# Nitrites And Nitrates Threw The Roof



## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

I have a 75gal tank with 5 3" rbp's. Im running a AC110 filter and a XP3 my water was fine cycled all good for sometime now.Anyway I built a wet/dry with about 4gals of bio balls,now my nitrites and nitrates are very high but ammonia is ok..What can be the reason. I did 50 percent w/c and 20 percent each day after now its like a week and no change..Please help

sorry , also my ph keeps crashing..Tap water is about 7.6 ppm but in two days I get down to 6.0 ppm


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

still doing 20percent w/c daily ,no change..Nothing dead or dieing all fake plants nothing to rot


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Did you remove the HOB and canister when you put the sump online?


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

no I just added the wet/dry to the system,hoped it will help with bio load as P's grow


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

the 110 and xp3 should have been good for 5 3" nattereri, although the sump will not be detrimental

list all your params, what is the kH and gH of your tap after 24hrs and in your tank, are you using RO water, do you gravel vac, what's in your tank (decor etc.), do you change/rinse your filter pads?


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

rinse fiter pads once in 10 weeks, ph from tap 7.6, gh and kw shows on API test strip gh between 0-30 and kh between 0-40 thats in tap water I need to get a better test kit to be more exact.Tank water ph crashs to 6ppm Ph after two days. Anmmonia 0 nitrite almost 5ppm, nitrate between 80-160ppm .Substrate aquarium pebbles and three aquarium safe plastic plants..I add baking soda now and then to keep ph up to about 6.6 daily in hope to support bio. temp 81 degrees.


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

soitsbig said:


> rinse fiter pads once in 10 weeks, ph from tap 7.6, gh and kw shows on API test strip gh between 0-30 and kh between 0-40 thats in tap water I need to get a better test kit to be more exact.Tank water ph crashs to 6ppm Ph after two days. Anmmonia 0 nitrite almost 5ppm, nitrate between 80-160ppm .Substrate aquarium pebbles and three aquarium safe plastic plants..I add baking soda now and then to keep ph up to about 6.6 daily in hope to support bio. temp 81 degrees.


you need to be more accurate and state if it's degrees or ppm...I still dont understand why your pH crashes...and when you test again for kH and gH tap water test 24 hrs after it has been sitting in a bucket

CLUSTER ONE said that nitrates can get trapped in the filter sponge/pads so I would rinse them every two weeks. You need to do more water changes like 20% every second day to keep the nitrate and nitrite down.

DO you use any ammo remover or add anything chemical to your setup?


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

the gh and kh readings are percents thats whats on the API strips, the only problem is the color charts dont read in small increments they jump from like 10 to 30 but thats just an example Im not where I can look at it right now.Also I am adding prime to my tap water for w/c's because my tap has almost 2ppm ammonia in it.. I will test my tap water for hardness this time after 24hrs as you say. Thanks for your help.I also need to get a straight up water hardness test kit in stead of these multi test strip garbage.


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

Your tap at 2ppm of ammo is the reason why you have such high nitrite and especially nitrate. Your BB have to convert all that extra ammo into nitrites then nitrates. The prime does nothing to reduce the ammo...and 2ppm is a lot!

I would try and find an alternative water source...

It seems that your tap is the culprit and I'm willing to bet that it has low kH (buffering) capabilities which is crashing your pH as well. (kH below 3 degrees or below 50 ppm).


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

Soul Assassin said:


> Your tap at 2ppm of ammo is the reason why you have such high nitrite and especially nitrate. Your BB have to convert all that extra ammo into nitrites then nitrates. The prime does nothing to reduce the ammo...and 2ppm is a lot!
> 
> I would try and find an alternative water source...
> 
> It seems that your tap is the culprit and I'm willing to bet that it has low kH (buffering) capabilities which is crashing your pH as well. (kH below 3 degrees or below 50 ppm).


thanks again i will see what I can do about that in fact I just got home from work,my ph at 2am was 6.6 ppm and now at 2:57 pm ph is at 6.0 ppm


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

what ppm gh and kh am I shooting for , the strips read ppm not degrees my bad.


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

soitsbig said:


> what ppm gh and kh am I shooting for , the strips read ppm not degrees my bad.


you're good above 72ppm for kH, gH is not as important but it should not be 0ppm


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

Tank has fully cycled now, Im goldin. I started getting water from the next town over because they have no ammonia in there tap water. first couple days of w/c's using this water made all the difference. Thank you everyone for all the help.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

A lil ammonia in the tap water isnt bad since the filters should be able to handle it aslong as its not to high


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## soitsbig (Jul 30, 2005)

yeah but my tap is some where between 1 - 2ppm ammonia and even though I detoxified it,it is still loading up my tank every time I do a w/c.So thats why I had to find another source.


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