High nitrates

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

If you are still testing for nitrites, don't bother testing for nitrates. The test will be false and show really high.

Post in thread 'Cycling an Aquarium' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/post-12767154

Thanks for posting that link.

 

[Nonya]

The fact that you're keeping your parameters to yourself (ammonia, bacteria, etc.) until somebody challenges you gives me the impression you're hiding something. How long have you actually been in the hobby? How many crashes have you had?

What?! Have you read the entire discussion?

Who said that two weeks make any difference? Me? I only mentioned that the tank is 1 1/2 months old. Do you not want the exact information about the tank to make an informed judgment?

I've been in the hobby since last July... That’s why I’m asking for help—because I’m a newbie.

I’m sorry if I haven’t shared the information at the right time or didn’t know exactly what to share.

It feels like you’re more interested in criticizing than helping. If you’re not here to offer assistance, then thanks anyway, and have a nice day.

Yes, I read your posts. As you said yesterday, "The carbon has been the same since I built the tank, so it is 1 month old." Post #16. A month is mot 1 1/2 months old.
Post #1, "I finished the cycle about two weeks ago, and my nitrates keep rising." So you only allowed your tank to cycle for two weeks. Bacteria or not, that's really rushing things, considering how much livestock costs.

Some of your responses seemed to imply that you thought that you knew what you were doing, yet your choices were in conflict with conventional wisdom:
"So, not adding fish at this point is just a matter of preference and approach. Some people believe it's absolutely necessary to add fish from day one."

Today you finally said you're a newbie. Do you see why this would be frustrating to follow?

For now, I would recommend that you consider doing absolutely nothing, and feed the fish only enough to keep them alive until the nitrites disappear. Then I suggest water changes to remove nitrates.

Please thoroughly research the nitrogen cycle before you add anything else to the tank. In the meantime, I highly recommend you watch these two videos ASAP: The first features Dr. Tim Hovanec, Ph.D. the creator of the Dr. Tim's line of aquarium products (like nitrifying bacteria) and top expert in the subject of this thread. The second video is from Ryan Batcheller,the founder of Bulk Reef Supply and probably one of the premier reef aquarium experts on the planet:

 

[AKReefing]

I recommend that you look closely at your acan colony. The picture taken from a distance appears to show aiptasia tentacles on the left side of the colony. High levels of nitrates and phosphates in the water can lead to the growth and spread of aiptasia. That's a difficult pest to eliminate once established.

 

[Spare time]

Dry rocks!

Is that fish eating frozen food or pellets? That is a very small tank for a dragonet. Just thought I'd ask

 

[AKReefing]

I agree with the people here who say do nothing and reduce feeding drastically. If your tank was fully cycled you'd have zero ammonia AND zero nitrites. I've seen the videos mentioned in this thread and many more on similar subjects. I love the various BRS YT series. Ryan is great. I recommend you spend as much time as possible watching them.

The saltwater hobby is difficult, and requires a significant investment in your own education, money (lots of it), and above all, PATIENCE. Nothing good happens fast in a reef aquarium. Everything bad seems to happen in hours or even minutes in some cases.

When coming to a forum like R2R to present a problem, I recommend you start by saying you're a newbie so people don't assume you have experience, state the problem, and include everything that may be relevant: pH, Alk, Ca, Mg, temperature, salinity, etc. In this case, details about the tank's age, what you've done to start the cycle, products used, when any livestock as added (and which livestock you added), whether the rock and sand you added were "live" or not when they were added to the tank, sometimes even the lighting parameters.

It's also a good idea to retrace your steps leading up to the situation. The clue may be linked to one of them.

 

[Spare time]

Maybe put some pieces of macroalgae in the display like pom-pom gracilaria

 

[AKReefing]

Is that fish eating frozen food or pellets? That is a very small tank for a dragonet. Just thought I'd ask

They prefer an established copepod population. I agree that a large, well established tank is better suited to support a pod population large enough to satisfy the needs of a mandarin. I fear the little guy could slowly starve.

