Nitrates still high

President Evil · 11/27/2012, 09:35 PM

Hi,
I am in the 4th week of cycling, on my 55 gal, with 60# of live rock, and 60# of argonite sand.
My ammonia is 0, Nitrites came down from 1.0 to 0 about 5 days ago.
My nitrates are 15ppm, after a 20% and a 10% water change. My question is am I on the right track? Should I change the water that often, and that much? How can I get the Nitrates down to 0? or is this just a waiting, and they will lower by themselves.
Thank you in advance

chrisfont23 · 11/28/2012, 12:35 AM

That's fine... tank is at the end of the cycle. You can do a 50% water change to lower them when cycle is complete.

thegrun · 11/28/2012, 08:16 AM

You are done with your initial cycle and as posted above an initial 50% water change will help reduce your nitrates, it is very unlikely they will come down on their own. There are many different ways to reduce nitrates long term. Adding a refugium with a macro algae like chaeto is in my opinion the best way, but dosing vodka, biopellets or running some of the denitrifying resins in a reactor are some of the other ways to go about it.

ebacon · 11/28/2012, 10:22 AM

Right now you have a lot of waste material in your tank in the form of bacteria so after that is gone you should not have a problem make sure you have lots of rock a good skimmer and if you really want to do a water change that would help too but water changes only cure the symptom not the cause

11/27/2012, 09:35 PM	#1
President Evil Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: San Diego CA Posts: 66	Nitrates still high Hi, I am in the 4th week of cycling, on my 55 gal, with 60# of live rock, and 60# of argonite sand. My ammonia is 0, Nitrites came down from 1.0 to 0 about 5 days ago. My nitrates are 15ppm, after a 20% and a 10% water change. My question is am I on the right track? Should I change the water that often, and that much? How can I get the Nitrates down to 0? or is this just a waiting, and they will lower by themselves. Thank you in advance

11/28/2012, 10:22 AM	#4
ebacon Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: St Charles Mo Posts: 1,084	Right now you have a lot of waste material in your tank in the form of bacteria so after that is gone you should not have a problem make sure you have lots of rock a good skimmer and if you really want to do a water change that would help too but water changes only cure the symptom not the cause __________________ Everybody Loves Bacon

11/28/2012, 12:35 AM	#2
chrisfont23 Reef Monster Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Long Island Posts: 1,343	That's fine... tank is at the end of the cycle. You can do a 50% water change to lower them when cycle is complete.

11/28/2012, 08:16 AM	#3
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	You are done with your initial cycle and as posted above an initial 50% water change will help reduce your nitrates, it is very unlikely they will come down on their own. There are many different ways to reduce nitrates long term. Adding a refugium with a macro algae like chaeto is in my opinion the best way, but dosing vodka, biopellets or running some of the denitrifying resins in a reactor are some of the other ways to go about it.