help nitrates going crazy

[sutton6989]

i tested and did a 20% WC on tuesday nitrate were at 0 now 2 days after there back up to 80... could it be some dead snails thats raising it so quick?

 

[Renato]

How big is your tank? For just one snail to die and raise all that? I dont think so..... How much you feed your tank, how many fishes.... Did you check the new water for nitrates before u did your water change? could it be some in the new water too..... Are you running a RODI?

 

[sutton6989]

i have a 38g with a 15 g sump/refuge i was not running a RODI and i checked the new water and it was high in nitrates so i figured that out..thankfully i have 6 fish in it and feel them once a day...could i be overfeeding? and i just picked up a RODI system so hopefully that will fix it

 

[Renato]

38g with six fishes? I think thats too much fish..... Make sure you buy a RODI It will make your nitrates lower, check your phosphates too it must it be thru the roof....
If I were you start feeding them everyother day and do more water change to make your trates down....

 

[Ruge13]

I'd lean more on the source water side, especially since you tested it high and were not filtering. I'd be less inclined to blame bioload given you never said what the 6 fish were... 6 Lions maybe. 6 neon gobies... not your problem. If the fish are consuming all the food in a reasonable amount of time then you probably are not overfeeding. If there is excess food in the tank after feeding for an extended period of time then yes, I'd add overfeeding to the list of possible causes. Its all relative.

Thinking out loud...You never said ammonia was high, have you tested? Nitrates are a product of ammonia processing which is a product of stuff breaking down in the tank (stuff from overfeeding, bioload, dead snails etc). So I would think you would see your fish health suffering (color loss, fins tattered etc) if that was the case. The fact that Nitrates are high and other parameters are in check makes me think your source water is/was the largest cause. Someone please correct me if I am off base...

 

[sutton6989]

alright so i got my RODI system in and set up a Kalk ATO system
ill threw my parameters for you
salinity-1.026
temp-80 F
nitrate-10ppm down from over 100ppm
phosphate 0->.25 was up a little before the RODI
calcium-460ppm

 

[sutton6989]

DK-11
alk - 3.5

does this look alright to everyone the nitrates wont go all the way down but i only did a 20% WC... it will take some time right?

 

[stingythingy45]

So what is your alk 11 dkh or 3.5 meq/l...????
I don't know what those numbers are.

 

[sutton6989]

my dkh is 11... sorry and my alk is 3.5 meq/l does that sound right?

 

[Spaceman]

What Fish?And any biological filter?A 50% water change will cut nitrates in half!!!

 

[stingythingy45]

No,alk and dkh are the same.

11 dkh=3.928

11 dkh is a little high.