Returned to Super High Nitrates

[Zakary2003]

Here are the important bits:
Nitrate are between 40 and 80ppm after a two week trip away from my tank. I have done a 10% water change and am planning to do another one daily until it is back to normal. What can I do to fix the issue right now, and what are some suggestions for future trips?

Here is the whole story: I have a waterbox 20 cube mixed reef with a pair of clownfish. I've tried to keep a low maintenence/highly automatic tank because I'm forced to leave for a week or two at a time and my pet sitter only feeds the fish. This includes an ATO, automatic filter fleece roller from ReefnRoll, all for reef and sometimes kalkwasser dosing, wifi enabled lights and powerheads, and remote temperature and salinity monitoring. After my most recent trip, I returned to some dead sps including my two montipora caps (one of which was a green and red grafted one from TSA), a pavona, a stylopora and also a very small unnamed zoa colony. This was because the nitrates spiked very high (between 40 and 80ppm, I only have an API kit for high range nitrates) while I was gone seemingly because I missed two water changes. Strangly enough my montipora digita and chalice coral survived with only some color loss and receded tissue despite being more sensitive on paper. My rasta zoas, bubble tip anemone, clove polyps, candycane coral, gsp and fish/inverts are fine and there is a tiny bit of tissue left on the pavona, but I did lose about half my corals. I'm doing a 10% water change every day until it is back to normal. What else do I need to do to recover?

I set up an auto feeder before I left so the pet sitter couldn't have overfed them this time, because I thought they did last time when I returned to high nitrates. What can I do to prevent these spikes when I'm gone in the future? I've tried a chamber 2 refugium but the algae slowly shrunk and just never took off despite the abundance of nitrates and theoretically decent lighting. Should I run media to remove the nitrates while I'm gone? I love my little desktop tank and I hate to come back to so many casualties. It's honestly making me reconsider trying the whole reefkeeping thing while in my current situation.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Here are the important bits:
Nitrate are between 40 and 80ppm after a two week trip away from my tank. I have done a 10% water change and am planning to do another one daily until it is back to normal. What can I do to fix the issue right now, and what are some suggestions for future trips?

Here is the whole story: I have a waterbox 20 cube mixed reef with a pair of clownfish. I've tried to keep a low maintenence/highly automatic tank because I'm forced to leave for a week or two at a time and my pet sitter only feeds the fish. This includes an ATO, automatic filter fleece roller from ReefnRoll, all for reef and sometimes kalkwasser dosing, wifi enabled lights and powerheads, and remote temperature and salinity monitoring. After my most recent trip, I returned to some dead sps including my two montipora caps (one of which was a green and red grafted one from TSA), a pavona, a stylopora and also a very small unnamed zoa colony. This was because the nitrates spiked very high (between 40 and 80ppm, I only have an API kit for high range nitrates) while I was gone seemingly because I missed two water changes. Strangly enough my montipora digita and chalice coral survived with only some color loss and receded tissue despite being more sensitive on paper. My rasta zoas, bubble tip anemone, clove polyps, candycane coral, gsp and fish/inverts are fine and there is a tiny bit of tissue left on the pavona, but I did lose about half my corals. I'm doing a 10% water change every day until it is back to normal. What else do I need to do to recover?

I set up an auto feeder before I left so the pet sitter couldn't have overfed them this time, because I thought they did last time when I returned to high nitrates. What can I do to prevent these spikes when I'm gone in the future? I've tried a chamber 2 refugium but the algae slowly shrunk and just never took off despite the abundance of nitrates and theoretically decent lighting. Should I run media to remove the nitrates while I'm gone? I love my little desktop tank and I hate to come back to so many casualties. It's honestly making me reconsider trying the whole reefkeeping thing while in my current situation.

Chances are filters and auto feeder play a role. auto feeder can disburse food and raise po4 and no3 and filters after 2 weeks due for change.
Clean filters and do a 20% water change and follow with 2gal water changes for 10 days and you should be in safe range

 

[Zakary2003]

Chances are filters and auto feeder play a role. auto feeder can disburse food and raise po4 and no3 and filters after 2 weeks due for change.
Clean filters and do a 20% water change and follow with 2gal water changes for 10 days and you should be in safe range

What about preventing this when I leave for future trips?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Here are the important bits:
Nitrate are between 40 and 80ppm after a two week trip away from my tank. I have done a 10% water change and am planning to do another one daily until it is back to normal. What can I do to fix the issue right now, and what are some suggestions for future trips?

