how to lower my Nitrates

[Preble]

well, Its the age old question of how to lower my nitrates....I'm sure yall have answered 1000000000 times

I have a trickle filter, I have been using RO water with weekly water changes..and i don't over feed.

I had a filter pad in my sump right above my BB...I figured that had a lot to do with it with some reading i have been doing.

It went for 160ppm to 20 ppm

im trying to be a better reef keeper for my fish and coral, help would be greatly appreciated

 

[BIG_KAHUNA]

there's a million ways. I'm sure you'll be told to get rid of the trickle filter/"nitrate factory" but my moms 125 has trickle and has no problems with nitrate for years. So water changes are a great way to do so. Allowing denitrification will also help greatly, like a deep sand bed. More info on the tank would help as well.

 

[Preble]

what you need you know?


I plan on getting rid of the trickle this weekend....I had a catastrophic failure with the external pump Monday...

It was a mess.

 

[Palting]

what you need you know?


I plan on getting rid of the trickle this weekend....I had a catastrophic failure with the external pump Monday...

It was a mess.

I guess we would want to know several things about your tank related to nitrate production/export to be able to give you specific answers. What livestock in how big a tank? How much feeding exactly? How much live rock? How much flow? How much water change? Do you have a refugium? Do you have an ATS? Do you have a DSB?

So far, the only thing we know is you have a trickle filter with bioballs, nitrate went from 160 to 20, then you had a catastrophic pump failure. I had a FOWLR for 5 years serviced by a wet/dry with bioballs. I did 10% water changes weekly, and rinsed the filter pads weekly with tapwater as well, and I had NO nitrate problems nor algae problems. So, IMO, the trickle filter/BB is not really an issue here.

HTH!!

 

[lolgranny]

I would get rid of that filter or atleast clean it. Do you have any filter sponges that might need a cleaning? What are you doing water changes with ? ro/di water? How much do you feed? Is un eaten food sitting on the bottom rotting? there are alot of possibilities on why they are higher then you would like.

What are they at if you dont mind me asking? 20ppm... i need to learn to read.

 

[Preble]

OKay.

My tank is 50 gallons, I have 2 clowns, 3 Chromis, and a scooter.

my sand is maybe 4 inches.
my water changes are 5 gallons a week.
there are zero dead spots as in flow...not real sure how much LR is in the tank. i put a picture

and i dont know what ats or hth stands for

 

[Preble]

 

[Reefing Newbie]

Water changes and a new sump will help tons. In your sump you should make a section for a refugium(place to grow macro algae) with at least a 4" DSB. The macro algae will absorb nitrates and phosphates. You remove those chemicals when you trim or "harvest" the macro algae that you grow. The key is to allow enough flow and get enough light for maximum potential on the fuge. I would do 10 gallon water changes once a week until the nitrates get to a safer level.

 

[hollister]

Whats a trickle filter. You need good steady constant water flow from powerheads. At least 10 to 25 gph flow times the tank size.

 

[ivans75]

Please allow me to put my opinion on this matter...

Nitrate is a huge nightmare I know but I think the best way to reduce nitrate is population control. From day one, you should make sure nitrate is 0 before adding anything alive except those clean up crew.

Reducing nitrate is not a rocket science and you don't really need some complicated filtration. Nitrate will go if you balance out what producing it and what's taking it out (exporting it out).

Checking the water for nitrate level before you buy something also helps a lot.

It's like having a house with small rubish bin...if you only have a small rubish bin...don't buy alot of stuff from the market as you will have rubish that won't fit in your rubish bin and make your house smells like rubish pit...but if you upgrade your rubish bin or empty it out u can put more rubish and close the lid. It;s that simple.

