High Nitrate.. Please help

[90gal.newguy]

For the past week and 1/2 my Nitrate's have been high. Running approx 10/15.
Approx a week and 1/2 ago I moved all the live rock around in my tank. I know I stirred up some stuff... but since then I have done 2 water changes w/ no luck. :?
I have a 90 gallon tank.
Any suggestions ???
Thanks !!

 

[Anonymous]

What were your nitrates before? 10-15 is not bad at all, depending on what you keep. The disturbance in the tankmay have caused the spike. ater changes can help. How much water are you changing out? Are you using RO water?
Any change in your feeding regimen?
Skimmer?

 

[90gal.newguy]

Prior to this my nitrates were 0. I am changing 14 gallons at a time.
I have approx 10 fish largest being a small sail fin tang, Several snails & crabs.
I have several corals w/ 100 lbs of live sand and about the same in live rock. I am running a protien skimmer w/ my refuge.
I feed once a day a little mix of photomax, cyclopez (sorry about the spelling) & mysis shrimp.
Thank you for your help.

 

[trido]

I have approx 10 fish largest being a small sail fin tang,

The ten fish could have something to do with high nitrates. Unless you have a real nice skimmer. IMO your tank is over stocked and your nitrates may slowly climb in the next months to come. How old is your tank? Have you added any of the fish recently?

 

[90gal.newguy]

my tank is approx 4 months old.
I have a huge skimmer... I don't remember the name right at this moment.
I haven't added any fish in over a month.
I had no problems till i decided that I didn't like the way the tank looked and moved everthing around (including all the live rock). Now I can't get the nitrates to come back down. Everything else is fine.

 

[trido]

Pease dont take this post as being picked on. These are things that jump out at me likely to be causing your issues.

I am new to this hobby.-- my tank is approx 4 months old.-- w/ 100 lbs of live sand --- I have approx 10 fish largest being a small sail fin tang, Several snails & crabs. --- I feed once a day a little mix of photomax, cyclopez (sorry about the spelling) & mysis shrimp.

Let me explain my thinking,
First, I could find no mention of the size of your new refuge or sump so I am going to assume your total tank volume is near 125G at most.
Usually a DSB takes time to establish itself and work properly,
10 fish is alot for a young 90G tank putting alot of stress on the DSB,
Several snails and crabs is likely not enough to clean up waste. I would recommend about 30 various snails to clean every thing from glass to sand,
I aslo see not mention of any sand sifters (fish, conch, etc..) which accompanied by lack of cleaner crew may be causing detritious to be building up very quickly.
Overfeeding is quite common with any tank. It looks like you have a pretty good handle on it though. Fish will eat ten times a day if you give it to them. You may still be overfeeding.


So in short, IMO you have added alot of fish into a young system which is at max bioload. In stirring your DSB you upset the VERY fine balance you had in your system and It may take a long time to get it to come back. You said in a post above that you have several corals so I assume you are setting up a reef system. You may have to make a choice as most of us do. More fish or more corals. In your case I would recommend getting rid of a few fish at least. Very few reefers can get away with alot of both. Alot of Fish only systems typically do have nitrates hanging where your at now due to the heavy feeding required to keep the fish healthy.
So, If you lower your bioload of fish, get a few more snails, keep taking your time and find the balance for a healthy tank things will settle in and you should have a nice reef tank for years to come.

Again, this is JMO.

 

[90gal.newguy]

Thank you for all of you in put.
I will keep you posted.
Once again thank you !

 

[dnorton1978]

I just wanted to add that Duane (trido) really knows his stuff. I agree with everything he mentioned above. I know that it is hard to fight the urge of wanting to go right out and buy every cool fish or coral, but keep in mind it takes time and patience to build a tank. Not to mention a good amount of money. Hang in there, this is how we all learn.

 

[The_Orca]

I definitely recommend putting plants if you already don't have them in your refugium. Also when you put new live rock in a tank. You get a lot of die off, because of the transportation and change in water conditions. You can actually smell it in the tank if you have enough build up. I would recommend vacuuming around and if possible under the new LR you will see what I'm talking about with new LR. The die off of Live rock adds to spikes in water readings.

 

[shavo]

these guys got a handle on it it seems. I agree with what they are saying the tank is very young. i had problems six months into it. I lost a school of yellow tangs and some blue reef chromis all at once which made me reconsider how I was doing things. I bought a refugium and did an overhaul on the tank. (circulation, cc to sand, rock work, fuge)
I noticed everything come into balance from the refugium with the plants. Everything is perfect always since then, I wasn't patient and wanted to have everything that I saw. My advice is to be patient and enjoy what you have until things settle in and take it from there. Good luck and may the force be with you!

 

[snapper1]

Follow the Advice above

 

[snapper1]

Follow the Advice above

 

[dragonladylea]

I have had great success with keeping nitrates down using Cherrystone clams in the fuge.