nitrate spike...

Question
QUESTION: This question is in regard to a 110 gal community tank. Heres some info on the tank : The tank has been setup in my home for a month now . Purchased it from another hobbyist who had it running for 2 yrs. When i delivered it i saved about 50% of the water and mixed the rest myself.He had alot of rock in there and ornamental the real hard coral not sure if theses are live rock or have turned into live rocks since then not sure. I also have 4in deep crushed coral substrate i think its live sand now. No live corals though. 3 weeks later i put couple of blue damsels init.... since then i have those 2 damsels , 3 green chromis, 2 clownfish(nemos), 1 sailfin, 1 watchmen gold spotted gobby, 3 pyjama cardinals, 1 lawnmower blenny , and another sandsifter not sure its name but is all white 3inches long yellow mouth with neon blue line running on its face on each side. I have like 3 scarlett hermits and 5 nassarius snails..... Hope you got all that lol...
Anyways my question is i have a nitrate spike for cpl of days now. My water is in good quality i have a skimmer running flo deflector on one output and a koralina series 3 powerhead thing for mid water movewment on the otherside. Running 2 rena external filters also.  My water parameters upon testing are.... ammonia zero, nitirite zero, ph 8.3 and slinity 1.023 ut my nitrate is 40-80 ppm ( just checked it again).  I have not seen any stress on my live stock they seem happy and are def healthy. I was told that my tank is still cycling hence the ammonia and nitirite being low. I do water changes to top the water off anywhere from 5 to 10 gal sometimes.   
So my question is do i need to be concerned about this nitrate spike if so do you recommend a bigger water change or do i just wait till it goes down?

ANSWER:   hello anoop,

Thanks for all the info.  that helps a lot...
I think i might have some good news and maybe not so good news... i guess i will start off with the negative, so you will have to read thru it to get to teh good stuff.  heheheheheh


I will have to say, I have a few concerns about the info you have given... It is not possible to have good water quality and have nitrate problems... that is like saying it is nice outside, and it is raining...

Your tank, although older, and although you used lots of old water, is still cycling...  The test results you gave do not indicate that, but it has to be...

You should not have added that many fish all at the same time, especially when the tank is relatively new...If you did, or do have a problem, it could be a little expensive, and frustrating... it is always suggest to never add more then 1-2 fish at a time, and wait a while, (A while is more then a day, more then a week, more then a couple weeks)

You need to understand what 'cycling' means... I will give a short description, but i strongly urge you to read up and fully understand it...  cycling is a period of time.  thats it... we use the term as a noun...to describe however long it takes for your tank to become suitable to sustain life...

now, what is that time... what are we waiting for??? we are waiting for biological organisms to grow and multiply, so that those organisms can filter the water...

your tank might have some biological organisms, it might have too much, it might not hae enough...  that is what is meant by cycle... during the first month or two or three... your organisms will grow and die off/starve, while your tank is getting used to the amount of fish and 'bio-load' you have...

In your case, your tank had an over abundance of 'bio load'  and NOT because of the fish you put into the tank... it is due to the stirring up of the sand/crushed coral, and the moving/swishing of the live rocks...

all that detritus and waste material / nutrient was a plethora of food stuff.. the biological organisms thought they died and went to heaven because of all the food. and then they procreated... and had babies. and they too thought mana was falling from the heavens, but of course that 'cycle' can not last.. they will eat everything, and then they themselves will starve... and die....  and 'become' food themselves...

obviously the amount of food they created was not nearly as much as when you stirred up the poop, so to speak, so the 'cycle' gets smaller/shorter each time...

like a pendulum


during this period, it is possible to detect these biological organisms.. not directly.. unless yo uahve a microscope and are good at using it... but we can measure thier 'waste'... if we detect thier waste, then we know things are 'progressing' in the right direction...

and when they do thier job, we can also detect Nitrate.....

So, yoru test results can be a combination of a few things...   the fish waste which was converted by the biological organisms. and or the nutrients you stirred up when you moved the tank...



Anyways, either way, without a test result showing ammonia, your test results are not consistant and leaves room for conjecture...

NOW, for the good news...

yeah!!!!

You dont need to worry about nitrates in a fish only tank...  The only thing you really should be worried about is Ammonia, which you should have, especially with all the fish you ahve in that tank!....

Iwould check ammonia EVERY WEEK.  I would do 10% Water changes every two weeks... I would add fresh water each day, to minimize the salinity changes... maybe look into 'auto top off' devices???

Also, if you are keepping fish only, then your salinity is ok. but if you want corals and stuff, you should increase the salinity to 1.026

good luck, and please let me know how things progress for you


bill

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bill,
   Thank you for the detailed reply it helps allot.... Just wanted to clear things up.. i actually added couple of fish every 2 weeks after observing the old ones and then with regular water tests... In the first 3 weeks my ammonia and nitrites were really really high and that was with just the 2 damsels... I waited  then i added the chromis then cpl of weeks later the cardinals so almost every 2 weeks added something.  My most recent one was the sailfin tang by it self I've had it for 2 weeks and with my fingers crossed they all are doing well.. Oh also at the beginning my amo/nitirite was really high but then over time went to zero... my nitrate was zero tooo but now gradually it's high.... Not sure if this info helps but wanted to put out there.  but again this still is too fast to have all these fish lol not sure.... Like i said luckily they are all healthy and not in any stress.  Also originally when i first setup for about a week i was adding the product "biozyme" and when i added my last fish i added "tetra cycle".  I am glad to know that this is not soo big of a deal for the fish only tank .  Again thank you and would be happy for any additional feed back...

Answer
Hallo Anoop,

I guess there is a typo in your original message, as you state you have had the tank in your house for 1 month.. but regardless..

nitrates are not that important in a fish only tank...  If you dont have corals then it isnt that critical.. certainly, i wouldnt want it to go thru the roof, and you should be doing regular water changes to keep the nitrates from increasing over time...

You might also want to look into getting and setting up a sump/refugium to get some macro algae growing, as this will be a natural method to help in nitrate control.

goodluc and please keep me posted on your progress

bill