High Nitrates :s And Odd Acting Fish

[N1z]

I was testing my water this evening when i found out my nitrates were 25mg/l! now ive added nitrateminus which helps knock it down and did a smal water change last night, what can i do in the way of water changes to knock it down to zero?
ALso my fish are very scatty atm they will swim around then all of a sudden go crazy and shoot off behind rocks, whys this?

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, water changes alone never get nitrates down to 0. You can get close 10-20ppm range, but never zero. A nitrate sponge like you're using is a good idea, and of coruse growing algaes of any sort help lower nitrates either in a refugium or even growing your coraline algae will help keep nitrates in check naturally.

As for the skittish fish, have you fully checked your chemistry? Temp, sg, pH, ammonia, nitrite?

 

[N1z]

i tested my water and i got,
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 8.3
sg is about 1.025

 

[SkiFletch]

wierd. have you changed their feeding habits lately? do you have any dogs, cats, or kids which could be harassing them during the day? Is there any heavy construction or something else which might cause a lot of ground vibrations going on near where you live?

Usually if feeding and chemistry are normal fish are fine... Tough problem you have there

 

[N1z]

yer its odd lol, but i mean i ave gone onto flakes aswell as frozen but ill go back to normal tbh, i think it didnt help i put an extra 4 kilos of lr other day. Also ive got a phosphate remover in my filter only a few days ago and where i was getting brown algea im now getting green on the sand and glass!

And my leather coral where my clarkii sits in, in the evening its all gone like its been stung yet there is no corals near it?

 

[SkiFletch]

leathers will shrivel up a lot at night, mine does that too

 

[N1z]

well i know they go sleep etc but there are white parts in the middle the other parts come out just those bits look stung.

 

[Die_Grinder]

its been very hot in the uk, all my corals sulked in the high heat. they are just starting to reopen now.