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At this point I am thinking the nitrates are from the initial setup of the tank and you have had some die off that has had a slow rate of accumulation and due to "mini cycles" of adding livestock, some die off as you mentioned, and general daily production that is not being offset by your WC schedule gave you this high number.
I added some live rock last year and completly overlooked the possibly of a spike. When I checked my nitrates, they were 50ppm. I changed 50% of the water and naturally it only droped to 25ppm. After realizing it would take 4 water changes at 50% to get it at least below 3ppm.
(75g tank, I live in an apartment with no RO/DI unit and have to lug 5gal jugs to a fro the store)
I decided to try sugar dosing and within 24 hours was down to zero. However, Edwin is correct and is not to be taken lightly. I have nearly crashed my 75g twice and have purposly crashed my nano 3 times just to perfect the application of it.
Sugar dosing is NOT a crutch to be dependant on to make up for overfeeding, lack of proper equipment or poor husbandry practices. It causes a large bacterial bloom which pulls O2 from the water and produces Hydrogen Sulfide(?) gas and smells like the sewer if done too much. I have seen it mess my alk and ph way up and should ONLY be considered for situations such as I encountered above for the casual user. Its a practice I have gambled with and nearly lost a bunch of times and in good conscious can not recommend it lightly. However, if you find this is your case to, I would suggest as Edwin says and heavily research it before doing so. Size of tank, gallon wise, is the defining factor. Can multiple, large WCs be done instead?
As far a food, you say your using pellets. Recently John at Yourreef was having problem with Nitrates as well and was commenting on when he switched from pellatized food to frozen, he saw a large drop. You may want to consider this as well.
Clams.......1-2ppm sounds reasonable and expected, and what I would suggest if one is close to thier disired level more of a "polisher" than cure. I suppose that 1-2 depends on size of clam and size of tank in question,
(larger clam in smaller tank may have more of an effect than a singular smaller clam in a big tank, correct?)
Didn't know that only one specie was effective in this..........would love to see some more on that as well......
I added some live rock last year and completly overlooked the possibly of a spike. When I checked my nitrates, they were 50ppm. I changed 50% of the water and naturally it only droped to 25ppm. After realizing it would take 4 water changes at 50% to get it at least below 3ppm.
(75g tank, I live in an apartment with no RO/DI unit and have to lug 5gal jugs to a fro the store)
I decided to try sugar dosing and within 24 hours was down to zero. However, Edwin is correct and is not to be taken lightly. I have nearly crashed my 75g twice and have purposly crashed my nano 3 times just to perfect the application of it.
Sugar dosing is NOT a crutch to be dependant on to make up for overfeeding, lack of proper equipment or poor husbandry practices. It causes a large bacterial bloom which pulls O2 from the water and produces Hydrogen Sulfide(?) gas and smells like the sewer if done too much. I have seen it mess my alk and ph way up and should ONLY be considered for situations such as I encountered above for the casual user. Its a practice I have gambled with and nearly lost a bunch of times and in good conscious can not recommend it lightly. However, if you find this is your case to, I would suggest as Edwin says and heavily research it before doing so. Size of tank, gallon wise, is the defining factor. Can multiple, large WCs be done instead?
As far a food, you say your using pellets. Recently John at Yourreef was having problem with Nitrates as well and was commenting on when he switched from pellatized food to frozen, he saw a large drop. You may want to consider this as well.
Clams.......1-2ppm sounds reasonable and expected, and what I would suggest if one is close to thier disired level more of a "polisher" than cure. I suppose that 1-2 depends on size of clam and size of tank in question,
(larger clam in smaller tank may have more of an effect than a singular smaller clam in a big tank, correct?)
Didn't know that only one specie was effective in this..........would love to see some more on that as well......
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