Marine aqua

Question
First I would say I agree 16 years of practical experience is likely better than a degree.I have a 40 gal. Marine 3 weeks, fish 4 damsels, 2 clowns and one strawberry, live rock and growing corals, some algae. Nitrates in caution zone tried numerous water changes and filter cleaning, no joy still to high for me. fish seem to be fine but I am concerned. Any suggestions?Oh and I seem to have some soft coral growth like anemones as viewed under lab microscope 100 power Spencer, can be seen by the naked eye about the size of a pin head at this time. Not sure of the classification.

Answer
Hi Joe. I have three words for you; partials, partials, partials! No, really the best way to combat high nitrate readings is by doing frequent partial water changes only using reverse osmosis or distilled water to mix with your salt. I am also a little concerned that your tank is only 3 weeks old(if I am understanding your question correctly) and you have 5 fish and some corals in there...? You may have gotten a little impatient and added too many creatures too soon. While your tank may have cycled it is not yet stabilized. A stable tank usually takes a few months to achieve. If you went too fast in the beginning it may be the reason you are battling nitrate now. Fixing a problem with nitrate takes some work. Like I said doing frequent partial water changes, cleaning filter media often, cutting back on feeding, and using aggressive protein skimming are all ways to get your nitrate under control. It takes some time but you should see it come down slowly. Make sure when you are testing your water that you are not using the strips. Use only the liquid tests; they are way more accurate and sometimes contamination of the strips can give you a false reading. I had that problem before. Every time I tested my water my nitrate was high. It drove me mad. I tried using the liquid test and found out my problem was not my water but my test. Just have your water tested some where that uses the drops if you use the strips to double check. If you already use the drops it won't hurt to get a second opinion and to make sure your testing equipment is correct.

If you rally want to take care of nitrates for good you may want to look into getting a denitrator. I have one called an Aquaripure denitrator and my nitrate is always at zero. Check out their website at aquaripure.com. They really do work and are simple to use.

Now, as for your alien creature on your rock it may be a small aptasia anemone which can start out small but are usually bigger then what you are describing or you may have a type of zoanthid that is common to hitch hike on live rock. Check out this website to see if any of these pictures look familiar. It is really hard for me to give you an exact ID without a better description.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcorals.html