Nitrate spike

Sorry I'm sure this is a total newbie question, but google isn't giving me any satisfactory answers.  I added a few corals on 7/24, my 2nd total batch so far, and besides the zoas, the others haven't done well.  My other corals (duncan, blastos, purple gorgonian, zoas) are looking fine.  I last did a 10% H20 change on 7/16.  I checked the full parameters on Sunday 7/26, the NO3 was 5 and everything else was fine.  Yesterday I felt like the corals looked worse so I did a quick strip and everything was fine again, NO3 reading about 5.  Today I started to worry and started checking the parameters again and the NO3 came back at 20. Also the alk had dropped to 7.6, and was normal on the strip yesterday and 8.4 on sunday. pH and Ca are unchanged throughout. (8.2/400..i know Ca low, I dosed again today) I don't understand what would cause this spike.  I haven't added anything new, nothing to my knowledge has died, and I haven't done anything drastically different with feeding, although I have bumped up the amount I feed a little bit since I added the corals.  I run a skimmer, carbon, and I have a refugium with rubble and a little live rock and chaeto.  I have a pretty good sized clean up crew.  I have been dealing with algae off and on, which I understand is pretty normal for a newish tank, but lately it is has really subsided so I'm kind of at a loss.    

+1 to the test kits and w/c. Fish store will do it for cheap reefon or the aquarium many others in the valley.
On your w/c maybe up it 15-20% til the nitrates drop. Life is crazy but everything stops for w/c change day.


I made me a cheap algae scrubber to handle my excess nitrates. I the fed fish  twice a day ( clown and blenny) the anemone twice a week and the corals once a week. W/C with used water never fresh but from other tanks. It was a 30 gallon with a ten gallon sump.

There are tons of stuff on the internet but basic design plastic container, air stone,plastic need mesh ( walmart in their craft section cheap)and light. I found 700ish lumen to work really put of the red spectrum helps algae grow faster. It took about a month for it to really start producing but now its every two weeks.

Hope it help good luck.

Thank you everyone.  I didn't think about taking my h20 to the lfs.  I don't like test strips, I don't use them regularly.  The nitrate test I usually use is the seachem one, but I don't love or fully trust that one either and I hate arbitrarily matching the colors in these test kits.  Maybe I'll start to take my h20 to be tested when I have a doubt.  

I do use that Red Sea test kit, and I like it fine. It's the stupid nitrate and phosphate tests I hate lol. I think my refugium light may be too far from the water then but I don't know how to rig it differently.   

Tank has been set up since 3/28. My first batch of corals are doing well..Duncan, blasto, fire&ice zoas. Those have been in since 6/27. I also added a purple frilly gorgonian on 7/15 and it seems to be doing well, polyps always open.
None of the new ones added on 7/24 are doing well except eagle eye zoas. Kryptonite candy coral are all shriveled up and look terrible..I saw the polyps extending at night the first few nights but not anymore. And then I think I prematurely tried my hand at sps..2 montis, one looks kind of browned out and one is bleached. I switched their location in the tank so we'll see. Then there's a red dragon acro and I've n seen any polyps off that. Ugh. It's frustrating, I thought I could do it. The other thing is I had been trying to figure out a light schedule because I have 10 t5's and thought it might be a bit much, which is what one of the guys at the aquarium said. So I've been trying to run just 6. That was because of continued algae outbreaks despite parameters being ok.


Edited by jsol12 - August 02 2015 at 11:42am

Pics with the same name won't load, if that's what's happening.

Just wondering have you ever thought of setting up an algae turf scrubber to help ?

No I hadnt, and I forgot to look that up when it was first mentioned in this thread. I just googled it and I will definitely learn more. Thanks!