 

[Spare time]

They prefer an established copepod population. I agree that a large, well established tank is better suited to support a pod population large enough to satisfy the needs of a mandarin. I fear the little guy could slowly starve.

Thankfully I find target dragonets usually accept frozen food

 

[BFResende]

I recommend that you look closely at your acan colony. The picture taken from a distance appears to show aiptasia tentacles on the left side of the colony. High levels of nitrates and phosphates in the water can lead to the growth and spread of aiptasia. That's a difficult pest to eliminate once established.

Yes it is indeed an Aiptasia!
The Aiptasia came with the rock from the colony.

 

[BFResende]

They prefer an established copepod population. I agree that a large, well established tank is better suited to support a pod population large enough to satisfy the needs of a mandarin. I fear the little guy could slowly starve.

I have already added copepods and I'm dosing that green stuff for the pods which I don't know the name.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have already added copepods and I'm dosing that green stuff for the pods which I don't know the name.

Usually the green stuff will be phyto plankton. The problem is that dragonets will decimate the population in small tanks. You will have to continually add and there may never be enough. There are some dragonets that are tank raised and already eat frozen or pellets.

The easiest way is to start mixing frozen with live food. Once you see them actually eat frozen and not spit out, you can start switching over to frozen completely then slowly switch over to pellet with same strategy. You will need to find very small pellet food though. This will take a lot of patience. Even in larger tanks they are known to starve.

For aiptasia, I would nip it in the butt now. Once in a tank and spreads, they can be a plague. There are a few solutions. Some people will glue or epoxy theaiptasia so it's encased off. They can still find an out if not completely covered. Another is with chemicals such as aiptasia X or even certain household products you can use but will need to research. I don't recommend scrubbing. As you can if it's attached to surface and not down in a hole or crevice, but if any bit is left, it can regrow. There are also natural predators. Some will need to be rehomed after such as berghia nudibranch, certain file fish. Peppermint shrimp are hit or miss.

I am not a big fan of the term cycling. I think this confuses or cause more issues to newer people as it is more bacteria establishment. Nitrites in our tanks are harmless to fish and nitrates mostly as well. I have added fish to tanks from day one with dry rock only using bottle bacteria from frytz with nose issues and no increase in ammonia nitrite or nitrate. But I have seen others her do using other bottles of bacteria. Not all are the same and some methods are slower. I am not a fan of dosing ammonia to establish. I will use love rock or corals such as lps or corals attached to rock/plugs and slowly build up. Doing this I have never tested my water. I do check salinity and temp due to inconsistency from last once in a while. I have forgotten and caused trouble when salinity is off. But there is nothing wrong testing just different approaches. There are several ways to establish bacteria in tanks and none are wrong.

Just sit and wait see how the nitrites go. But nothing to stress over at this point. You are getting good information.

 

[wccbr1]

The second video is from Ryan Batcheller,the founder of Bulk Reef Supply and probably one of the premier reef aquarium experts on the planet:

I agree that the BRStv videos can be useful and informative but I think the above statement is a stretch. I’d season the information with reading publications, browse Reef Builders website and listening to podcasts such as Reef Therapy and ReefBum, especially those with content from people like Dr Sanjay Joshi, Mike Paletta, Julian Sprung and viewing some of Than’s content from Tidal Gardens.
There’s been lots of good advice from experienced hobbyists here already too!

 

[Nonya]

I agree that the BRStv videos can be useful and informative but I think the above statement is a stretch. I’d season the information with reading publications, browse Reef Builders website and listening to podcasts such as Reef Therapy and ReefBum, especially those with content from people like Dr Sanjay Joshi, Mike Paletta, Julian Sprung and viewing some of Than’s content from Tidal Gardens.
There’s been lots of good advice from experienced hobbyists here already too!

