Help (nitrate Levels)

[a1emma]

we have had are fish tank for approx four weeks, we have an internal filter and also a fluval 304 external filter! we left the tank for a week before we added any fish we then added a humbug,4 green chromis and three clown fish, to help mature the tank! the nitrate lvel went sky high within the week and then returned to zero and remained at this level for a further two weeks! two days ago we added a regal tang,although all the fish are eating and behaving normally. my nitrate level has increased to five i am really worried about my fish as i have read that nitrate levels are toxic! please can you advise me on what i should do thankyou loads emma

[wooddood]

first how big is your tank?what kinda substraight,give some detailed info on your setup and we will help you out.

[ste]

Firstly welcome to RS Emma
i think from the sounds of things you are stocking your tank to fast which is causing the nitrate spike if you do a water change 10 to 15% will help bring it down if you are really worried.
Wooddood is right more info would help

[a1emma]

the tank is a jewel aquarium,which holds approx 120 gallons.

[wooddood]

do you use ro/di water or tap water?

[BoomerD]

I see a couple of problems with this.
First, the internal filter & fluval will continue to make nitrate. They are good biological filters, but are also very efficient nitrate factories. 2nd, get rid of the humbug. Very agressive, nasty little buggers! 3rd, the tank is still cycling. You are subjecting your fish to a lot of chemical stress. If you can, take them back to the LFS where you got them, ask them to hold them for you for a couple of weeks. Get a piece of shrimp at the grocers, pop it in the tank and let it do the nasty work of getting the tank to cycle for you. Much easier & cheaper thatn adding/killing fish.
4th. Get rid of the internal filter/Fluval, buy a good protein skimmer. The best you can possibly afford. You don't say how big your tank is, but it sounds like you don't have any type of sump, so I'd strongly recommend one of the Remora skimmers. If less than 50 gallons, get a Sstandard Remora, if larger than 50, get the Remora Pro. Not cheap, but just about the best hang-on sikmmers on the market. You should have a sand bed, not crushed coral, (another nitrate producer) and lots of live rock. If it's too expensive in the store, (more than $4.00-5.00/lb, look for some for sale on the various boards. People are always selling off live rock for $2.00 to $4.00/lb. You should have 1 to 2 lbs. per gallon, depending on the rock & what you want to do in your tank.
Get back to us, and we'll all be glad to help you get this going in a good manner. Usually, the folks in the LFS only try to sell you stuff to make them money, whereas we will guide you to buy the things that will make your tank a healthy living place for fish & other critters.

OOPS! I see other folks have posted while I was writing. Good advice here!

[ste]

what sort of protien skimmer are you using?
do you have live rock in your tank?
i'd do a water change if levels are still high and moniter things for a few weeks before adding anything else
on a new system you have to let the filtration system catch up with the bio load of the tank to keep things stable.

[fidojoe]

I second BoomerD's advice

For a 120, you should have at least 120lb of live rock, and a remora pro, or equivalent skimmer. A sand bed is optional, but can be helpful in aiding your biological filtration. I know I'm being hippocritical with the live rock thing, but I am being careful with my system, and I have what I consider to be a somewhat light bioload, and I do plan on adding more.

[a1emma]

Firstly i am using tap water in my tank,i have no live coral and i dont have a protein skimmer!
when doing a partial water change what is the best way to go about it...

[ste]

aahh tap water is your no1 source of nitrate unless you are very lucky test your tap water for nitrates you would be surprised mine was off the scale, i use ro filter to make my water if you don't want to buy one most LFS sell ro water by the gallon for a couple of pounds. water changes are made by having say a five gallon bucket fill with purified water add a heater till the same temp as your tank mix in salt to the same sg as your tank let it aerate for 24h then remove five gallon from tank by syphon and add fresh HTH

[ste]

also i'd add a skimmer to your tank asap it will remove waste before it has chance to breakdown in your tank

[wooddood]

i agree on the tap water,i tried using tap water when i first started out but soon began having problems.you should really invest in a ro/di unit.mine is a 75gal per day unit and works very well for me and i have a 120gal tank also.are you using a sand bottom in the tank?

If you are not keeping corals or sensitive inverts I wouldn't worry too much about your level of nitrates. Some fishes are particularly sensitive to nitrates but none of the fishes you've mentioned fall in this group. In fact, the more sensitive fishes are more likely to die from other problems if you don't have a lot of experience with them (or with marine tanks in particular).

Everybody's advice is good but it is particularly centred on a reef-type aquarium. If yours is a fish-only tank, keep up with regular water changes and everything should be fine. A protein skimmer would be nice to have but isn't a necessity. What is your nitrate level? If it is less than 30, you are fine and it will drop after the initial shock of adding so many fishes so fast.

Just a note: unless you are adding multiples of a species that need to be added at the same time (e.g.: 2+ perculas, anthias, etc.) you should be adding the fishes one or two at a time with spans of 3-4 weeks between. This helps your biological filter (ie: the bacteria living in the substrate) handle the load better.

I will repeat a few things that others have said. To reduce nitrate you should:
1) Remove all sand/gravel/substrate from the tank OR use a very deep sand bed of 4-6 inches.
2) Clean the filters out every two days minimally (yes, every two days) to stop accumulation of debris that causes nitrate OR remove all mechanical filters and stock the tank with 120 lbs of live rock.
3) Reduce the amount of food you add to the tank. Add it in very small amounts and keep adding as the fishes eat it. When they stop eating, stop feeding. Also remember that more feedings means more feces which also causes nitrates.
4) Provide LOTS of water flow around the tank and don't stack decorations or things that trap debris.
5) Remove some of your fishes.

Ultimately though, a fish only tank doesn't worry about nitrate. Many people don't even test for it. I never did.

Can you give a few more details of your tank? We would like to know your pH, nitrite, ammonia, alkalinity. We would like to know your skimmer, substrate, decorations, lighting + photoperiod, feeding schedule. Some of these things might seem trivial but they are very important for finding the cause of your nitrate problem (if there is one). For example, if your nitrite is high, that explains the nitrate so the focus should be on stopping nitrite instead. If your lighting is inadequate, your nitrate WILL be a problem when the algal growths start taking over. I find fish-only tanks are harder to cure of bad algal breakouts.

[cheeks69]

If you don't have an ro/di unit you must add a dechlorinator deaminator which will remove chlorine and detoxify ammonia you'll find it in any petstore. I would definitely get at least an ro unit ASAP. When you do a water change it's good let it mix using PH for at least a few hours and make sure the salinity and the temperature matches the tank. Do you have any Live Rock ?

[cheeks69]

it's seems like were all typing at the same time