Nitrate problems

[Huskyguy]

Hi everyone I have a 180gallon reef tank that was doing great for over a year but the past 6 weeks have been horrible lost all of my corals my nitrate is fluctuating like crazy it was 20 last Monday went up to 80 on friday and today it's reading 160. I have 2 RO systems with tds on them I do my own water and have been since starting my tank, the last 3 weeks have probably changed the water 5 times to equal almost 200 gallons of water. PH, calcium, nitrite are all within range. I have a sump and a portein skimmer. Fish have been fed minimal amounts for the past 3 weeks to rule out the over feeding being the cause. I even got a new API reef test kit. The tank njot overstocked with fish mostly tangs blue hippo, yellow eye, yellow, purple, sohol, blonde naso, clowns, copper band, file fish (to get rid of aptasia), 2 wrasses, 4 clams, 3 lobsters, sand sifting star fish, 3 linkeas, 2 sea apples. Salinity at 1.024. Have not lost any fish so decomposition is ruled out. Would love to control the problem in a natural way that is why I have not added any chemical control substances yet. In the sump I have the blue pad filter then the water flows into the bio balls then through a black filter, do not have a refugium in sump due to size of protein skimmer, but doubt that's the problem since the tank was doing great for over a year. Would appreciate any suggestions and help

 

[ReeferMatt]

Wow, hard to say what happened. Did you do anything different (chemicals, reactors, media, etc..)?

 

[Craigar]

You have dead spots in your aquarium get more flow and make sure you dint have any dead stuff in there skim very wet and get macros in your fuge. You need to do very big water changes every other day till in gets down your at tge levels all your snails and stuff are going to start dieing

 

[ReefCheif]

+1. Find the dead spots and youll likely find the oroblem. Check your sump / fuge for any build up as well.

 

[Huskyguy]

I have not added any chemicals, other than adding calcium a couple of weeks ago since the level was low it is at 470 now. Had a bad aptasia problem around 5 months ago, because of which i had to take my sump out and wash it to get rid of the damn aptasia. I was deperate to find a solution so i moved some of the rocks and syphoned under them. Nt sure by what you mean by dead spot i even checked my overflow, there is nothing there other than aptasia.

 

[ReeferMatt]

Dead spots are areas of your tank where there is little to no current and all the crap (detrius) collects and slowly decomposes, often behind rock or in caves. was there a sand bed in your sump, disturbing a sandbed can spike nitrates, what did you clean with?

 

[Huskyguy]

Never had sand bed in my sump, I washed with the garden hose NO chemicals. I do strong water flow in my tank but there is few places that I can't syphon the gravel. I have to move a lot of rocks to get there, both my lobsters live there.

 

[ReeferMatt]

I never siphon my sand, it disrupts the de-nitrifying bacteria that lives in it (if you do, only do a small area). I doubt that this is your cause, just some advice.

 

[Smiley]

nitrite within range? what range? should be ZERO. Bio-balls are a nitrate factory... get rid of them.. along with any sponges you have for filtration.

 

[freedominco]

nitrite within range? what range? should be ZERO. Bio-balls are a nitrate factory... get rid of them.. along with any sponges you have for filtration.

+1

 

[Huskyguy]

Nitrite is zero. Nitrate is still 80, I checked it yesterday.
I think I have more than one problem in my tank, one of them is the high nitrate but I don't know what's the other one. All my Zoas that are on my rocks started to die one by one over 2 months ago. I was at the coral show is Loveland and I picked up 3 zoas but I put them on a Frag shelf that I purchased too at the show. They were doing really good until 4 days ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All 3 of them die at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Something is killing my Zoas. Not sure what?!!!!!!

 

[reefmaster719]

Hydroids possibly?

 

[Huskyguy]

Not to my knowledge. I was also told that there is some kind of snail will eat all the zoas too but I didn't find any!!!!!!!!!
I just bought filter pad that's made by acurel To reduce the nitrate level. I didn't not use it cause I am not sure if it's going to work. Did any body tried it yet? Here Is a link for the filter pad http://www.acurel.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=6&Itemid=67

 

[bush8984]

try slowly replacing your bio-balls with macro algea and do a good rinsing and/or remove the sponges and filter pads. I had a huge nitrate problem on my 180 with the readings stating between 120-160 regardless of what I did. I got rid of all the filter socks and pads, threw a good chunk of cheato in the sump (you can build a lil egg crate box to keep it from flowing into your skimmer) and put a small media reactor with a rediculous amount of phos guard. I now keep my sump/fuge bare bottom and it makes cleaning detritus a whole heck of a lot easier. Check your phosphates to make sure they're not on the rise. just my .02 from my experience.

 

[Cake_Boss]

You could try replacing some bio balls with deni balls, the original bio pellet

 

[Smiley]

use live rock rubble......or calcium reactor media

 

[cadre]

Washing your sump out with tap water killed off bacteria in your bioballs. That's probably where this started. You are probably losing zoas due to high nitrates. I have seen the pad you're referring to work in small tanks but with something this big and nitrates as high as you're saying, you're better off doing massive water changes.

Contrary to popular belief, bioballs are not always nitrate factories but they can be if your water level is not correct. Look into this, just in case. Consider moving to something else if you want something easier to clean without disrupting your system.