High NitrAtes -- How come ?

F

fulinn

Member
Hi,

Well my 75 gal tank has been up and running now for about a month now.

My Ammonia =0 , NitrItes = 0 however the NitrAtes = 30.

I have done two 50% water changes and two 10 % water changes.
The new saltwater is at the same temp, SG and ph and test out as 0 NitrAtes.

I add it to the tank, wait about 12-24 hours and do my water tests on the NitrAtes and its still at 30 or so.

What is making the NitrAtes stay at such high levels even though I'm doing the water changes ?

I have no livestock, just some live rock and non-live sand.

Thanks

onnie
 
BoomerD

BoomerD

Well-Known Member
The HOB filter would be my first guess as to a cause of the nitrates. Almost any filter that develops a biological filter will cause nitrates...(live rock being the main exception that comes to mind...IMO, you'll need another 35 to 75 lbs of rock fo build a sufficient nitrifying filter for your tank.
Next question is what is your water source? Tap water? RO water? RO/DI? All too often, people use tap water to get started, and their tap water is high in nitrates...they keep adding them in every water change... OOPS, I see you say you have 0 nitrates in your mixed saltwater...Maybe not the source water then, but still worth investigating...
High nitrates are fairly normal in a newly set-up tank anyway, as things cycle, (there are many more than the intial cycle) ...different algae cycles, diatom cycle, etc....
 
F

fulinn

Member
Thank you for the quick reply.

The HOT filter is simply being used to "move water" their is no filter installed on it at the moment. However this filter has a "BIOLOGICAL
External Bio-Falls wet/dry biological booster for additional ammonia and nitrite removal." permentaly installed. Could this be causing my problem, do you think?

My water is DI filtered from day one. I don't believe its my water as I test it prior to adding to my tank and it measures 0 for NitrItes and NitrAtes.

Bonnie
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
Bio-balls are known as nitrate factories so that may be the problem. I know when I removed them from my system at the suggestion of Woodstock and several others it dropped the nitrates rather quickly. I did see a bit of a cycle even though I removed mine in stages, but I also had my tank stocked at the time. Apparently they are good at moving the cycle from amonia to nitrite and then to nitrate, but do not remove the nitrates from the system.

Karma for being patient and not stocking the tank until it is ready.

Peace
Lynn
 
F

fulinn

Member
Thank you for your help.

I have removed the filter from the tank. It's all or nothing with this filter since its "built in". I will prep another round of water changes tomorrow and check the condition of the water Monday.

I had a feeling it was this filter, it was the only logical culpirt, but being new wanted to see if there was something I might have missed.

Thanks again,

Bonnie
 
F

fulinn

Member
The system went "on line" if you will in mid April. I guess you could be correct that it could be part of the cycle but I don't think so.

Since removing the filter and doing a smallish water change, the nitrAtes have come down. I did a water change this morning and will do another one thurs evening and I think I'll be in good shape.

I appreciate all of the help and advise I've recieve with any of the postings I done.

Bonnie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top