NO 3 high

I just tested my water and it says my NO 3 is high..how can I lower this? I did a water change two weeks ago.

 

Yes typically if nitrate is high, a water change seems in order.

Do have a specific value?

How old is the tank?

 

I just did a water change..tank is maybe a year old. Value is approaching the 80 mark. Are there things that I might be doing that are keeping it high?

 

Without knowing a lot about your tank I can offer a few suggestions.

Reducing feedings.
Use marco algae such as chaeto to export nutrients.
Optimize your skimmer, skim wet.
ATS: Algae turf scrubbers.
Bio-pellets if you want to go down that road.

Basically do what you can to reduce introduction of nutrients, and improve the methods of exporting nutrients.

I am sure others will have some ideas as well.

 

good flow and weekly water changes... i would start with twice a week water changes of 20% for a month or two then switch to once a week...
siphon the sandbed around your rock work(not to much at one time), i bet you have alot of deitris under your rocks, probably in your rocks too...
de-nitrification is possible but for me it is way slower than the nitrification process and cannot keep up, so for me it is weekly water changes and not over feeding...

 

Water changes help short term, but are somewhat useless long term. They will always come back if you don't remove the source. My standard nitrate answer:

The following will all either directly or indirectly help keep nitrates down

-Efficient Protein skimming- Keep protein skimmer clean and use a good one.
-Clean water source- RO/DI water - make sure output is 0 tds.
-harvest macro algae in fuge
-feed smaller amounts more, rather than lots less often.
-keep amount fed consistent to maintain steady biomass rather than allow fluctuating biomass.
-good cleanup crew
-Run carbon and GFO.
-Keep filters clean - remove detritus
-Keep substrate clean of detritus.
-Avoid dead spots, make sure there is flow
-Probably best to avoid any biofilter other than sand and LR.
-Remote deep sand bed
-more advanced and may be much more risky, but carbon dosing can be effective.

Also, I would suggest looking at this article.
Aquarium Chemistry: Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium — Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine

 

I was thinking that maybe I am over feeding. Everyone has a different opinion. I have a 29 gal oceanic bio cube with 2 clowns..a fox face, cleaner wrasse and a cleaner shrimp. Few mushrooms, a maximus clam, and some other corals. I feed pellets daily and every three days use a cube of brine as a replacement. What is your guys opinion on feeding?

 

You dont want your nitrates to get that high, ever. Especially with invertebrates and coral. If you see it get around 10-20, do a water change. With a bio cube its hard to have a fuge with macro algae without a mod to the tank itself or a modified HOB filter. You may want to look into those options or perhaps check out reefcleaners as they have some beautiful macro algae that you could grow directly in your DT that would help with nutrient export.

As far as feeding, most instructions will tell you to feed your fish however much they can eat in 3-5 minutes. I personally think this is BS. I feed my fish as much as they can eat in about a minute, and I judge on how fast they eat and if I see any food uneaten I adjust my feeding from there. I dont use pellets, but I do feed frozen brine and mysis and to give you an idea, I feed ONE cube to my 65 gallon, so you may be overfeeding on that too.

 

Thanks Falcon, I drop a cube in there and they do it up in about 3 minutes. I will do another water change..I buy pre made but sometimes the salinity is to high so i use distilled water to cut it.

 

The pre-made water may be high in nitrates also. The EPA allows 40ppm of nitrate in drinking water. If your water source uses tap water you are in trouble already. It sounds like too much feeding. Clean your filtration area often and thoroughly. Baste the rocks to bring up any loose detritus also. The foxface will out grow the tank very soon, I suggest finding it a new home. I think your tank may be over stocked with the foxface also.