Nitrates Nitrites!! HELP!!

[systemfan15]

Ok, i just did a water test and my nitrites are around 5.0 mg/l and my
nitrates are around 80 mg/l is this bad?? What can I do to lower this??
I have a flame angel, 2x percula clowns, a yellow tang, (all of which i
introduced about 2 days ago, and I also have 2 green chromis, a coral
banded shrimp, a fuzzy dwarf lion 10 small hermits, 5 small snails, and
2 emerald crabs. This is all in a 55 gallon tank....is my tank
overcrowded? I prob only have 17-20 inches max. of fish in the
aquarium. If some1 could give me help it would be greatly appreciated.

[EQCM2B]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Fairly new to the hobby myself so I"m sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. You should only have @ 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons of water when dealing with saltwater. If you just added all of the livestock yesterday this is probably what caused your spikes. You should add livestockslowly (ie. 1or2 at a time max),so that the bacteria has time to adjust to the bioload that each fish will increase. How old is the tank, what were your water perameters before adding the fish and what type of filtration do you have?#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[graphixx]

boy you are pushing your capacity, also any lionfish is a very messy fish, and not to mention you added a lot of fish at the same time which will give a spike. I would do some water changes and keep and eye on the parameters, you might cut back your feeding as well.

[dakar]

As EQ said, it sounds like your system is overloaded. Now this can be managable to some extent, increasing the total water volume of the system, a sump/refugium with macroalgaes for additional nutrient export, additional live rock to increase the amount of surface area for nitrifying bacteria.... Right now frequent water changes will help, but will not resolve the problem by itself.

Hope this helps a bit, keep us posted of your methods and any results.

[crawdad]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#a product called * PRIME * detoxifies high ammonia levels it also removes clorine,chloramine,and ammonia,if you dont have R/O water for them water changes.its about 4.50$ a bottle.Im not sure if that is any help to youor not i just thought i would put it out there.i know its best to not use chemicals if you do have to but sometimes it is neccesary#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[Tom McKenna]

Prime works very good I carry it at my store but the biggest thing wrong was adding so much at one time

[labman]

That is allot of bio load for that tank1 to 5 ratio is a good general
rule also that's allot stress on allot of fish the new ones and the
ones you've had and I am not surprised in a tank that size you had a
spike. btw when you were at the lfs did you tell them these fish were
going in a 55 gallon tank and what you had already? if so shame on them
selling you the fish. if that is the case they either don't know what
they are doing or they are out to line there pockets. if you can find a
lfs that relizes your sucsess is there long term profit vs a quick
buck. and chemical treatments that offer a way to drop nitrates and
nitrites or ammonia are as a rule unsucsesful and often cause further
harm if I was you I would talk to you local lfs about buying back some
fish. and that fastest way to reduse your bio load is a fast water
change start with about 50% then wait a couple days 25% and a couple
more another 25% as long as you have that many fish you can expect to
change that water often.#ed_op#img src="/richedit/smileys/6.gif"#ed_cl##ed_op#br#ed_cl#
#ed_op#br#ed_cl#