How should I lower my Nitrate levels ?

[pinky]

Hello all this is my first post. About a month ago I set up a 12 gallon jebo tank for my daughter. The tank has live sand and live rock in it. Along with 1 purple psuedo fish.
4 snails, and two hermit crabs and a recordia coral. I do weekly water changes of about 1.5 gallons. My p.h. is 8.3 my ammonia is 0.25, nitrites 0 ppm, nitrates 40 ppm. How can I go about lowering the nitrate level. Any help would be appriciated.

[tankgirl2]

Hi Pinky,
You still have ammonia, so the cycle isn't over with.

For the nitrates, bigger water changes and feeding less are the answers. I'm guessing you're feeding too much because you're already doing 10% water changes. Try 20% per week and don't feed more than the fish can completely consume in about 20 seconds.

Since the tank is still cycling, there probably isn't much detritus build-up on the sand yet - but for downline, you'll want to try to siphon the detritus out when you do the water changes. Just hold the siphon hose slightly above the sand and it should draw in detritus on the surface without sucking up the sand.

[Loverotties]

I would first get the ammonia down to zero,then it goes to nitrite then to nitrates.Then you can get it down with water changes and chemically in a canister or filter/bag.

[tabwyo]

Try 25% water changes every other day with good RO/DI water. You might even toss in a little StressZyme it will help supliment your benificial bacteria. Reduce your feeding as well. you want your fish hungry but not starved. If you feed just enough they will look for all available food in the system over the whole day keepin the tank cleaned up in so far as the food is concerned.

[tabwyo]

Loverotties
From my Exp high NO2 along with high NH3 is the sign of an on going problem which can both be addressed with water changes. In all reality you really don't remove much benificial bacteria with water changes unless you scrub the rock and stir up the sand bed. The system obiously doesn't have enough bacteria to cope with the current situation so removing the issue before it forces the system to adjust is ok for now. Just to reduce the high levels. But PINKY you will have to expect some elevated test results for a while until the system settles in and runs good. Moderation is the key. Oh, if you do massive water changes please ensure the change water matches the PH, SG and TEMP of the tank water as closely as possible. A 100% water change in 8 days can play hell if your paramiters are all over the map.

[dme330i]

Throw a bag of Purigen in the filter.