MFing Nitrates

Cperkins8

Cperkins8

New member
I can't get my nitrates under 50 ppm (all testing is with saliert kits). What is everybody's opinions on running a reactor with media (and what type of media) for nitrate reduction or using other methods? The neighborhood fish nazi once told me that reactors were a bad option for long term success and I should remove what is causing the nitrates in the first place. So I change my socks every other day, cut feeding down to the point critters are under fed (in my opinion), have my skimmer running a little wet to take more out, and chaeto is growing very well in the fuge.
 
i have the same exact problem on my 120. 50ppm nitrates no matter what i do. i cut all feeding back to once every 3 days, both filter socks changed every morning, skimmer running wet, and 50% water changes weekly and STILL 50ppm nitrates with salifert test kit, purchased brand new from faois. ive pretty much given up as i dont want to run a reactor
 
I had bad no3 when I started up my 210 ....

Over 100 ppm I mean I was doing 100 gallon changes weekly it sucked ... but it worked and I am a big fan of vodka dosing so between the big WC's and vodka dosing and growing chaeto I got mine down to 0 but it was a long battle trust me
 
I deal with this too, there is probably something you are missing. Could be from when you first set up the tank. I know exactly what my problems are, I used crushed coral with finer sand to make my sand bed and I placed some rocks too close to back glass creating a nice big old dead spot. I've thought of tearing down and fixing but have decided to wait until I upgrade. For now I chase it with weekly water changes and bio pellets.
 
And have you tested your water before putting it into the tank? I know this is stupid, but it maybe worth checking and it will not cost you anything.
 
Vodka dosing works wonders for Nitrate and Phosphate. I have had zero problems since using it and i now purposely overfeed.
 
Have you tried water changes? This is the best method to reduce nitrates. I would probably do 10 times 20% water changes every other day or so. Are the stable at 50? At some point (after a fish died, cycling ended, increased bioload too fast, etc.) you might have had a spike in nitrates and your current methods of exporting are not enough to reduce them, but just to maintain them.

Do the water changes as I mentioned until you achieve the desire level, if they start going back up then you have a major source of nitrates that you need to fix but I don't think this will be the case, specially if they are stable at 50ppm.
 
Changing all that water would get expensive. I think my nitrate issue is the tank being 6 months old. It was at 160ppm so I'll accept 50ppm haha

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But maybe the op has a smaller system and could try the every other day water change. I know water changes is the easiest way to lower nitrates.

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I was vinegar dosing alot and got my nitrates down to 20 from 70. But couldn't get it lower...Soni bought a better bigger skimmer and ran nopox.. nopox works good.as long as ur skimmer is bigenough
 
I used to do 20-30% water changes every 2 weeks and about a month ago I switched to weekly 10% water changes. TDS on rodi is 0. I check it going into my storage barrel and coming out. For those that vodka dose, how much per day and what times of day do you dose. I have roughly 100+ gallons of water between the tank and sump (sand/Rock/critters excluded)
 
I have dosed Vodka for over 6 years and plan to continue on my 310 gallon build out. Your nitrates being that high after changes and reduction in feed along with fuge suggest to me it's coming from another source. Good to hear you are trying to find that. None the less vodka is a great method for export And control as per the above article. I will add this from first hand experience the article points it out. "Equipment - Skimmer, An Absolute Must!" Section talks about it but here is what I learned. A very good skimmer makes a night and day difference when vodka dosing. For the first year I had a euro reef skimmer that was sized above my 90 gallon and it did great at removing crud but little did I know the potentional of exporting via skimming until I upgraded. Vodka along with reduced feeding and some of the steps you are taking helped me control po4 and no4 but what placed it at 0 was change in skimmer. So much so I had to turn it off every day for an 1 hour and started to feed like crazy to register some po4 and no4. It's a balancing act and fished loved the extra food. That said I suggest you find that ongoing sweet spot and always monitor. On my last tank 210 gallon I hit 3ml vodka 80 proof skol vodka and 10ml vinager as my balanced dose point.
 
I was up to 40 mils vinegar I believe when I switched. And nopox I got up to 10 mils a day I believe and over dosed it.now I'm down to 2 or 3 mils a day and I dose it about 3 hours after the lights turn on
 
I think I am def going to try dosing the vodka. The link makes it look pretty easy (for some reason I thought it was much more complicated). Anyone know if I should I take my bio pellets offline before starting?
 
IrishTang said:
I think I am def going to try dosing the vodka. The link makes it look pretty easy (for some reason I thought it was much more complicated). Anyone know if I should I take my bio pellets offline before starting?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure they recommend that you take any phosphate removal media off line while vodka/carbon dosing. Don't quote me on that. But I remember reading that while I was researching carbon dosing.

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