# nitrates high and cloudy



## aquaholic4fun (Feb 24, 2012)

I am new to this hobby and currently have a 30 gal reef and fish tank. The nitrate level has been high (danger level) The first thing I did was take out 5 gal. and replace it. That did not help. I bought this conditioner and was told to keep adding it to the tank. The sales person however could not tell me how much. I asked do I add a cap full or a cup. She said did not matter it would not hurt the fish no matter how much I added. I choose to add the amount per gal that the bottle said and have been doing that daily for the last week. Now the tank has been cloudy for the last week and appears to be getting worse. No fish have died but a couple pieces of coral do not look great. I added a powerhead to the tank and have a hang on the side filter rated for a 75 gal tank with t5 lites. I have not added a protein skimmer yet because this tank was just an experiment to see if I wanted a larger one and am in the process of getting a 125 gal tank. This tank has been set up for about a month with appx. 30 lbs of live rock and live sand. I currently have 7 small fish 4 hermet crabs and 2 shrimp. I received some bad advise from a retailer that told me with the live rock and sand I could add as many fish as I wanted regardless of it being a new tank. I have been sending reef madness pm's and he has been a world of helpful knowledge but I am afraid if I bother him to much he will quickly tire of me. I hope I have supplied everyone with the imfo needed to help me. I look forward and thank you for your advise.


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

The best thing to do in any high Nitrate situation, either Fresh or Salt, is water changes. To avoid shock, its best to make only a 10% or 20% change at a time. Make several changes over several days. Corals are very sensative to Nitrates and the Nitrate level in their tank must be near zero. Also in a Salt Water tank high Nitrate levels can generate bad Algae growth.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

To decrease nitrates simply increase your nitrate consumers.

I would add some macro algae probably in a refugium to protect it.

my .02


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

ok, here is what we need to do. No worries here either, should e able to clear it up in about a week. First, stop dosing, next, this one is important, you'll be doing 50% water changes every day starting today for 3 days in a row. We need the water to have the exact salinity and temp as your tank water. Next, after 3 days we are going to test and se where we are, we are trying to get them to at least 40 asap. After we see the third days readings we will decide if and how much more water we need to change out. Your tank is probably still in cycle, but we just don't want ammonia and nitries going up, the nitrates we can kick. The high grates are gonna make the corals mad, not the fish.


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## Arayba (Feb 8, 2012)

*keep doing water changes what are your levels reading out right now *


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## aquaholic4fun (Feb 24, 2012)

I have done two 50% water changes and the tank is clear I plan on doing another change this pm. The test kit I have is not digital and it goes it goes by colors and numbers yellow = 0 through to almost a red color that is = to 160. When I started the changes it was red now it is a lighter color between the 20 and 40. I am assuming that without the little test chart you have no idea what I mean but it does seem to be better.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

aquaholic4fun said:


> I have done two 50% water changes and the tank is clear I plan on doing another change this pm. The test kit I have is not digital and it goes it goes by colors and numbers yellow = 0 through to almost a red color that is = to 160. When I started the changes it was red now it is a lighter color between the 20 and 40. I am assuming that without the little test chart you have no idea what I mean but it does seem to be better.


sure sound like the api test kit. I always had trouble reading the different colors of red.

nitrates are bad for a reef tank because they can actually "overfeed" some corals resulting in dark coral colors due to more algae.

also it is common in tanks with plant life to have nitrates while the plant life (algae) is actually consuming ammonia instead of nitrates. Then as the aerobic bacteria build up and consume the ammonia the plant life is forced to consume nitrates. So after that the nitrates drop down. all of which is actually very good for the tank and creates a stable forgiving system.

But in a more established tank is can take time for nitrates to drop down.

I used a refugium with macro algaes to insure sufficent plant life was present. The in tank refugium (just a partition) also was very good about providing pods for the display as well. Plus my tangs were constantly grasing on the macros that poked through the partition.


my .02


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

aquaholic4fun said:


> I have done two 50% water changes and the tank is clear I plan on doing another change this pm. The test kit I have is not digital and it goes it goes by colors and numbers yellow = 0 through to almost a red color that is = to 160. When I started the changes it was red now it is a lighter color between the 20 and 40. I am assuming that without the little test chart you have no idea what I mean but it does seem to be better.


Yea, you kinda guess the inbetween numbers. I set my test tube up against the white on the colored card, kinda gives you a difinitive color.


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