Help with Nitrates

[brookesrook]

Hello Everyone,

Backstory: A friend of mine had this tank for about 2 years and couldn't take care of it anymore so she gave it to me. It came with a clownfish, coral banded shrimp, a couple snails, conch, and the damsel. When I got the tank it was in rough shape so the day I got it I did a 50% water change and changed out the sandbed. I let the tank do its thing for 2 months and then added some corals and a diamond goby. A month later I added a green clown goby who is about the size of a pinky nail right now. And then this month I've added a 6 line wrasse. The day I got the tank it was absolutely covered in cyano and algae and I've been struggling with it since - it is like 99% better but I still see my nitrate is high.

Tank: WB 35.2

Light: AI Prime 16 HD- Light Settings 4 hour ramp up @ 9am and lights ramp down to off at 9:30pm- UV: 80% / V: 90% / RY: 90% / B: 90% / G: 9% / R: 9% / DR: 8% / ML: 0% / CW: 7%

Filtration:-
Tunze Comline DOC 9001
Filter Sock (rotated every 3 days with a clean one)
Filter Floss
Bag of carbon
Ceramic Media in a bag

Pump: Sicce 1.5 (358gph)

Powerhead: RedSea Reef 25- Running at 80% in RS Random Mode (alternating forwards and backwards)

Testing: Last test ran yesterday
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 60ppm
Phosphates: 0.12
Ph: 8.1
Salinity: 1.025
dKH: 8.6
Temp: 78.8F

Livestock:
Clownfish
Damselfish
Coral Banded Shrimp
Green Clown Goby
6 Line Wrasse
Diamond Goby
Strawberry Conch
x 2Astrea Snails
Bubble Tip Anemone
Bottle of copepods

Corals:
Fireworks Psammocora
Golden Leptoseris
Red TNT Anacropora
Forest Fire Montipora digitata
Red Montipora digitata (not doing well)
Bam Bam Zoa
Orange Oxide Zoa
Gobstopper Zoa
Sinularia dura
Green Sinularia
Green Pocillopora
Green Duncan
Mystery Acan
Frogspawn
Green Star Polyp
Favia
Orange Ricordia Yuma

Routine: Weekly water changes of 5g; no dosing or anything else going into the tank. I go in there every other day and use a turkey baster to remove any algae growth I see on the rocks or corals.

Feeding: Frozen Mysis cubes, I cut them into 4 and feed 1/4 cube in the AM and 1/4 cube in the PM - the fish seem really aggressive for the food so I'm not sure if I'm feeding too little, before I reduced feeding about a month ago I was using the pellette food but was overdoing it.

Nitrates were stable at like 10ppm until yesterdays test. I did notice some dead spots on the sand where fish poop was accumulating so I put in a Jebo powerhead at the bottom of the tank to try and add more flow down there. I kind of suspect that might be where my nutrient buildup is happening? Maybe I should add like a baby brittle starfish or something?

Most of my corals seem to be doing well, with the exception of one of the monties - it kept getting harassed by the snails so I moved it onto a recovery rack and it just continued to bleach, I don't think it will pull through. The psammocora seems to be browning out a bit, I suspect due to the high nitrates. My zoa's just won't open - they partially open and I was told I might need to turn my light up so I put it into acclimation mode and am slowly raising it over the course of 45 days to match the lighting schedule of the guy I got them from. The pocillopora is taking off, looking really good and I'm seeing new growth and it just is a happy camper, same with the forest fire monti.

I'm not sure how to address the nitrates; I'm not sure if I'm overfeeding or if it's the dead spot between the rockwork where poop is accumulating. I don't have the space in my filtration champers to setup a refugium or anything, and I'm scared if I start carbon dosing I'll mess something else up.

For the most part, everything seems to be happy - but like I said, a couple corals look unhappy one is probably going to die and I'm doing my weekly water test seeing everything remain stable except for nitrates.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[MnFish1]

1. I would double check your tests at an independent source (new test - or an LFS)
2. if your corals (some) are dying - they will contribute to nitrate (but not that quickly)
3. Sometimes coral release toxins - that affect nearby corals. Do you use carbon?

 

[neonreef3d]

Perhaps your feeding too much… adjusting your skimmer to skim dry may help reduce nitrates faster

 

[brookesrook]

1. I would double check your tests at an independent source (new test - or an LFS)
2. if your corals (some) are dying - they will contribute to nitrate (but not that quickly)
3. Sometimes coral release toxins - that affect nearby corals. Do you use carbon?

1. yeah I could try that~ I ran two test yesterday to verify but from the same kit (just in case)
2. Do you think I should remove the coral that looks to be dying? It's really just this digi because I didn't glue it down and the snails kept knocking it over and it just got harassed too much (lesson learned)
3. I have a bag of carbon in one of my media trays and I change it out every month.

 

[MnFish1]

1. yeah I could try that~ I ran two test yesterday to verify but from the same kit (just in case)
2. Do you think I should remove the coral that looks to be dying? It's really just this digi because I didn't glue it down and the snails kept knocking it over and it just got harassed too much (lesson learned)
3. I have a bag of carbon in one of my media trays and I change it out every month.

If it's a small piece of coral (i..e just a frag) depending on the size of your tank - is not likely to be a problem. It COULD be that your nitrate rose due to shifting the sand - but I'm not totally sure how.

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like you are taking a logical approach to lowering nitrates. I recommend dosing PNS probio which is a natural bacteria supplement that eliminates organic waste thus reducing nitrates naturally. Your filter socks will stay clean well over a week also. Dose once a week.

 

[killer2001]

I'm not sure I would do anything different, maybe this week do a 10gal water change instead of the usual 5gal.

 

[brookesrook]

Perhaps your feeding too much… adjusting your skimmer to skim dry may help reduce nitrates faster

I don't have much control over this skimmer - but right now I have it all the way open and it generates about a cup of seaweed green juice every 5 days or so.

 

[brookesrook]

I'm not sure I would do anything different, maybe this week do a 10gal water change instead of the usual 5gal.

I had this same thought! I have been getting my water from my LFS but I'm not entirely sure what it's made of so I ordered some Tropic Marin salt for next weeks water change and I was gonna do 10g.