What are those "rubish bin" in marine aquaria? Well you have your skimmer, DSB, some people use chaeto, n-p biopelets and ATS. For me, I only use protein skimmer and n-p biopelet. MArine aquaria is all about nutrient export, fail to understand that and you'll get problems. It;s actually very simple, I just realized that myself. In my bedroom I have a 20 gallon tank that has a rubbermaid tub sump. No dividers, no fancy stuff, just a skimmer and n-p biopelet fluidizer. Nitrate reads 0 and phosphate reads 0.1, i know it's bit high but thats because i have 3 cleaner shrimps and 1 yellow tank. My doughnuts are doing great tho i get some annoying green algae that is very hard to scrap. Coralines are growing as well despite of the green algae.

Just my opinion...

 

[ivans75]

OKay.

My tank is 50 gallons, I have 2 clowns, 3 Chromis, and a scooter.

my sand is maybe 4 inches.
my water changes are 5 gallons a week.
there are zero dead spots as in flow...not real sure how much LR is in the tank. i put a picture

and i dont know what ats or hth stands for

You should not in my opinion change water that often. I don;t even change my water, i only top it up with RO, corals and fish looks happy, some of them getting brighter color.

One thing also I learn from marine aquaria, if everything is happy don't do anything...instead test the water regularly.

In your case where nitrate is already high, u should try to look what and who are the nitrate producers, eliminate that problem and u will be back on track.

Do you have any lfs in your area who would gladly keep your fish while you fix this problem? Fish are the worst rubish producer as they poo and urinate, the foods for them also contains some phosphate. Decaying organic matters perhaps? Do you have a dead spot in your tank? Look for dead crabs, sponges etc. Take the yucky things out, take your fish to lfs and ask them if they could keep them for you for few weeks, try to eliminate the problem where all the inhabitants are not in your tank. Then test your water, if the nitrate reads 0, take 1 or 2 fish back at a time and see for a week, limit the feeding, and if it looks good, add another 1 or 2 after. And so on...key is control.

Cheers

 

[Ron Reefman]

Preble, OK, we got some info, thanks. How about some more? How old is this system? Was the rock 'live' when you put it in? Also, what are your other water parameters (ammonia & nitrite)? From the photo, your tank looks pretty new (the rocks don't have any color). And nitrate doesn't just appear, so you must have had some ammonia & nitrite numbers before you ran up the nitrates? You are doing more than enough water changes... are you using RO/DI water? You aren't over stocked unless this is a fairly new system.

 

[Preble]

The tank is about a year old, most of it was base rock. Than I had a hook up on few rocks so I pit them in and took some of the base rock out and that was maybe a month ago.

That's when I got my first corals. It was a fish only tank until then.

When I get my fuge put together and running I'm gunna give it a week and see if that helps

What kind of light should I run in the fuge?

 

[Preble]

The tank is about a year old, most of it was base rock. Than I had a hook up on few rocks so I pit them in and took some of the base rock out and that was maybe a month ago.

That's when I got my first corals. It was a fish only tank until then.

When I get my fuge put together and running I'm gunna give it a week and see if that helps

What kind of light should I run in the fuge?

 

[Preble]

The tank is about a year old, most of it was base rock. Than I had a hook up on few rocks so I pit them in and took some of the base rock out and that was maybe a month ago.

That's when I got my first corals. It was a fish only tank until then.

When I get my fuge put together and running I'm gunna give it a week and see if that helps

What kind of light should I run in the fuge?

 

[lolgranny]

I disagree with what ivans75 said about water changes. I do 10% on my tank every week and always have. That is not the issue.

I would think your nitrates are high because of your sand bed if you ask me. 4" is not enough to be a deep sand bed nor is it shallow enough for a shallow sand bed. my bet is you have leftover food which has got cought in the sand and is basically rotting which is raising the No3

Are you using RO / DI water with 0 tds for water changes. That can also help fule your issue.

If it was me this is what i would do: Make sure im using 0 TDS ro/di water for my water changes, keep up with 10% changes a week, and either clean the sand bed or take out some so you only have 1" of sand. Add some nassarus / creith snails which burry in the sand and eat detritus which will help clean up some unwanted crap sitting in it. Either way im leaning on the sand bed being the issue

 

[lolgranny]

double post

 

[klaz]

probably you must use the nopox of red sea.a new product.