nitrates up

[scotccrn]

Nitrates spiked yesterday to 80, so I did a 20% water change. I tested the water this am and nitrates down to 40. Amonia and nitrites remain 0 with ph low at 7.8 and alk 2.5. Frogspawn looks stressed. Do I continue to do frequent water changes to get nitrates lower? If yes, how frequent. I think that my green star polyp is the source of the nitrates since it is not fully "blooming" (not all the heads have a polyp on it-probably 50%). The new goby also continues to dig up the DSB.

[DarthOcellaris]

Originally Posted by scotccrn

Nitrates spiked yesterday to 80, so I did a 20% water change. I tested the water this am and nitrates down to 40. Amonia and nitrites remain 0 with ph low at 7.8 and alk 2.5. Frogspawn looks stressed. Do I continue to do frequent water changes to get nitrates lower? If yes, how frequent. I think that my green star polyp is the source of the nitrates since it is not fully "blooming" (not all the heads have a polyp on it-probably 50%). The new goby also continues to dig up the DSB.

40 isn't a bad level for trates. as long as your trites are 0 and your ammonia is 0, you're fine.

Not sure what the GSP would have to do with the trates unless you are meaning he's dead and decaying.

that goby digging up the dsb is just another reason why I personally decided to go BB

[nobody]

if you can keep them at 40 you should be fine. try to work at getting it lower. skim wet, feed less, calculate stocking of tank, remove bio media if using any, and do a weekly 10-15% water change. with all of that you should be fine

[jennmac415]

40 for corals?? I though they needed it lower...my nitrates got up to 60 last year, unknowing to silly me, and I lost most of the hammer that was my first LPS.. that I got when I lived in Oregon...and a new frogspawn that never did well, because I did not know my trates were so high.

[nobody]

mine has always been around 40ppm with my tanks and never had an issue

[DarthOcellaris]

Originally Posted by jennmac415

40 for corals?? I though they needed it lower...my nitrates got up to 60 last year, unknowing to silly me, and I lost most of the hammer that was my first LPS.. that I got when I lived in Oregon...and a new frogspawn that never did well, because I did not know my trates were so high.

I thought so too until a few days ago. 40 might be pushing the envelope but from what I understand, that's really not bad.

[Loverotties]

It depends on what you keep that 40 is good.

[scotccrn]

Thanks for the advice.

[Danyen]

I had a similar spike 2 weeks ago, I think. My nitrates have been running around 20ppm, but they spiked upwards of 80-100ppm. I added chemipure, threw another powerhead in the tank to increase flow, and started doing biweekly waterchanges of around 30%. The WC are easy for me because I use filtered NSW from the LFS. My nitrates are now testing at 40ppm and 20ppm on different brand test kits. If it stays down, I'll switch back to weekly WC.

I'm also going to stop being lazy and rinse my frozen food before feeding.

[wyliecoyote]

green star polyps are closed because of the nitrates same as the frogspawn. 15 percent water change every 4 to 5 days for a couple of weeks will probably clear things up. skim, minimize feeding, doing weekly water changes, and running carbon will go a long way toward avoiding spikes in the future.

[Geoff]

why do you think that it is the nitrates? just because you can test for it and it "seems" high? Nitrates are not that toxic. besides LPS and softies tend to prefer dirty water.

IME toothed corals tended to look stress when the Ca/alk levels got imbalanced in the tank. what are your Ca/alk levels?

G~