Here is the whole story: I have a waterbox 20 cube mixed reef with a pair of clownfish. I've tried to keep a low maintenence/highly automatic tank because I'm forced to leave for a week or two at a time and my pet sitter only feeds the fish. This includes an ATO, automatic filter fleece roller from ReefnRoll, all for reef and sometimes kalkwasser dosing, wifi enabled lights and powerheads, and remote temperature and salinity monitoring. After my most recent trip, I returned to some dead sps including my two montipora caps (one of which was a green and red grafted one from TSA), a pavona, a stylopora and also a very small unnamed zoa colony. This was because the nitrates spiked very high (between 40 and 80ppm, I only have an API kit for high range nitrates) while I was gone seemingly because I missed two water changes. Strangly enough my montipora digita and chalice coral survived with only some color loss and receded tissue despite being more sensitive on paper. My rasta zoas, bubble tip anemone, clove polyps, candycane coral, gsp and fish/inverts are fine and there is a tiny bit of tissue left on the pavona, but I did lose about half my corals. I'm doing a 10% water change every day until it is back to normal. What else do I need to do to recover?

I set up an auto feeder before I left so the pet sitter couldn't have overfed them this time, because I thought they did last time when I returned to high nitrates. What can I do to prevent these spikes when I'm gone in the future? I've tried a chamber 2 refugium but the algae slowly shrunk and just never took off despite the abundance of nitrates and theoretically decent lighting. Should I run media to remove the nitrates while I'm gone? I love my little desktop tank and I hate to come back to so many casualties. It's honestly making me reconsider trying the whole reefkeeping thing while in my current situation.

I blame the tank sitter.

If you configure an autofeeder to only feed a tiny amount once/twice a day you should be okay.
You should set it up so you are using it all the time, not just when away so you can stabilise the tank.

Together with some gentle carbon dosing you should be able to have stable nitrates.

For background, I regularly travel overseas for 4-6 weeks and do that with only 2 weeks at home between trips. While I'm away, the tank is fully unattended, NOBODY visits or feeds anything.

So, It is possible, but it is important to run the tank as if you are never home with the automation running the tank even when you are around.

When I returned from my last trip 2 weeks ago the Nitrates were stable at 5 ppm and Phosphate was 0.05.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What about preventing this when I leave for future trips?

Limit the amount auto feeder drops
I reduce my feed amount when gone as a little food is better than no food at all
If you have a sitter- have them feed manually opposed to utilizing auto feeding

 

[gbroadbridge]

If you have a sitter- have them feed manually opposed to utilizing auto feeding

I've never met a tank sitter who doesn't overfeed the cute widdle fishies

Unless they're an LFS who you're paying, in which case they will simply feed a pinch twice a week.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've never met a tank sitter who doesn't overfeed the cute widdle fishies

Unless they're an LFS who you're paying, in which case they will simply feed a pinch twice a week.

In many cases true
I have same person for last 8 years but is also a very experienced hobbyist
One recourse is to pre-
Portion small containers with food which I did in prior years

 

[Absolutekind]

Having that high of Nitrates won’t hurt most fish. It’s also not going to kill coral that quickly. It’s the bottoming out of nitrates that will coral fastest. Are you keeping alk, calc, and mag. in check? The daily 10% water changes can affect those pretty dramatically.

I agree with the other folks, over feeding is a common cause for to people have to high nitrates and phosphates. Feeding is the first thing I would modify and see if it gets better.

You could also consider setting up automatic water changes with small, daily changes. There are cheap(er) options outside of the Apex.

 

[KrisReef]

I have a waterbox 20 cube mixed reef with a pair of clownfish.

Sorry, the dreaded double post.

But since I messed up, I will blame it all on the clownfish.

My female has single finnededly killed more frags and coral than I can count. She moves stuff around, dumping frags and lately a tongue coral that she flipped, many clams and whatever else she wants to destroy she has killed by molesting and dumping frags into a graveyard behind a rock pile that I can’t access.

If your parameters are all good then I would blame it on the clownfish. I’m thinking about getting rid of them but it is difficult to flush a pair of fish that have been terrorizing my tank for 10or so years. I think I might be suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something similar?

What else would cause me to make a dreadful double post on a Saturday night after hanging with the band at the club and only drinking soda because I am on-call again this weekend?

 

[KrisReef]

Here are the important bits:
Nitrate are between 40 and 80ppm after a two week trip away from my tank. I have done a 10% water change and am planning to do another one daily until it is back to normal. What can I do to fix the issue right now, and what are some suggestions for future trips?

Here is the whole story: I have a waterbox 20 cube mixed reef with a pair of clownfish. I've tried to keep a low maintenence/highly automatic tank because I'm forced to leave for a week or two at a time and my pet sitter only feeds the fish. This includes an ATO, automatic filter fleece roller from ReefnRoll, all for reef and sometimes kalkwasser dosing, wifi enabled lights and powerheads, and remote temperature and salinity monitoring. After my most recent trip, I returned to some dead sps including my two montipora caps (one of which was a green and red grafted one from TSA), a pavona, a stylopora and also a very small unnamed zoa colony. This was because the nitrates spiked very high (between 40 and 80ppm, I only have an API kit for high range nitrates) while I was gone seemingly because I missed two water changes. Strangly enough my montipora digita and chalice coral survived with only some color loss and receded tissue despite being more sensitive on paper. My rasta zoas, bubble tip anemone, clove polyps, candycane coral, gsp and fish/inverts are fine and there is a tiny bit of tissue left on the pavona, but I did lose about half my corals. I'm doing a 10% water change every day until it is back to normal. What else do I need to do to recover?

