Nitrates

Ok,

So I have been having to do about a 15 gallon water change in my tank about every 2 weeks. My Nitrates after the water change are not over 0.05ppm. 2 weeks later they are back at 40ppm, is this normal? Everything seems to be doing just fine other than I have to do the water changes? Also my water Cal, Mag etc.. does not even move at all the only thing that changes is the Nitrates.

TIA,

beamerhack

 

Thing is with nitrates, unless you have some form of denitrafication, they will always build up. Sounds like you have a normal functioning tank to me.

 

Either your feeding too much or your lacking the bacteria needed to consume the No3. Do you have a refugium? Do you have enough LR? Do you have a good skimmer?



Luna

 

I have 75 pounds of liverock tank is 65 gallons. I am running a Canister Hagen 405 rated for 100 gallons attached to that is a surface skimmer. I am upgrading my skimmer to a Octopus HoB 100-F next week. Currently I am runing a PS-75 from Odyssea.

I have the following fish

Yellow Tang
Thompson Tang
Naso Tang
Fire Goby
Diamond Goby
1 Baby Clown

 

I think that the canister is your problem, thats why I dont like them. Trade the canister for a refugium. Luna

 

Cant be,

I just got it this week, It has been this way for a about 3 months now.

 

Also, thats a lot of tangs for a 65g tank. Luna

 

What kind of substrate do you have? Luna

 

About 1.5inches of live sand. It was 75 pounds total when I added.

 

That's a whole lotta heavy bio-load fish (the Tangs) and not very much LR. The LR is where a major portion of the bacteria is going to be (you probably already know)...

I would add another 30+ lbs or so LR and keep doing W/C until the base rock has a chance to catch up with its bacteria colonies.


Good call on the skimmer!!! I love mine. You can add some additional LR rubble to the chamber in that. The rubble has more surface area than bigger rocks (lb for lb) plus it'll be in a real high flow area... should help a lot.