My nitrates will not go down.

[Aidanwolf]

I have a 29 gallon corallife biocube and my nitrates will not got down, I have done water changes, vaccumed the sand, changed the filter out, put in the biocube skimmer,wich I know isn't the best but better than nothing and started carbon dosing with vodka.

 

[buckroe07]

Give this a try and watch it go down!

 

[Aidanwolf]

Okay I will look it up.

 

[Masomaniac]

How big and how many water changes?

 

[Aidanwolf]

It is a coral life biocube 29 gallon, I do a water change every other day so I dont take out all of the beneficial bacteria.

 

[Aidanwolf]

And the water changes are about a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[mcarroll]

How much are you feeding the tank?

How many fish? (What kind?)

How many corals? (What kind?)

You live rock and sand should be denitrifying NO3 to nitrogen gas all the time, so if you're seeing NO3 accumulate in the water, it's because you're adding food faster than the tank can handle it.

 

[Aidanwolf]

No fish or coral just 3 small hermit crabs that eat the alage. I took put the one damsel that I had in there and put it into a different tank.

 

[Johniejumbo]

Have you tested the new water before you add it to the tank? thats an awful lot of water changes to still have high nitrates

 

[mcarroll]

So you are not feeding the tank?

 

[Aidanwolf]

Yes the nitrates are zero in my tap i am baffled by this also.

 

[Aidanwolf]

No i am not feeding anything.

 

[mcarroll]

How old is the tank? Are you sure the biofilter has actually cycled?

You shouldn't be carbon doing or skimming a new tank.....and you shouldn't have a nitrate issue.

 

[Aidanwolf]

It is about 3 years old.

 

[Aidanwolf]

The tank has been running for about three years.

 

[mcarroll]

No fish or corals in a 3 year old tank??

 

[Aidanwolf]

I have had fish in it before but i use to go out of town alot so i never wanted to much.

 

[nl5882]

What test kit are you using, and did you make sure it's not out of date?

 

[Aidanwolf]

I have the api liquid master kit and it says it doesn't expire till 2019.

 

[cmcoker]

Do you siphon out the back chambers?