Nitrate SPIKE!!!!!!
 

Having an extremely bad day (both in terms of tank and in terms of me).

I noticed for the last few days that my corals are blooming at the best. So today I checked my nitrate and found it above 40ppm :O :O :O

I started thinking what can be the cause and then realized that I have been heavily feeding my tank for the last few days and that must be the result of this spike! The last spike I had was like 4 months back when I didn't have any chaeto but afterwards, my nitrates always remained undetectable (chaeto was doing a great work!) till now.

Besides, my rainbow paly got infected with bacteria so took it out; elegance died (was imminent; it was an indo and was not looking good from the beginning) and had to throw away a gorg. My red monti cap got white marks (nitrate issue); red montidigi became white at the base and the birdnest also got a white base. Broke the white base of birdnest and glued it to the rock but can't do the same with the monti (too thick).

10gallon saltwater is been prepared as I am writing this. Will do a 50% change tomorrow morning and cut down on feeding double time!

I just hope I don't get too much die off. Will be a big loss :(

Would love to get some suggestion on this situation :)

What died? or where's the dead spot in your tank.

Nothing died. Elegance and gorg's death were imminent (irrelevant with the nitrate). The rainbow paly didn't open since I got it like few days back and today I noticed infection so took it out.

Things are thriving but I noticed my acans are a bit shrunk (best indicator for nitrate) and montis are a bit white. Nitrate!

I don't think dead spot is of any issue since I have fairly low "rock blocked" places in the tank. The chaeto always sucked up nitrate real good (GSP, xenia, mushroom) don't grow but thrive in my tank. Last few days, I noticed my mushrooms doing great (duh!). I even checked whether the chaeto is dying and its all green and grew significantly since the last trim. In the last few days, I fed my tank HEAVILY! And my heavily, I mean 3 full meals for the fishes (flakes + cylop + something else like brine or mysis) and fed my corals heavily (mix of snow + cylop + brine + mysis). That's my story.

I am guessing the food is the real criminal over here.

Sounds like you've got things under control. Larger water changes and perhaps some carbon to suck up some death chemicals dissolved in the water.

Thanks Kien :)

I do run carbon religiously (2 bags of chemi pure elite + 1 bag of aquaclear carbon) but they need to be replaced. Was waiting for boxing day sale but I will just get an aquaclear tomorrow to run for now.

missing any snails?

I just have two astreas and they just keep on gazing and gazing and gazing :P Don't see them often but they are alive for sure (saw one today).

If nothing died to cause the nitrate spike then it may be from your over feeding. Could be that your fish just didn't eat as much as they normally do or you just fed more than they were interested in eating at the time.

I have a Hob filter that came with my 20 gal sump you can have. Its brand new. But you must take the lights also. its not hagen, maybe aqueon or top fin.

did you stir up any grey patches in the sand recently?

Just saw both of my snails alive :) So I am guessing its not for any die off

I was wondering.....does melting of corals cause spike?

Just to put an image of my overfeeding in the last few days : Sandbed had chucks of mysis lying around :lol:

Um.. ya, if you've got more food laying around than your clean up crew can clean up then I'd say you have an issue :-) Or rather, had an issue :-)

Melting of coral tissue can cause a spike if there's enough of it. NOrmally if it's just one or two then it's not a huge deal as you'll likely skim it out, but then again it also depends on your total volume and how well it can dilute the effect of coral die off. Coral die off is simply more organic waste decomposing in your tank.

I don't have any official CUC other than the two astreas (they only like algae), cleaner (who doesn't like leftovers, he just loves fresh meals from corals mouth!). The bristles do wonderful job but they just have enough to eat already. All the corals always have their tentacles out during day and night (I spoiled them).

The elegance melted so I am guessing that might have a play in this too. And I don't have any skimmer.

Funny thing is, the brownaporas are not affected yet. I can see the bonsai's polyps. Weird stuffs!

Wow, you've got quite the challenging setup there don't you :-)

Like what? Because of no skimmer? :P

I've run skimmer less before. It's not impossible. I would just consider it more of a challenge. Especially without a clean up crew LOL.

Hihi. Denny told me not to add clean up crews. I had hermits and they did awesome job but was buggy for my zoas.

Thanks for the appreciation btw :D

Ya clean up crews are one of those matters of opinion. Some people don't bother, some people swear by them. I personally love watching hermit crabs scavenge.

