Hello all,
I need some help with a nitrate problem I have. So here is the story. Last week I found out I had a marine velvet in my tank. So Sunday the 14th, I ripped my tank apart to remove the fish and put them into a QT that I just set-up (in future I will use this for new fish so I don't have to go through this again). Anyways, I checked all my levels and noticed my nitrates were super high (which I admit is my fault as I had not been doing routine water changes, life was busy it kept getting put off, again won't make that mistake again). So but I didn't want to shock my corals too much. I did a 20% water change that day. Two days later did anther 10%, two days later did another 10%. So within 6 days I did a 40% water change. My nitrate levels were still elevated but had come down considerably (at this point my nitrates are probably 20ppm). I didn't check the levels for about a week. Did a 10% water change yesterday. Checked my levels tonight and they are back up around 80ppm. But what I don't understand is WHY. I do not have any fish in the tank as I am dealing with the marine velvet. The only food that gets put into the tank is spot feeding of shrimp to my serpent and brittle stars as well as my LTA and a few corals. This gets down a 2-3 times a week. And phytoplankton gets added to the water about once a week if that. I do have a LOT of little snails in my tank, my snails keep having little ones, my best guess is around 200 little snails. I do not know if this is causing it. I am looking for advise on how to fix this problem and keep it fixed.
Specs about my tank that might be helpful. I have a 120 gallon mixed reef tank (currently fishless), prior to the velvet I had 8 fish in the tank biggest one was about 4-5in across. That is hooked up via an external overflow to a 23 gallon sump. I have a protein skimmer running in it. I am currently testing with an API reef test kit. I have just ordered Red Sea test kits. Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0. pH is sitting around 8-8.2. Calcium is 450, KH is 11-12.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advise.
Nelson
I need some help with a nitrate problem I have. So here is the story. Last week I found out I had a marine velvet in my tank. So Sunday the 14th, I ripped my tank apart to remove the fish and put them into a QT that I just set-up (in future I will use this for new fish so I don't have to go through this again). Anyways, I checked all my levels and noticed my nitrates were super high (which I admit is my fault as I had not been doing routine water changes, life was busy it kept getting put off, again won't make that mistake again). So but I didn't want to shock my corals too much. I did a 20% water change that day. Two days later did anther 10%, two days later did another 10%. So within 6 days I did a 40% water change. My nitrate levels were still elevated but had come down considerably (at this point my nitrates are probably 20ppm). I didn't check the levels for about a week. Did a 10% water change yesterday. Checked my levels tonight and they are back up around 80ppm. But what I don't understand is WHY. I do not have any fish in the tank as I am dealing with the marine velvet. The only food that gets put into the tank is spot feeding of shrimp to my serpent and brittle stars as well as my LTA and a few corals. This gets down a 2-3 times a week. And phytoplankton gets added to the water about once a week if that. I do have a LOT of little snails in my tank, my snails keep having little ones, my best guess is around 200 little snails. I do not know if this is causing it. I am looking for advise on how to fix this problem and keep it fixed.
Specs about my tank that might be helpful. I have a 120 gallon mixed reef tank (currently fishless), prior to the velvet I had 8 fish in the tank biggest one was about 4-5in across. That is hooked up via an external overflow to a 23 gallon sump. I have a protein skimmer running in it. I am currently testing with an API reef test kit. I have just ordered Red Sea test kits. Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0. pH is sitting around 8-8.2. Calcium is 450, KH is 11-12.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advise.
Nelson
