water parameters

[joselastra]

ive had my tank set up for a little over 3 months, it is a 55g that was set up w/ about 80 lbs live rock, of which half of it was already set up in a reef for two years prior to my tank. right now i have a cleaner, a coral banded and a mandarin as well as 3 feather dusters i also have a green mush. ric. inside the rock i obtained from my buddy were 2 brittle stars some hermits and snails, as well as a porcelin crab. my question is, my nitrates have been consistently at 20. while my nitrites and ammonia have been 0 for the past 2 months. everyone seems to be doing very well, the coral shrimp has even been more active since i introduced the cleaner shrimp!!!. i did however recenlty lose 1(maybe 2, NEED TO DOUBLE CHECK) feather dusters. the worm came out of its case and died right next to it.( i checked for movement, nothing) does this have something to do with the nitrate level? i have a wet/dry system. thanks.

[DrHank]

Yes, feather dusters will not tolerate nitrate. Your wet/dry filter is the most efficient nitrate producer that money can buy. I would highly recommend thet you remove the other 2 dusters and see if you can trade them otherwise it's probably just a matter of time before you loose them too. Being filter feeders, they often starve to death in the tank if not properly fed.

If you have any intentions of adding corals in the future, you need to get nitrates to zero. With the amount of live rock that you have, you probably have an effective biological filter without the wet/dry. If that is the case, I would recommend adding the best skimmer you can (look at ASM G2 or Octopus NW-110) and gradually removing the bio media.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[vdituri]

You just can't argue with a doctor. lol

I've read somewhere before that feather dusters have a poor survival rate in the home aquarium. We apparently don't know really what they need to survive. You are not the first person to post this situation.
The book I'm reading right now list nitrates up to 40 ppm being o.k., but I think that aquarium residents would argue differently.
Water changes are the only silver bullet on removing those.
Good luck. I hope it turns out well.

[prow]

nitrates come from food and waste. your level of nitrates is more likely due to waste from your rock being only 2 months. are you getting lots of stuff on the sand and top of your rock? many creatures and things that were living in the rock died before you got it and new creatures are moving in, pushing out the dead stuff and basically cleanning house in the rock. deap down in the rock anaerobic bacteria are growing but do grow slowly and because of the proximity of aerobic bac(which grows fast) on the surface of the rock, your NH4 and NO3 is being converted to NO2 quickly, so even though you do not detect NH4 in the water colum the dusters are getting exposed to it on the surface of the rock. your abaerobic bac is still extablishing, this will take some time to balance the anaerobic and aerobic zones. untill there is a need for the anaerobic bac to steal their energy source your nitrates will stay elevated. the bioballs are not helping this, infact they are creating a even greater imbalance and this will end up prolonging the time it takes for your tank to balance things out on the bacterial battle grounds. no need for the bio balls, IMO, i would remove them. once you see some algae growing on the rocks and glass the dusters should fare much better. sounds to me like your rock was not fully cured. duster will "decrown" if they are bothered by something like NH4, i think this might be your issue. best thing is either increaseing your water changes, adding good carbon, phosban or similar, good skimming and water flow, grow some macroalgae or what i would do is cure the rock in the tank in the dark, a quick search should come with a lot of ways to do it.

usually over feeding issues you can detect nitrites also, curing rock you might not beable to detect any nitrites or ammonia.

or it could be just a PH was blowing it in a way it did not like, my dusters get blasted but with surging type flow, constant direct flow from PH's will cause them to "decrown"

[joselastra]

all the rock was definately cured. the half that was from my friend had been cured for over 2 years, the rest of the rock i cured for a month before anything went in. the feather duster arent on any of the rock, rather on the sandbed. i do have plenty of algae, all over. glass, rocks none on the sand however.

[joselastra]

one more question....if nitrAtes produce nitrIes, how is it that my trItes are still 0 after three plus months

[prow]

no, under normal conditions ammonia gets converted to nitrites then those nitrites get converted to nitrates. this proccess can be reversed but the first part of the nitrogen cycle is NH4 to NO3 to NO2.

if on the sand, how long has the sandbed been going? the sandbed needs for lack of a better word "curing" too, like LR. also it might have been bothered by the sand itself, blowing around irritating it. were these new dusters or have you had them for a little while?

Originally Posted by joselastra

i do have plenty of algae, all over. glass, rocks none on the sand however.

do you have a pic or konw what type algae it is? many bacterias grow much like algaes? what color and texture is it if you can not get a pic? i only ask because the type growing could indicate other issues. like increase diatoms(a bac) could indicate excessive silicates. lots of hair algae could indicate high phosphate levels? cyanobacteria (red slimey) could be from too low water flow or other things. your tank is new so blooms of various bacterias and algeas will occur. but you can help the tank out with this or that if you know what you dealing with. have you checked out the ph about a hour after lights out then again a couple hours before lights on? what is the reading of each? what else are you testing and with what?

[joselastra]

unable to get pics now, will try in a bit. ph has been connsistently between 8.24-8.37. no i do not know what algae it is, although from your description i pretty much have a combo of all. i belive that i DO NOT have an algae problem, but i d o have some of all the algae you described.

[prow]

a pic would be good for sure. one other thing what did you start this tank with and/or using for top off water, RO/DI water or tap water? if you could list your system, the more info the better. temp and salinity all that stuff, anything your dosing with, salt you use, ect...the duster might have died just because, i would not worry to much about that, but the nitrate issue yeah.

[joselastra]

salt: tropic marinwater:tap water left sitting
currently not dosing
will show pics in next reply

[lcstorc]

Have you tested your tap water. It is often high in nitrates or phosphates as well as other icky things. It is highly recommended that you use RO or better yet RO/DI water for all aquarium uses unless you are one of the few that actually has clean tap water.
The tap water and the bio-balls are likely the cause of the nitrates. If you remove the bio-balls (which I also recommend) be sure to do it slowly to allow the bacteria in the rock to take over the part of the cycle that the bio-balls were preforming. Generally they are removed a handful or two each water change.
Do you have a skimmer on the system? If not you should get one and get a good one. If you have a sump I would highly recommend the ASM G series of skimmer. If not the Aqua C Remora is a great hang on skimmer.

[prow]

everyone has opinions on salk but tropic marin is fine, dont think you have a issue there.

tap water, this is more than likely the source of the cause on the trates. if you live or are using city provided water it most likely contains chlorines. your LFS should have some dip sitcks to test for any. if you detect any might be best to start over, sucks i know but chloine will kill everything.

not dosing, humm. no buffer no nothing, wierd without dosing your ph stays were it is. when you gave the ph reanges was that during the same time of day for each reading, or was one in the AM and one in the PM?

lastly what lcstorc said

[Scooterman]

Like mentioned, I would give a long testing session of your tap water, test TDS also if it wasn't mentioned. Not that having dusters are necessary but having good quality water helps in many ways along with helping of the reduction of unwanted algae.