nitrate 160 in a week

[d_carloo]

my nitrates whent from 10 to 160 in a week I haven't done any think to the tank same fish what can it be

I have a 120 gall

sump W/ a acua c skimmer

[kau_cinta_ku]

my guess would be testing error either one of the times.

what do you al have for fish?
how much LR?
when was your last water change and how much.

[Capt_Cully]

anything dead?
do you use filter floss or a filter bag?

[d_carloo]

filter sack in my sump and no deads

I have a calwnd fish 3 fire fish and 2 gobys i did a whater change last weekend 7 gal

[mckaax]

I would have to say something is dead or you are getting bad test results.

[rhkingsfan]

Someone previously said that Nitrates mean almost nothing to fish and that one should only worry about Nitrite and Ammonia. Any truth to this?

[Reefing Runners]

absolutely WRONG!

[kau_cinta_ku]

nitrite is harmless in SW.

ammonia - yes very deadly

nitrates - fish can tolarate alot more than corals and inverts but still best to keep them low.

[Capt_Cully]

when's last time you changed or washed filter bag?

they collect alot of crud, and after a while they end up leaching nitrates back into the water.

[d_carloo]

I change and wash the baga avery week I have 5

[demonsp]

5 filter bags.Why?

Whats the tanks size?
Tanks age?
Amount of last water change and how long ago?

[Capt_Cully]

did you reconfirm your result? still 160?

[Capt_Cully]

I'm guessin he has five so he can change them. I myself have 4. Change it once a week. When I get 3 dirty, clean one goes on, 3 go in the wash.

[demonsp]

5 bags all cleaned at one time can cause this but i dought this alone made it rise that much. He gives very little info on his setup so how much can we help. Though this does leave room from lots of guessing and then he can choice which guess sounds more to his likeing.

[Bruno3047]

kau_cinta_ku - Did you really say this?

"nitrite is harmless in SW."

My friend. I see you're an RC Team Member with 7230 posts to your credit, and you're probably a very smart guy, but don't you think it would be better if you didn't post such nonsense in this forum, where many newbies look for reliable information?

FYI, and I find it truly amusing that I should be correcting someone who is obviously a very knowledgeable fellow, nitrite is actually MORE poisonous to saltwater fish than ammonia.

Read up:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

[boxerzz]

Yeah, I never thought that nitrite is 'harmless'

[kau_cinta_ku]

Originally posted by Bruno3047
kau_cinta_ku - Did you really say this?

"nitrite is harmless in SW."

My friend. I see you're an RC Team Member with 7230 posts to your credit, and you're probably a very smart guy, but don't you think it would be better if you didn't post such nonsense in this forum, where many newbies look for reliable information?

FYI, and I find it truly amusing that I should be correcting someone who is obviously a very knowledgeable fellow, nitrite is actually MORE poisonous to saltwater fish than ammonia.

Read up:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

yes I did say that, and here is my backup.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

[kau_cinta_ku]

here is another person talking about nitrite. read the last post.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hlight=nitrite

[Bruno3047]

"Summary

As far as has been studied, nitrite is not as toxic to marine fish as it is to freshwater fish. This difference is striking, with some of the most sensitive freshwater species being more than a thousand times more sensitive than typical marine species. Does this apply to all fish that might be kept in reef aquaria? I have no way of knowing."

Repeat: I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING

Mr. Farley, I have learned, is very long on commentary and prognostication, and very short on empirical scientific data, despite his proclivity to represent his theories (suspicions?) as proven fact.

See my challenge to Mr. Farley here regarding his assertion that replacing bio-balls with live rock is a proven method of reducing nitrates.

IMHO, with all due respect, the guy is a clown.

[Bruno3047]

Link to my answer to Mr. Farley on Nitrates, bio-balls and live rock:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1378586

[kau_cinta_ku]

you can take it how you want, nothing against you

but I will take his word over a company that sells test kits for nitrite that states nitrite is more toxic than ammonia. (of course they are gonna say that so they can sell a product) goes for most company's

Randy don't sell anything and is not getting any money and such for his research.

as for replacing bioballs with LR. yes LR works better than bioballs IMO but if the bioballs were submerged rather than in a wet/dry type system then they would work as good as LR.

[Bruno3047]

"as for replacing bioballs with LR. yes LR works better than bioballs IMO but if the bioballs were submerged rather than in a wet/dry type system then they would work as good as LR."

And I suppose you have some scientific data to back this up?

[Bruno3047]

kau_cinta_ku

Most of those links that I referred you to were not companies selling test kits, but rather legitimate, unbiased sources with no agenda other than to provide responsible information.

But I guess you chose to ignore those.

[kau_cinta_ku]

no data to back it up, as I stated it is my opinion.

LR gets the bacteria deep inside of the rock to convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate and then is taken out of the tank through nitrogen gas. same would go with bioballs.

but if bioballs are not submerged there is no way for it to rid the nitrates unless taken out and cleaned.

[alpha0r]

Nitrate kits can give bad results if nitrite is present. Nitrate test kits convert nitrate to nitrite and then proceed from there. Thus even small amounts of nitrite could test like large amounts of nitrate. Probably something died which caused a little nitrate spike.

http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/nitrate.html