HELP! Nitrate spike!

[PISTOL SHRIMP PETE]

I have a 40gal reef community tank. When I started I used my friends water from his 5yr old very well established tank. I have a Toad stool leather, Purple star polyps, Green star polyps, bunch of zoanthids, Red montipora, duncan LPS (3 heads), Pink kenya's and a purple gorgonian. I didn't do test for a couple weeks(very stupid of me.) I just tested my tank today and my nitrates are betweem 80ppm-160ppm, i'm using API testing kit which I probably should of invested in a professional kit which ill be buying as soon as possible. I have an AquaC Remora Pro would that skim the nitrates out? I did a 25% water change, but i ran out of water I had like 2 or 3 gallons of RO/DI that i put back into the tank but my levels are still very high. any recommendations?

[Reefing Madness]

I have a 40gal reef community tank. When I started I used my friends water from his 5yr old very well established tank. I have a Toad stool leather, Purple star polyps, Green star polyps, bunch of zoanthids, Red montipora, duncan LPS (3 heads), Pink kenya's and a purple gorgonian. I didn't do test for a couple weeks(very stupid of me.) I just tested my tank today and my nitrates are betweem 80ppm-160ppm, i'm using API testing kit which I probably should of invested in a professional kit which ill be buying as soon as possible. I have an AquaC Remora Pro would that skim the nitrates out? I did a 25% water change, but i ran out of water I had like 2 or 3 gallons of RO/DI that i put back into the tank but my levels are still very high. any recommendations?

50% water change every 3 days. And just so you know, water from an established tank doesn't do anything for you, its the sand and rock that carry all the bacteria that you need for your tank.

[PISTOL SHRIMP PETE]

Awesome! appreciate your help. could I ask you some more questions? What company do you recommend i should buy for aquarium products and what should i get? i'm currently using mostly kent marine like calcium, tech m magnesium, essential minerals and iodine. but im also using seachem strontium. ive been trying to research about what are the best but nothing is to clear. also whats the best steps to maintaining a tank and how often should i do it? and what are some helpful tips and recommendations? sorry for being such a noob, its just nice to hear some advice from somebody who knows what they are doing! thank you!

[Reefing Madness]

Awesome! appreciate your help. could I ask you some more questions? What company do you recommend i should buy for aquarium products and what should i get? i'm currently using mostly kent marine like calcium, tech m magnesium, essential minerals and iodine. but im also using seachem strontium. ive been trying to research about what are the best but nothing is to clear. also whats the best steps to maintaining a tank and how often should i do it? and what are some helpful tips and recommendations? sorry for being such a noob, its just nice to hear some advice from somebody who knows what they are doing! thank you!

When I dose, and its not very often, I use Kent Marine stuff also. Now maintaining the tank is not all that hard. Test. Test everything once a week. That will tell you what you need, if anything, and whats not needed. Anything overboard in a Reef and you can blow things up really quickly. If you don't have a test kit for it, don't use it. to much of anything in the tank can lead up to major issues. Seachem is a good product also. I'm not really a good person to tell you how often things should be done. I change my water bout every 3 months. If it ain't broke don't fix it. My parameters don't go out of line. I change water at those intervals for the Trace Elements in the Salt. But, if you want what everyone else is doing, people who have a Reef change water 10% a week or 25% once a month. As for dosing, you only need dose when its needed, and you have to be able to test for it so you know how much to dose. If you do weekly water changes, or at least every 2 weeks, there is basically no need to dose anything but calcium and possibly Mag, if you are using a Reef salt, (ie. Reef Crystals or other) this salt has everthing in it that your tank needs. Only tanks that I've seen that need more than that are the very big ones that have a huge amount of SPS growing.
I use API tests
Marine products
Seachem
Sounds like for being new, you've got it together.

[PISTOL SHRIMP PETE]

I really appreciate your help! i did what you said and my nitrates are almost at 0 thanks for your help!

[Reefing Madness]

Glad I could help.

[den2636]

If you really want to keep your eye on how things are doing in your tank, you can also test your phosphate, alkalinity, calcuim and magnesium. Keep these in check and your tank will do very well! For phosphates I have a Hanna Checker and I also use the Red Sea Coral Pro test kit. Your tank is small enough where water change can keep your parameters in check. Good luck and Reefing Madness is THE MAN!

[PISTOL SHRIMP PETE]

If you really want to keep your eye on how things are doing in your tank, you can also test your phosphate, alkalinity, calcuim and magnesium. Keep these in check and your tank will do very well! For phosphates I have a Hanna Checker and I also use the Red Sea Coral Pro test kit. Your tank is small enough where water change can keep your parameters in check. Good luck and Reefing Madness is THE MAN!

thanks! How do you like the red sea coral pro test kit? my LFS told me about it, he said they are expensive but totally worth it. would you recommend it?

[Reefing Madness]

I use API

[den2636]

I really like how simple Red Sea Pro test and how accurate they are! Little more then the others (API would be next choice) but worth it!