Help me please nitrate rising

[PMorgan]

Hi all
If someone could please give some advise to make my nitrates go down instead of up
I have a 90 gallon display with 30 gallon sump
I have dragons breath in the sump and about a week ago I put an algae scrubber down there
This morning my numbers are
Calcium 405
Dkh 9.1
Phosphate .02
Nitrate 18.1
PH 8.3
salinity 35 ppt
Temp 77.5

All stays very steady except for nitrate is raises a couple points every few days

I dose Randy’s recipe 1 part a and b on auto dosing running 24/7 I have a skimmer it looks like tea I have a roller mat the sump is very clean not a lot of detritus in there
Was doing vinegar as well but turned that off since I have cyano I do suck it out all the time and it comes back the next day
Should I go back to vinegar should i take out the dragons breath?
What shall I do ?
Thanks so much

 

[CasperOe]

How old / new is your tank?

Nitrate of 18 isn't really that high? What is your concern- apart from the number itself..

I am running between 15-25 in mine but I am not chasing it one bit. Phosphate maxes out in my tank at about 0.05 ppm.

Anyhow, do your water changes- and feed less! Stop dosing any nitrate removers and address the problem before adding it to your tank!

 

[BanZI29]

Are your corals showing signs of not liking the higher Nitrate? if not, let it be and just keep an eye on them. They will show you when they are not happy. If you really want to, do a 20% water change.

 

[PMorgan]

I have cyano that I can not get to go away and ugly diatoms on my rocks
So should I dose phosphate to bring them more in balance I’m afraid the phosphate is higher cause of the cyano and the ugliness in the rocks

 

[CasperOe]

Do water changes and feed less.

I have cyano that I can not get to go away and ugly diatoms on my rocks
So should I dose phosphate to bring them more in balance I’m afraid the phosphate is higher cause of the cyano and the ugliness in the rocks

Patience my fried, patience! Don't just dose this and that, take it easy! Your tank looks quite new; give it time!

If you want to do anything, maintain a good water change regiment! Husbandry such as sand cleaning etc. should keep you well busy instead of playing crazy scientist

Be mindful of what goes in your tank; it might seem the easy solution here and now- seldom is down the road.

 

[PMorgan]

Tank was started February 2023. I feed them twice a day frozen LRS I can’t tell if that’s to much or not enough cause they are all starving at the glass all the time
I also does Live Phyto nightly

 

[CasperOe]

Tank was started February 2023. I feed them twice a day frozen LRS I can’t tell if that’s to much or not enough cause they are all starving at the glass all the time
I also does Live Phyto nightly

Yeah, that's a fairly new tank allright! Just give it time, it will settle allright. Stay on top of your water changes.

What is your water change schedule just now?

 

[PMorgan]

I don’t. I replace when I need to to keep my salinity where it needs to be
I do clean the sand through a filter sock weekly

 

[Spare time]

The scrubber and refugium will work so long as phosphates are not 0 (which they could be given the error range of test kits.

 

[CasperOe]

I don’t. I replace when I need to to keep my salinity where it needs to be
I do clean the sand through a filter sock weekly

Start with 10% every week You'll see a difference.. It's just good practice! Ditch the chemicals you dose and spend the money on salt instead..

Down the line as your tank gets more mature you can revisit this.

 

[CasperOe]

Curious as to how you test your nitrate and phosphate. Which test kits do you use?

 

[PMorgan]

Curious as to how you test your nitrate and phosphate. Which test kits do you use?

Hannah

 

[CasperOe]

But yeah, just start doing those water changes! Give this a watch; there's tons of information on the subject on YouTube.

Do your 10% a week- and buy some patience off Amazon while you're add it Ditch your 'shortcut chemicals'- there's no easy way to success sadly!

 

[PMorgan]

But yeah, just start doing those water changes! Give this a watch; there's tons of information on the subject on YouTube.

Do your 10% a week- and buy some patience off Amazon while you're add it Ditch your 'shortcut chemicals'- there's no easy way to success sadly!

I will give it a try @CasperOe
Thanks for chatting with me

 

[PMorgan]

@CasperOe did my second water change last night
Nitrate comes down but is back up before the next one so far each time
Started feeding differently my poor fish
Things may be looking better
Thank you

 

[jda]

I would never feed the fish less. That is the only way that your corals are getting building blocks. Don't cut import, raise export.

More sand - like 3 inches - can develop anoxic bacteria that will eventually lower no3 as the turn the no3 into N gas and complete the nitrogen cycle. This does take months.

Your dinos and cyano can get nitrogen and phosphorous from many other forms besides no3 and po4 and they can thrive with .1 no3 and 1 ppb of po4. They are on your rocks because they got their first and nothing else wants to displace them - this is a new thing since dry/dead rock came into the hobby. Diverse rocks can help - a live rock pack from Florida can help more than most other things.