Nitrate and Ammo

[bullit67]

Well this sounds like a newbie ? but I have been at this for about 3 years or so now. but I have had a nitrate problem since day one I cant seem to get my nitrate down below 20PPM I am running a 72 Gal Bow front it is not over stocked only about 8 fish in total on my last water test I also have a little ammo 0.25PPM Ph is good and no nitrite. Any one have any ideas water changes dont help

any ideas would be great

[muck]

A little more information about your system would help us to help you.

How much Rock?
What kind of Fish?
What equip. are you running?
How often and how much water changes?
etc.

Welcome to the board!! :biggrin:

[bullit67]

I am running a red sea Berlin skimmer (tank back)
red sea wave maker with Maxi jet power heads
Coral Life PC lights
around 80+ lbs. of rock
As for fish I have 1 Red sea sail fin, a pair of seabay clowns,1 bengi,1 yellow wrase,1 bi colour blenny,1 whatch man gobie and one other fish that I dint real know the name of it is somthing like a coral beauty but it is orange and purple (now that makes me sound like a newbe)

As for water changes i do one every 2 weeks or so I dont use RO water but I do use filtered water I tried doing weekly water changes but it made no differance

I have been using Kent salt

any thing I missed let me know

[StirCrazy]

test your filtered water that you use for making the water change water for nitrate and amonia and tell us what you get.

Steve

[Rikko]

I'm with Steve there. Test both your topup water and a small batch of fresh seawater and check for ammonia.. If they test clear, there's a problem. An established tank should never persistently have ammonia that high. I would suspect overfeeding is the culprit if everything else checks out.
I'm not sure about Mission's water, but if your water source is the culprit, an RO unit might be the way to go. A little pricey but ultimately worth it. Is there anyone in town that can test your tapwater TDS? If it's reasonably low you can get away with just a DI unit (Tap Water Filter goes for a little over 50 bucks) and the cartridge will last a good while.

[StirCrazy]

I forgot to mention that most of BC is using chloramine now to disinfect water, which is chlorine bound to ammonia and is a lot harder to remove than plain old chlorine was.

Steve

[bullit67]

Thanks every one I am new to this forum and I must say I am impressed with the speed of the responces. as far as testing the tap water I have done this many times and it shows a big fat zero every time I have not tested my fresh sea water though i will try that next time but I dont think it is the salt as I have tried a few differant salts over the years as for getting ride of chloramine I use aqua plus from hagen and this is the first time I have ever had a ammonia problem 0.25 is not real bad but bad enough The filter that I use it a 2 stage carbon and ceramic system I will test the tap water again but I dont think any thing will show up

Oh and thanks for not making me fell like an idiot :rolleyes: most of the forums I have been on poeple spend moer time bashing each other then helping each other :evil: I am fairly new to salt but have kept fresh for many years

Thanks again

[Rikko]

Did you test your tapwater before or after you added the Aqua Plus? (On a side note, if you're running a skimmer you might want to look at a different dechlorinator. Aqua Plus has a lot of herbal extracts in it that tend to make skimmers overproduce when it's first added. I like Seachem's Prime.)
Generally fresh tap water won't read any ammonia, but once the dechlorinator/dechloraminator touches it, the chloramine molecule is broken into chlorine (I think?) and free ammonia. NOW that ammonia will show up on a test.

[danny zubot]

You've probly already thought of this but check your test kits too. I just bought a new one recently and tested my old one against it. I found that my NH4 and NO3 were off a bit.

[Beverly]

Generally fresh tap water won't read any ammonia, but once the dechlorinator/dechloraminator touches it, the chloramine molecule is broken into chlorine (I think?) and free ammonia. NOW that ammonia will show up on a test.

Dechlorinators designed for use with chloramine (Amquel, Prime, etc) neutralizes the chlorine and converts toxic ammonia into non-toxic ammonium. Some test kits may still register the ammonium as if it were still ammonia on the test kit's colour chart, even though it is really ammonium.

[bullit67]

Well Iam going to start buy cleaning my skimmer (man I hate cleaning that thing my hands to big to get inside it ) and I will start some water and do tests along the way I dont know if cleaning the skimmer will help as this has been a problem since day one (the nitrate that is) every one I talk to is at a loss I even tried bottled water (RO) and same results. Oh well I will start with the skimmer and keep every one posted

Thanks again

[bullit67]

Well I got the skimmer clean and tested the tap water I tested it at the tap and after the purifier and no differance no nitrate or ammonia so that answers that