So my cycle seems to have stalled at high nitrates. Help please? :D

[gregzz4]

What brand of test kits are you using ?
What is inside your canister filter ?
How do you clean your canister ?
How often and how much water do you change ?
Did you cure your LR ? Where did it come from - a running system could give you lots PO4 and NO3 leaching that will take time to dissipate ....

[Xyres]

Alright I will try to answer all these questions.

-I don't think overfeeding is an issue as I only give them what they eat a couple times a day.
-I am doing water changes everywhere from 1 week to 2 weeks and sometimes more often as I am trying to get the nitrates down.
-My salt tests at 1.024 using a refractometer.
-Not sure about dissolved solids in my water as I get it from a business who's line of work is purified water who's rep is well maintained with fish keepers.
-Inside my filter is bio foam, foam, biomax and carbon.
-For water changes I do between 20-40%. I have increased recently as I am trying to force water levels to go down.
-My live rock came from a supplier that my work deals with based in Vancouver. It was per-cultured.
-I use nutrafin for my test kits.

Any help and criticism are appreciated as I need all the help I can get.

[Enigma]

You need to test your new saltwater for everything before doing a waterchange: but especially ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. You need to be sure that you've got zeros for all three in your mixed water.

If all three are zero, that eliminates one possible source.

If all three are zero . . . Something is decaying in your system: beyond what your bio filter can handle. It could be gunk in your filter, over feeding, dying critters . . . ?

[Spyd]

I would remove the canister from the system and use a reactor to run GFO and/or carbon. The foam in the canister acts as a nitrate factory as it collects food and dietritus. Also, are the hoses going to and from the canister ribbed? If so, gunk and debris settle in these ribs and decay as well.

I agree, that live rock and skimmer should be sufficient for your bioload.

[Cal_stir]

Remove the foam from the canister filter and keep the biomax and carbon.
The bacteria that eats nitrates is anerobic and only lives in very low oxygen enviroments like a denitrator or deep sand bed, my personal experience says that DSBs are useless and more problematic than they are worth(I'm sure some will argue), the other method is to grow aerobic bacteria(lives in oxygen) with a carbon source ie, biopellets, vodka, sugar or vinegar dosing, by growing the bacteria nitrate and phosphate are used are used up building the cell walls of the bacteria, the bacteria dies and gets removed by a skimmer thus removing the nitrate and phosphate from the system.
You must have a good skimmer for this method. Growing macro algae will work to, but that requires a lighted refugium and is somewhat limited to amount of nitrates it can take up.
I think the simplest most effective method you could employ is vinegar dosing, read this.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

IMO sulphur denitrators rule.

[Xyres]

Thanks for the continued support everyone! I have a few things to say as well as ask a few questions. Today I removed my foam in my 305 and added more carbon as unfortunately a sump is not an option with this tank. I also started vodka dosing today so i hope this helps as well.

Now my question is about a GFO/carbon reactor. Is there one that will work without a sump? In the past I looked at the BRS GFO/carbon reactors but they seem to be for sumps only. Any ideas?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Xyres

-Inside my filter is bio foam, foam, biomax and carbon.
-I use nutrafin for my test kits.

These are your two problems right here.

I agree with Brad (Aquattro) that there is no good reason for the canister filter. If you insist on using the canister filter use it only for carbon and/or phosphate reducing media. IF you must use some sort of "foam" to reduce particulate matter in the water column use polyester filter media that is made for quilt making (J&L sells it called Aquarium Filter Media (1-5 units) - 36" x 18" for $4 a roll) and very importantly, throw it out weekly. Do not rinse it, do not reuse it. Another option is to buy machine-washable filter media like Pure Flo 100 Micron Filter Pad or buy filter socks and cut them up. Wash them in HOT water in the washing machine with just bleach and/or baking soda. No soap. This will remove all the detritus so that it can't be converted to nitrate. The biofoam, foam, and biomax are all freshwater items and are biological filters designed to populate nitrifying bacteria that will convert organic waste (ammonia) to nitrate as quickly as possible. In a saltwater aquariums you want to remove organic waste before it can be converted to nitrate. This is the main purpose of a protein skimmer.

As far as test kits go, if you're looking for something affordable go for the API test kits. I find them to be much more accurate than Nutrafin/Hagen. I don't trust your Nutrafin kits if they are both saying 0.1 for ammonia and nitrite. Also, fwiw nitrite is not toxic in saltwater like it is in freshwater so you can save yourself a few bucks by not buying a nitrite kit. You can save yourself money on a pH test kit too because they are not very accurate in general, digital pH meters are the only readings I would trust. Essentially, if you're covering all your basic bases (waterchanges, using a skimmer, open your windows occasionally, etc) there is no reason for your pH to be out of whack anyway, so don't bother testing it. So for fish only tanks just buy ammonia and nitrate kits, and for reef tanks buy ammonia, nitrate, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium (use Salifert or Elos for this one), and phosphate (use Hanna or Elos for this one).

As far as anaerobic bacteria processing nitrate, that is true and most is found in the live rock. Some can be found in some sandbeds (although that often causes more trouble than good). Between a good skimmer, good maintenance, reasonable level of livestock, and good quality and quantity of live rock you should be able to keep nitrate near "0".

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Myka

I don't trust your Nutrafin kits if they are both saying 0.1 for ammonia and nitrite.

Pretty sure that 0.1 is the standard lowest reading for Hagen kits. My RO water has 0.1ppm NH3 according to Hagen kits. Either toss the kit or just accept 0.1 means 0.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Pretty sure that 0.1 is the standard lowest reading for Hagen kits.

That's what I was thinking too...

[Enigma]

I'm going to play devil's advocate . . . And I'm going to say that there is a good reason for the canister filter.

Seeding, or keeping it running, on the main display system could be extremely beneficial. In doing this a QT or HT could be set up very quickly, by simply moving the canister over to the QT/HT system. Of course, I would only run Matrix (or similar bio filtration media). The same could be said, of course, for a bio-wheel filter.

That said, it is obvious that the canister filter is not required in the capacity it is being used.