H. mag keepers - what's your NO3?

[delphinus]

I'm just curious what other long-term keepers of Heteractis magnifica find their nitrate levels to be? Please share your system setup info if possible.

I have had a H. magnifica anemone now for 6 years and it's currently in the 4th tank I've set up for it. Currently it resides in a 30x30x30 cube with about 60lbs of Fiji rock in a coral bommie in the center of the tank. I also have 60lbs of fine sugar aragonite sand in the tank (which works out to about 1"), current is 2x6100's on a multicontroller that alternates them every 15 seconds. Skimming is done by an ASM G3x modified to be recirculating and fed by the overflows to the sump. I also have a RDSB in a bucket with approximately 60lbs more of fine sugar aragonite sand growing mangroves, I grow Chaetomorpha linum algae in this tank, AND I run a sulfur denitrator (well .. OK I'm currently only still cycling it, it's not reducing nitrates at time of writing).

Tankmates are a juvenile Siganus doliatus rabbitfish, two urchins, an abalone, two cleaner shrimp and two peppermints. All in all, I consider this a fairly low bioload for a 110g tank.

The reason for my curiousity is that any tank I've kept this beast in, has been a constant struggle to keep nitrates low. I am currently running about 50ppm NO3 on this tank. With repeated water changes I can reduce this to about 20-30 but it creeps back up fairly quickly.

I don't think I overfeed the anemone, I do target feed it maybe 1/4" cube of frozen mysis every 2 days or so, but I feed my carpets in another tank much more heavily and there is no nitrate problem in THAT system. So I'm curious. Is it the anemone, or is it something else that I'm overlooking?

So I'd very much like to hear what others find with this species.

Thanks!

 

[SVXH6]

i also have this problem in my H. Mag tank. i always find my levels at least 50ppm. setup very similar to yours on a smaller tank scale.2nd tank its been in in the last year, even in the previous tank this was a problem for me as well..

 

[adtravels]

have a crack at the sugar thing to reduce nitrates i do it in my work tank as an experiment and it keeps them low about 10 ppm or low. 1/4 teaspoon every other day in a 50 gall with no sump is what I dose skimmer goes mad though first day or so due to a bacterial bloom (which apparently consumes the nitrates).

i am no expert but read it and tried it as and experiment and have noticed no ill effects. i expect you have heard about it there are sceptica and believers alike.
I know it does no harm short term as I have been doing it for three months pretty much continuously.
thread

here

 

[Amphiprion]

Interesting. I heavily feed my H. crispa (every other day) at least a half dozen chopped silversides and no measurable nitrates to speak of. I don't really do much differently that I can think of. The anemone should utilize much of the nitrogen in the food, etc. Any wastes are heavily used by zooxanthellae (except for indigestible solids).

 

[delphinus]

I made a mistake in my first post: I said S. doliatus when I meant S. virgatus (I can't go back and edit it, too late now).

Interesting, so we have at least one other instance of inexplicably high nitrate readings with this species so far, and a different species fed much more heavily with no measurable nitrates. Yeah, I'm really starting to wonder that there is something about this species that throws off the nitrate readings. Well, Ok, we hardly have a data sampling at this point but at least a coincidence.

Anyone else? I know there are others with this species so please share your experiences.

Adtravels, thanks for that link, I will read through it and maybe give it a try. It's worth a shot..

 

[Ron Popeil]

in both systems ive had magnificas, ive never had measureable nitrates, even with particularly high bioloads. previously i ran a 120 gallon with a 75 refugium with two magnificas. my current set up is a 45 and a 60 gallon connected to the same 75 refugium, and still no nitrates to speak of. both setups used the same ASM G4 skimmer.

i feed extremely heavily to the fish, and the anemones get shot glass size wads of silversides or shrimp once or twice every two weeks. and im particularly lazy about water changes, 50 gallons or so changed every two months.

 

[shutiny]

In my old tanks, I have had high NO3 but from but my test kits, they have always shown zero NO3. I had deep sand bed in both of the tanks. The tanks were 6 years old.

In the new tank, I do not have any problem with NO3 and I no longer have sand beds.

 

[illcssd]

For the five+ years i had my anemone my nitrates were in between 30-50. And the bioload was just two clowns and the anemone in roughly 58g of water. I could never get them down.
...Never tried the sugar thing.
austin

 

[Flighty]

Mine are never detectable, but I have a huge water volume for a way overstocked 120 with three magnificas and way too many fish.

 

[Pavlo]

Checked mine yesterday with a freshly calibrated digital meter and got a reading of 19ppm

The mag has been in the tank for 4 years ans still looks fine.

 

[delphinus]

Well ... interesting. So maybe the theory is that it simply produces a lot that an ordinary sized skimmer might not be able to keep up.

My skimmer is an ASM G3x, and to be honest I think it was way underperforming for the system (despite that I modded it to be recirc, feed it by gravity from the overflows, done mostly as per trying to keep up to Calfo's babbling advises I've read over the years). In my other tank system I run a beckett system and I get almost a litre of coca-cola coloured skimmate per day whereas this tank I am lucky to get a litre per week.

So I wonder if my issue is the skimmer and it's performance relative to the output (so to speak) of the anemone.

Flight and Pavlo, what skimmer (if any) do you run on your systems?

 

[Pavlo]

I have a deltec AP703 on my tank which is almost 400 US gallons. It doesnt seem to pull much out though.

 

[Flighty]

asm g3- but we don't pull that much out probably because of the strange setup we have. Since it is just a 120 display, but has a 75g refugium (and about 400 extra other gallons) I think most of the waste is processed by the macro algae as well as all of the cryptic things in all of the rock and on the pipes etc. I have a huge population of reproducing clean up crew including literally thousands of mini brittle stars and hundreds of little snails of various types and sponges covering everything you put in the water.

I can't say the nitrates are zero, but they have never shown as anything when I test with my crappy kit I have. Phosphate has been pretty low when tested with a reliable meter though.