I set up an auto feeder before I left so the pet sitter couldn't have overfed them this time, because I thought they did last time when I returned to high nitrates. What can I do to prevent these spikes when I'm gone in the future? I've tried a chamber 2 refugium but the algae slowly shrunk and just never took off despite the abundance of nitrates and theoretically decent lighting. Should I run media to remove the nitrates while I'm gone? I love my little desktop tank and I hate to come back to so many casualties. It's honestly making me reconsider trying the whole reefkeeping thing while in my current situation.

What about the other parameters, alk, Ca, Mg are very important minerals and work in concert with NO3 and Phosphorus as key components for a healthy coral community. Having NO3 becoming elevated, by itself might be expected to cause the coral to turn green or brown but death is kind of extreme response unless something else is happening to stress out the coral?

Temperature could also be a factor. My wife went to Florida for a few weeks and I was able to sleep comfortably without the A/C blowing cold air all night.

 

[Zakary2003]

What about the other parameters, alk, Ca, Mg are very important minerals and work in concert with NO3 and Phosphorus as key components for a healthy coral community. Having NO3 becoming elevated, by itself might be expected to cause the coral to turn green or brown but death is kind of extreme response unless something else is happening to stress out the coral?

Temperature could also be a factor. My wife went to Florida for a few weeks and I was able to sleep comfortably without the A/C blowing cold air all night.

I lost my magnesium tester but alk is 9dkh and calcium is 420ppm. pH is higher than when I left probably due to no CO2 all day, it was 7.9 now it is 8.3 but higher pH is a good thing right? I only have an API kit for phosphates but they didn't register on the test. Temperature was between 77 and 79 the whole time I was gone. Is it possible that the death of the small zoa colony happened first and palytoxins killed the other corals?

 

[Zakary2003]

Sorry, the dreaded double post.

But since I messed up, I will blame it all on the clownfish.

My female has single finnededly killed more frags and coral than I can count. She moves stuff around, dumping frags and lately a tongue coral that she flipped, many clams and whatever else she wants to destroy she has killed by molesting and dumping frags into a graveyard behind a rock pile that I can’t access.

If your parameters are all good then I would blame it on the clownfish. I’m thinking about getting rid of them but it is difficult to flush a pair of fish that have been terrorizing my tank for 10or so years. I think I might be suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something similar?

What else would cause me to make a dreadful double post on a Saturday night after hanging with the band at the club and only drinking soda because I am on-call again this weekend?

My clowns don't mess with most of the corals that died. They sometimes mess with the stylopora or zoas, but never the pavona or montis. If any tank inhabitant caused this, it's probably my big ol' clumsy red mythrax crab. He's always trampling my corals but he never seemed to cause any stress before.

 

[Zakary2003]

Having that high of Nitrates won’t hurt most fish. It’s also not going to kill coral that quickly. It’s the bottoming out of nitrates that will coral fastest. Are you keeping alk, calc, and mag. in check? The daily 10% water changes can affect those pretty dramatically.

I agree with the other folks, over feeding is a common cause for to people have to high nitrates and phosphates. Feeding is the first thing I would modify and see if it gets better.

You could also consider setting up automatic water changes with small, daily changes. There are cheap(er) options outside of the Apex.

Space is kind of a limiting factor for an auto water change. All the equipment has to fit behind or under my desk and I already have a 3 gallon ATO reservoir under the desk and tons of stuff behind it. I can shop around for compact options though.

 

[hexcolor reef]

Double down on filtration

 

[Zakary2003]

Double down on filtration

Any suggestions for that? I already have carbon, ceramic media, and a fleece roller. I could maybe try a skimmer but I don't even know where one would fit or how effective one that small would be.

 

[Zakary2003]

Together with some gentle carbon dosing you should be able to have stable ninitrates.

I don't have a skimmer. Can you do carbon dosing without one?

 

[hexcolor reef]

I don't have a skimmer. Can you do carbon dosing without one?

Any suggestions for that? I already have carbon, ceramic media, and a fleece roller. I could maybe try a skimmer but I don't even know where one would fit or how effective one that small would be.

I use specific filtration socks that removes nitrates and phosphates from water. As well as organic matter.

 

[JayM]

I don’t know about yours, but my auto-feeder drops very inconsistent amounts of food while using flakes straight out of the container. I either need to use pellets, or break the flakes down into a more consistent size to make sure it drops the correct amount.

 

[Zakary2003]

I don’t know about yours, but my auto-feeder drops very inconsistent amounts of food while using flakes straight out of the container. I either need to use pellets, or break the flakes down into a more consistent size to make sure it drops the correct amount.

Mine does too, but I use pellets and the variation isn't enough to be worried about.