[Pnmark]

I got a 72 gallon tank with a 20 gallon oceanic reef ready sump. Tank looks great until today after I did a water change of 7 gallons and vacuumed the gravel. Afterwards the tank was a cloudy and later on in the evening my leather and anenome looked bad and the usually look awesome so I did a nitrate test and they where super high like around 60 when they usually stay around 10 all the time could this just be a temporary bacterial bloom from sterring up the gravel in my sump I got bio balls and its growing tons of kelp or what ever that green looking stuff with little balls on it.

[Pnmark]

I also added my water back down in the sump could that have stired up the nitrates down in the sump and put them out into the tank?

[Poseidon]

Nothing you did would have caused that spike, HOWEVER Bio-balls can all by themselves. They are great for NH3, and NO2, but they are not any good for NO3.

[Pnmark]

so what would you suggest????

[Pnmark]

well I actually retested this morning and they are at 15 and last night they where so high they where off the charts. So my question is after a water change which I use RO water never used anything else but can cleaning the gravel bed cause a super spike in nitrates for only a short time peroid then they go down. My tank always stays around 15 and the corals trive around that level so my tank is back down to its norm but what could have caused that super spike for just a short period?

[clint0310]

I think if you added in the sump and brought the water level up and washed the bio balls you would have raised the levels but that is my op
when i added there it did
i place a plate in the tank when i add for it dont stir stuff up in the display tank just make sure your water is made way before hand and the salinty and every thing is cool

clint