Rising Nitrates in a cycling aquarium

Quttlefish

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We've been cycling a 53 gallon saltwater aquarium for about 20 days now, using a Red Sea Reef Mature Starter Kit for adding the nitrifying and denitrifiying bacteria. Our setup includes live rock, live sand, a protein skimmer, and a biofilter media block. We have been cycling according to instruction, and doing weekly water changes of about 4 gallons. A couple days ago we added our first creatures to the tank: 9 herbivorous snails. Recently, our Nitrates been gradually rising and are now at 30ppm. Our Nitrites and Ammonia are next to 0, and every other parameter in the tank is rather stable, including pH and salinity. For the water testing, we have been using API Nitrate test kits. What can we do to lower the Nitrate levels before it gets dangerous? And what could be the source of the problem?
 

xxkenny90xx

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If you used good LIVE rock you really shouldnt have had a cycle (although the live sand may have added some ammonia to the tank). Just keep doing what your doing. Water changes are good. Nitrite and ammonia should be 0 before adding creatures but Api test kits are not to be trusted anyways. What are the snails eating? I'm always nervous when a new tank gets a bunch of snails because they might not have anything to eat in there
 

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Keep up with the weekly water changes while nitrates are high. The snails are pretty hardy and should live IMO but if you're really interested in fixing the nitrates i would do same 4gal changes twice 3 days apart and recheck. The filtration bacteria will be able to catch up with the load better.

Note though: 4 gal water changes every week seems like it may be too frequent. I mean, youre pretty much out of the early cycling period so at this point I would spread out water changes. 5% every week, 10% every 2 weeks or 20% every 4 weeks. I think a ~5gal change every 2 weeks will keep parameters more stable. Also youre probably wasting salt if you're mixing your own stuff which may get expensive. Someone please correct me if i am wrong though.
 

xxkenny90xx

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Also youre probably wasting salt if you're mixing your own stuff which may get expensive. Someone please correct me if i am wrong though.
I dont understand what you mean here, please explain?
 

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API is known for showing .25 ammonia when it isn’t really there. If you’re still registering nitrite wait until it zeros out before testing nitrate because it won’t be accurate. As nitrate test kits will read the nitrite as part of it. If your new to reef tanks completely forget about PH as long as it’s between 7.8 and 8.4 just make sure you have good surface agitation somewhere in your system, a sort of “mixing” the air with water nice mildly violent action.
It’s hard to imagine your tank isn’t cycled yet having used live sand and live rock. Did you add an ammonia “food source” to get the nitrifying bacteriA started growing? I’m guessing that would be a part of red seas cycling strategy thingy. Honestly that seems like too much effort

with live rock and live sand it could have been as simple as adding a pinch of fish food and waiting a couple weeks. A $5 bottle of bacteria would greatly speed up the process like microbacter7, dr Tim’s, biopspira etc. the water changes and skimmer in my opinion are just slowing things down but I guess continue with red seas instructions. Wait for nitrite to zero out and your done ignore the .25 ammonia definitely if it’s been that long
Once nitrite zeros out then test for nitrate and if you want you can do some big like 50% water changes or whatever you want to get the true nitrate value down. By this time the bacteria will be inhabiting surfaces to enough of a degree where the bacteria that is being removed in the water column doesn’t really matter.
It can be a test of patience waiting for nitrite to hit zero but it’s right around the corner :)
 

Mykawl

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You’re doing good though there’s a tendency to overthink and over analyze, if the snails are still alive that’s a great sign no joke! Lol although they are kinda likely to die Since you’re tank is new and algae hasn’t established yet. do you know what specially you got? You only need like 1 per 10 gallons for a 55 gallon I would suggest like 5 nasarrius 2-3 trochus and some small ceriths although it may be Too early definitely if your not even seeing algae.
 

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I dont understand what you mean here, please explain?

I am not sure what you do not understand. Wasting salt. As in if you are mixing reef salt with RO/DI water for water changes you are using it more frequently than you need to. If you are just using ocean water or premixed water then you are spending more money on water changes than you should be.
 

xxkenny90xx

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I am not sure what you do not understand. Wasting salt. As in if you are mixing reef salt with RO/DI water for water changes you are using it more frequently than you need to. If you are just using ocean water or premixed water then you are spending more money on water changes than you should be.
What is your alternative to these "wasteful" suggested methods? No water changes?
Mixing your own salt with rodi is 100% the best way to go. The only arguably better method would be to collect it from the ocean.
 

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What is your alternative to these "wasteful" suggested methods? No water changes?
Mixing your own salt with rodi is 100% the best way to go. The only arguably better method would be to collect it from the ocean.

