50% water change and still 20ppm nitrates

[reefwars]

keep up your routine and keep everything posted im sure sooner than later somethings gonna give and youll see a reduction, during the first year of my small reef tank i had everything from cyano to 40+ nitrates heat problems and algae on the glass like crazy i kept up with the steady routine and never really got to worried about things, funny how sometimes less is more now i dont do anything lol maybe wipe the glass now and then and feed my 110 was a different story after a year i am still battling problems (was sold yesterday)im like yourself i need an answer i hate not knowing...but in truth not all the answers are known and with a little time things even out

[naesco]

Milad when the equilibrium gets out of wack by overstocking overfeeding adding unecessary additives the tank goes wacko. This is even more the case in small tanks.

It is a newbie problem that we as newbies all faced.

If your ph is too low or your phospate is too high and you reach for a magic exilar to solve it it may be solved short term but the problem remains.

Test your water and let us know and you can make slow adjustments and with water changes will get your tank perfect. You will see.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by naesco

Milad when the equilibrium gets out of wack by overstocking overfeeding adding unecessary additives the tank goes wacko. This is even more the case in small tanks.

It is a newbie problem that we as newbies all faced.

If your ph is too low or your phospate is too high and you reach for a magic exilar to solve it it may be solved short term but the problem remains.

Test your water and let us know and you can make slow adjustments and with water changes will get your tank perfect. You will see.

naesco what im saying is If ive overfed, ive overfed since day 1. If i over stocked I overstocked since the first month. I basically did nothing and it showed up like this really really fast. Its not like I just started feeding 4 times a day the week all this algea started and I havent bought a fish except a small powder brown tang in the last few months.

i just feel i didnt do anything but remove the rowphos and start dosing a few zeovit products to help kill the cayno and boom, something happened. So its definitely one of the two things I did (I would think) because nothing else has really changed for a long time.

[reefwars]

which is also why you cant get rid of it with water changes as fast as your wanting ,like fishytime said your tank is constantly playing catch up and since your never really removing the problem they never go down,if it does more nitrates are produced faster than you can change them out

i would be iffy on having 20 fish in a fully established tank let alone one that hasnt made the 6 mth mark yet.size is a factor of your fish but between a big fish and a lil clown a lil clown still excretes lots of waste may not be as much but waste is waste and your system needs to adjust.thats why i use the rule of thumb of no more than one fish a month ,not that i would buy a fish every month lol because it gives your system a chance to even out and thats your goal is to get things stable, once stable you allow time to pass then you know youve reached "equilibrium" once youve reached that stage you can get another fish but your system has taken a change and now needs to stabilize again and find equilibrium.

personally untill a system establishes(up to a year sometimes more)you should stick with a low amount of fish.20 fish must be hard to feed without feeding the tank and i bet your getting alot of your nitrates there too



go slow milad buddy sit back and wait for your system to establish, youve already got alot of fish and the damage is done so keep up with your routine regular water changes light feedings stop adding stuff to your tank as its not needed (yet) and possibly think of getting rid of a few fish and buy some coral in time your going to have trouble with all those clowns, if they get along now fine but when maturity hits and territorys are getting established the fights are gonna break out and if theres alot of tension your going to end up with disease, and you dont want that.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If there are no corals suffering, I wouldn't worry too much about the nitrate levels being at that level. Fish are not nearly as sensitive to 20ppm nitrates as say sps or some lps corals.

Is your tank mainly fish or is it a mixed reef setup?

[Milad]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

If there are no corals suffering, I wouldn't worry too much about the nitrate levels being at that level. Fish are not nearly as sensitive to 20ppm nitrates as say sps or some lps corals.

Is your tank mainly fish or is it a mixed reef setup?

mixed reef

I haven't lost a coral or anemone yet. im not an expert but the corals seem to be doing fine, a kenya tree i put in a couple months ago is now triple the size, the zoas seem to be growing. my birdsnests are really growing.

Here is the fish list:

Purple tang
mimic tang
yellow tang
powder brown tang
foxface
6 line
yellow coris wrasse
cleaner wrasse
2 cinnimon clowns
2 true percs
2 black occ
2 maroon
2 bagaii cardinals
lawnmower blenny

inverts
cleaner shrimp
Porcelain shrimp
black brittle star
serpent star (which i have idea what happened to, havent seen this guy since i put him in around the time this stuff happened)
tuxedo urchin
black long spine urchin


im not planning on adding anymore fish (most likely will be removing 4 clowns), and I have a shipment of corals coming this weekend and I think I should be set for corals, fish, inverts.