

8. none of the fish you mentioned NEEDS live foods. they like them, but don't need them. The LFS will tell you to feed them live food but they sell live food. Also, many live foods carry diseases... something to think about

 

I had a predator tank I only fed twice a week. I had an emperor angel, Dogface,Black Volitan Lionfish, Fu Manchu dwarf and, blue ribbon eel and a shark and my nitrates leveled around 30. Plus I was doing 25% water changes also. Buts that what my LFS suggested too. Oh I had all of that in a 90 Gallon tank.

 

High nitrates are not going to kill your fish. Uneaten, rotting food are usually the problem in a FOWLR. Live or frozen won't matter as long as it gets eaten. Like tom.n.day said, vodka dosing is a long term solution. It works, but it takes time and research on your part.

What was the nitrate reading? You may not have a problem at all.

 

My nitrates went through the roof once(going back abit),got myself a fuge(refugium)and macro algae now there at zero.....and trust me it doesnt take long for it to drop.i have mine on the side of my tank,its just like having another little tank to look at(fantastic little thing)

 

"Through the roof" isn't a number on the chart. What did they test at today?

 

I would consider an Algae Turf Scrubber first.

 

they tested at 200....the filter i am running is rated for a 150 gallon tank...it is an odyssea cfs 700 with uv sterilizer....cleanup crew are nassarius snails and turbos, the only thing left in my tank is a porcupine puffer and a snowflake morray eel....i have lost a dogface puffer a volitan lion and a fuzzy dwarf lion....so far the porcupine and eel are fine....don't really know what is killing all of my fish besides my nitrates....and i do have good surface water movement....

 

I would try Algae Scrubber first.

 

Did the 200 reading come about after the fish died? The death of a fish can cause high nitrates if the body wasn't removed fast enough.