You misunderstood the entire purpose of my post. If you mix 4 gallons every week when you only need to mix 5 gallons every 2 weeks, then in those 2 weeks you made 8 gallons worth of saltwater vs only needing to making 5 gallons worth of salt water. Hence 3 gallons worth of supplies wasted. :rolleyes:o_O
 

xxkenny90xx

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You misunderstood the entire purpose of my post. If you mix 4 gallons every week when you only need to mix 5 gallons every 2 weeks, then in those 2 weeks you made 8 gallons worth of saltwater vs only needing to making 5 gallons worth of salt water. Hence 3 gallons worth of supplies wasted. :rolleyes:o_O
Like I said before, I didn't understand what you were getting at. Why is the 3 gallons wasted? Your not gonna get me to do weekly water changes (except in my pico tank) but 4g a week is usually better than 5g every 2 weeks. You say it like it is a fact that 5g every 2 weeks is better. That is not true. It's not like the op is fighting low nutrients and needs to cut down on water changes. They're looking to reduce nutrients so you tell them to do less water changes???
 

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Like I said before, I didn't understand what you were getting at. Why is the 3 gallons wasted? Your not gonna get me to do weekly water changes (except in my pico tank) but 4g a week is usually better than 5g every 2 weeks. You say it like it is a fact that 5g every 2 weeks is better. That is not true. It's not like the op is fighting low nutrients and needs to cut down on water changes. They're looking to reduce nutrients so you tell them to do less water changes???

I was only providing an example so please do not put words in my mouth. In my first post I gave standard water change schedule for ANY tank. (5% every week, 10% every 2 weeks or 20% every 4 weeks). It all works and everyone does it however they want. Unless you have a ton of corals (which the tank we are discussing does not), then there will be plenty of nutrients in the system regardless of water changes. I am talking about a cost efficient water change schedule for creating a stable parameter environment. That's it.

Maybe you and OP have a lot of extra cash laying around for water change supplies - idk? OP can do some research and do whatever he/she wants to do. :p
 

xxkenny90xx

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I was only providing an example so please do not put words in my mouth. In my first post I gave standard water change schedule for ANY tank. (5% every week, 10% every 2 weeks or 20% every 4 weeks). It all works and everyone does it however they want. Unless you have a ton of corals (which the tank we are discussing does not), then there will be plenty of nutrients in the system regardless of water changes. I am talking about a cost efficient water change schedule for creating a stable parameter environment. That's it.

Maybe you and OP have a lot of extra cash laying around for water change supplies - idk? OP can do some research and do whatever he/she wants to do. :p
Not trying to put words in your mouth, just trying to understand what your getting at. There are many ways to do this reefing thing. My methods work pretty good, I'm sure yours do too!
 

K7BMG

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We've been cycling a 53 gallon saltwater aquarium for about 20 days now, using a Red Sea Reef Mature Starter Kit for adding the nitrifying and denitrifiying bacteria. Our setup includes live rock, live sand, a protein skimmer, and a biofilter media block. We have been cycling according to instruction, and doing weekly water changes of about 4 gallons. A couple days ago we added our first creatures to the tank: 9 herbivorous snails. Recently, our Nitrates been gradually rising and are now at 30ppm. Our Nitrites and Ammonia are next to 0, and every other parameter in the tank is rather stable, including pH and salinity. For the water testing, we have been using API Nitrate test kits. What can we do to lower the Nitrate levels before it gets dangerous? And what could be the source of the problem?


Ok so you are cycled. Your thread is a bit misleading the way you worded it.
Most will only read so far in, and the rest of the information seems to get lost.
As you have said you no longer have Ammonia and Nitrite.
But your Nitrate is at 30. So this is a completed cycle.

Just do the water changes as you have
Your Nitrate is high but not in the danger zone IMO.
Most choose to have some level of Nitrates.
So for Nitrate reduction feed less if your feeding.
Do your water changes and test the water as you have been.
Its new and things will naturally find its ballance.
Just take it slow.
You added some clean up crew critters so wait a week on adding more livestock.
What if any fish do you have in quarenteen and are they ready for the display tank?

Good job so far though.
 
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Quttlefish

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If you used good LIVE rock you really shouldnt have had a cycle (although the live sand may have added some ammonia to the tank). Just keep doing what your doing. Water changes are good. Nitrite and ammonia should be 0 before adding creatures but Api test kits are not to be trusted anyways. What are the snails eating? I'm always nervous when a new tank gets a bunch of snails because they might not have anything to eat in there

Nitrite, Nitrate, and Ammonia were all close to zero when we initially added the snails. We've been adding dried seaweed to the aquarium for the snails and they're all doing well, but we have no active algae growth as of yet.
 
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