Not putting down any of the others, but who would say those people have a plethora of well presented videos on any subject in the hobby? Ryan produced many individual videos (beginning in 2008) and series on reefing, to include their structured, quasi-scientific research on virtually every subject in the hobby.

 

[AKReefing]

Agree. The BRSTV videos cover every subject you can imagine. I wouldn't recommend that a newbie start anywhere else. If you can look past the occasional sales pitch, the videos are great for people in any level of the hobby.

 

[BriDroid]

When I setup my 10 gallon and used dry rock and “live” sand, my ammonia went crazy for a couple of days. It was all the dead stuff in the “live” sand.

I’m 3 weeks in and still fishless, just have 2 tiny blue legged hermits. I’m dosing Microbactor7 and FaStart-M daily still. My ammonia is 0 and my nitrates are running around 5 with phosphates around 0.1. The FaStart-M has carbon in it along with nitrates and phosphates, so I think those are keeping everything “alive”. It’s been the easiest tank I’ve ever setup so far.

 

[AKReefing]

When I setup my 10 gallon and used dry rock and “live” sand, my ammonia went crazy for a couple of days. It was all the dead stuff in the “live” sand.

I’m 3 weeks in and still fishless, just have 2 tiny blue legged hermits. I’m dosing Microbactor7 and FaStart-M daily still. My ammonia is 0 and my nitrates are running around 5 with phosphates around 0.1. The FaStart-M has carbon in it along with nitrates and phosphates, so I think those are keeping everything “alive”. It’s been the easiest tank I’ve ever setup so far.

I'm surprised live sand isn't required to have an expiration date. Sealed plastic bags don't allow any source of oxygen or means of eliminating waste gas. It's a wonder that anything remains alive.

 

[BriDroid]

I'm surprised live sand isn't required to have an expiration date. Sealed plastic bags don't allow any source of oxygen or means of eliminating waste gas. It's a wonder that anything remains alive.

I bought the Ocean Direct from Caribsea. It’s supposed to be in a breathable bag and dryer than the other ones? It sure was messy for a few days, lots of filter floss changes for the first week.

 

[wccbr1]

Not putting down any of the others, but who would say those people have a plethora of well presented videos on any subject in the hobby? Ryan produced many individual videos (beginning in 2008) and series on reefing, to include their structured, quasi-scientific research on virtually every subject in the hobby.

Sorry, don’t get me wrong. I agree there is plenty of valuable information provided by BRStv and it is easy to “digest”. I just feel (personal opinion) that I wouldn’t count Ryan as one of the premier reef experts on the planet.

 

[AKReefing]

Sorry, don’t get me wrong. I agree there is plenty of valuable information provided by BRStv and it is easy to “digest”. I just feel (personal opinion) that I wouldn’t count Ryan as one of the premier reef experts on the planet.

When it comes to breadth of knowledge, experience and advocacy for the success of the hobby of reefkeeping, I definitely would! That's my informed opinion and recommendation to a newbie. Let's not turn the thread into a who's the "greatest" argument. Perhaps you should start a new thread with that theme. Be sure to mention Calfo, Fenner, Riddle, Eng, Adey, Blackburn, Delbeek, Pro, Tyree, Ormiston, Borneman, Holmes-Farley, and the entire crew at WWM.

 

[Charles Zinn]

Hey!!!

I finished the cycle about two weeks ago, and my nitrates keep rising.

I have a skimmer, activated carbon, Purigen, and bio cubes. I don't know where all these nitrates are coming from because they're increasing by 10ppm per day.

I already have fish, but the nitrates were rising at this rate even before adding them.

During the cycle, I used Fishless Fuel and Fluval Cycle. Right now, my nitrates are around 60ppm, and I did a 50% water change two days ago.

My phosphates are already at 0.01 due to the partial water changes I've done to try to combat the nitrates.

My KH is at 7.2, salinity at 33.4, and temperature at 25.5, all of which are stable.

Can someone help me understand what's going on?

I can't seem to stop this exponential increase in nitrates.

you are still cycleying