Newbie, confused about nitrates

[Fishinwall]

I've really been taking my time, trying to get my tank off to a good start.
I have a 65 gal tall with a 29 gal sump. I've been running my skimmer to during the cycle.

I first started out back in August by adding a piece of frozen cod... And later some fish food, but nothing was happening.... So near the end of Sept I started dosing Ammonia.

I got the ammonia up to 4 ppm and it would stay high for days then begin to drop, so I'd dose it back up to 4 ppm. I kept doing this until the ammonia would drop down to about 1.

At first nothing was happening with Nitrites or nitrates, so I kept dosing ammonia up to 4ppm.
On Oct 6, nitrites started to read 5 ppm and Nitrates were also at 5. So I kept dosing ammonia up to 4.

On Oct 14 ammonia started to drop to 1 within 24 hrs..... Nitrites were rising and so were nitrates... So I kept dosing.

On Oct 16 ammonia would drop from 4 to 1 or less in about 8 hours. Nitrites dropped to zero and nitrates were starting to go through the roof. 80 ppm

Oct 17 I did a 10% water change.

On Oct 18 it looked like Nitrates were even higher, like 180.

So I did another 10% water change. Nitrates dropped to 40. I added a bag of Chemipure Elite. I also got two emerald crabs and put them in the display tank. I of course stopped dosing ammonia.

Today, Oct 25, I did another 10% water change! expecting nitrates to drop more! but to my surprise Nitrates were high again... At least 80 ppm.

I don't understand it.

A little more about my tank. It has about 100 lbs of dry rock, about 30 live sand and the rest dry sand. And 2 lbs of live rock in the sump. Pods seem to be enjoying it. After adding the crabs I started to turn the lights on in the main display. Now brown algae is growing on the rocks and sand.

What do I need to do before adding fish and corals? How do I get the Nitrates down?

Thanks

 

[Fishinwall]

I use RO/DI water.

 

[Dragonreef202]

I would turn off skimmer. With the algae bloom seems your tank could still be cycling. Just keep up with your water changes. Thats how i have dealt with nitrates. Your tank has to have time to acclimate.

 

[Fishinwall]

I would turn off skimmer. With the algae bloom seems your tank could still be cycling. Just keep up with your water changes. Thats how i have dealt with nitrates. Your tank has to have time to acclimate.

Ok, why turn off skimmer?

 

[Fishinwall]

I think the algae is only showing up because the lights are on, no?

 

[Wags]

Brown algae is diatoms it is a sigh your cycle is coming to an end, they will die off within a week or two.

 

[Fishinwall]

Brown algae is diatoms it is a sigh your cycle is coming to an end, they will die off within a week or two.

Great!

 

[Dragonreef202]

I just didn't cycle my tank with the skimmer on until after the cycle. Not to say it's right or wrong. I just used live rock and water changes

 

[Lazys Coral House]

If Nitrates are 100 and you do a 10% water change nitrates will only drop to 90. Do a large 100% water change and be done with it. No worries on bacteria as 99.9% of your bacteria is on/in your rock.

 

[Fishinwall]

If Nitrates are 100 and you do a 10% water change nitrates will only drop to 90. Do a large 100% water change and be done with it. No worries on bacteria as 99.9% of your bacteria is on/in your rock.

I understand. I really don't have a way to hold and create a large batch of water, but I'll give it some thought. I guess I just don't understand why it would go back up when I don't have anything in the tank but two crabs.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

When you have nitrates that get really high.....180. Your rock absorbs some and it can be released back into the water at a later time.

 

[leptang]

Try dosing vodka or vinegar, they contain carbon and carbon is a food source for bacteria that also consume nitrate. Try to only dose about 1 ml or less of vodka or vinegar and watch the amazing results of nitrate reduction.

 

[Fishinwall]

Try dosing vodka or vinegar, they contain carbon and carbon is a food source for bacteria that also consume nitrate. Try to only dose about 1 ml or less of vodka or vinegar and watch the amazing results of nitrate reduction.

Can you direct me to a surefire way to dose vinegar?

What are the pros-cons?

 

[leptang]

You can dose vinegar in two ways i know of, one way you can add it directly into your water but it will lower the ph of the water, never lower or raise the ph more then 0.20 at a time. Second way, you can mix it with kalkwasser aka pickling lime mix up 15ml of vinegar to one table spoon of kalk and fully disolve the kalk in vinegar then add it to one gallon of RODI water and shake it up and allow the kalk to sink to the bottom of the of the container leaving a clear solution (lime water) to be dripped in slowly to replace evaporated water. This way will raise the ph calcium and alkalinity, but it contains carbon a food source for bacteria.

 

[leptang]

Reefkeeping Magazine - Vinegar Dosing Methodology for the Marine Aquarium

 

[captainsaquarium]

You can dose vinegar in two ways i know of, one way you can add it directly into your water but it will lower the ph of the water, never lower or raise the ph more then 0.20 at a time. Second way, you can mix it with kalkwasser aka pickling lime mix up 15ml of vinegar to one table spoon of kalk and fully disolve the kalk in vinegar then add it to one gallon of RODI water and shake it up and allow the kalk to sink to the bottom of the of the container leaving a clear solution (lime water) to be dripped in slowly to replace evaporated water. This way will raise the ph calcium and alkalinity, but it contains carbon a food source for bacteria.

Exactly

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As folks have mentioned, small water changes won't do much for nitrate.

Also, I wouldn't try to interpret changes in nitrate of a factor of 2 or less, since the kit is not likely especially accurate or even easy to distinguish between 40 and 80 or 80 and 160 ppm.

Just treat those as high nitrate.

Also, when you have elevated nitrite (say, 1-5 ppm), that can show up falsely as a lot of nitrate with some kits. So on October 15, for example, that day with 5 ppm nitrite and 80 ppm nitrate, might really have been a lot less than 80 ppm nitrate.

Many people do a big water change after the cycle to remove the accumulated nitrate, but organic carbon dosing is also a fine plan.

I use many methods for nutrient reduction in my aquarium, including skimming, organic carbon dosing (vinegar), growing macroalgae, GAC, and a lot of live rock in several large refugia.

 

[Fishinwall]

Thanks everyone. What is GAC? Granular activated carbon?

 

[Fishinwall]

Randy do you have a tank thread?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, granular activated carbon.

Tank thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...es-farley/172508-randys-tank-description.html