I loved them too. They keep every nooks clean; particularly the zebra hermits. They were so cool! But my zoas didn't love them and I loved my zoas more so had to take side with the zoas :P

This hobby is full if no win scenarios :-(

Tell me about it :(

I think I just did. Now stop making me bring up my post count :-p

Hahaha...hey how come you have only 35 posts :S

I think it rolled over.

LOL :lol:

how is your tank making out today? Did the water change help? I have quite a few hermits in my tank and none of them go near the zoas?

I'm sure you'll get it under control as you know where the culprit was that caused the nitrate spike. None the less I've got my fingers crossed for you.

I don't think it's wise to take info from a newbie with 35 post lol

Maybe 35 is his average daily post count. Lol


Mike

Screech.......

I never said for you to run no cleanup Crew, I said I don't have a CUC, but I have a large natural CUC, I also said no crabs which I don't use for obvious reasons.

Your tank and my tank are completely different, for you to run your tank like mine will likely end up with pollution problems.

Basically I'm order to feed heavily you need to be able to export what you don't use, with no Skimmer is next to impossible, a low nutrient with no Skimmer sire but high nutrient ain't gonna happen.

Feeding your tank more food than you export is asking for trouble.

I run a Skimmer for 8x my tank volume and rum gfo aggressively, if I didn't I would be screwed.

Overfeeding is an advanced method, if not done right you'll mess your tank up bad, hence the reason everyone says not to overfeeding:p

Exactly. Myself like Denny I run a natural cuc of brissle worms and pods. There numbers let me know if I over feed or not. But I run a overkill skimmer and Change socks out daily. Along with prodibio and rowa. For the most part my two fish and one shrimp are hand fed. I also feed zeo to my coral which I found helps my skimmer performance.

Add a skimmer to the left side behind the leather coral.

I'm running no skimmer and my only CUC is a pair of peppermint shrimp. I target feed my fish for the most part to keep uneaten food to a minimum. i let a few pellets go astray for the shrimp and that's it.

I've had nitrates as high as 100 ppm in my DT (100g), and phosphates around 1.0. Surprisingly my softies and a few LPS survived just fine, and some downright thrived. Last spring, I got my nitrates down to around 10 and phosphates as low as .28. This is with using bio pellets and MB7.

Unfortunately, I let things go a bit during the summer months, with fewer water changes, and let my bio pellets run low. By Oct, my nitrates were back up to 50 and my phosphates at .82. So I started changing my water more often (every 2 weeks vs 1 or 2 months), and started dosing with MB7 again.

In Nov, I filled my reactor with 1000 ml bio pellets, and within 3 weeks, my nitrates came down to zero, which is the lowest I have ever had. Then I changed my GFO, and now my phosphates are also down to zero, which is the first time I have seen that as well.

But would definitely rate a skimmer as essential.

when I ran skimmerless many moons ago it was on a 90g which was a lot of work for me. A smaller tank would be much easier as your water changes for nutrient export wouldn't be too much of a problem. Also helps if you're not importing a lot of nutrients obviously.

But in your case you were carbon dosing so it is essential to have one. But if the person was wasn't carbon dosing and was just doing w/c and GFO, they wouldn't require it.

I run carbon as well (not dosing though), but it is the bio pellets that require a skimmer. I dose MB7 to make the bio pellets more effective which is what brings down the nitrates. The MB7 also helps prevent cyano, mulm, clumping and other problems related to heavy bio pellet application.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful insights :) And sorry for the late reply; I was away from my laptop since morning.

Well I did a 50% water change today and the nitrate seems to have come down below 20ppm. Corals are a bit torn up right now. Almost everyone is closed (other than the freaking mushrooms!). Acros, oh well, are leaching mucus like they always do whenever disturbed. Fishes are doing well, as if nothing have changed. I don't know how but my cleaner and snails didn't get affected by the high nitrate. I just hope the corals open up soon. It has been like 4 hours and they still look beaten up.

Added a new pouch of chemi pure elite in the HOB. Also added natural denitrifier.

Was thinking of preparing another 5gallon water change for tomorrow. Should I do it or wait for a day or two?

The wc helped. Its around 10ppm. Will get Elos to find the correct reading.

Well your tank is big and have lots of space for the hermits to walk...mine doesn't have that :P Hemits had to walk over the zoas :P

Yap. Maybe that can also be a reason right?

You kinda did scare me of cucs LOL. Your "don't rely on CuC" still gets my eyes off any cuc :P

Come on I can never ever ever compare my tank with yours!

Yah I guess I have to cut down on the feeding. I just lost control in the last few days with the feeding!

BTW I went to concepts today to get Elos nitrate kit but it was closed. Will the store be open tomorrow?