New Tank - Nitrate Control?

M

meverha1

New member
100 gallon tall tank and 40 gallon sump. Probably somewhere in the 130 gallon range total since the sump isn't 100% full.

100 lbs of live rock
50 lbs of dry rock
100 lbs of live sand
10 lbs of live rock rubble and small ball of chaeto in fuge part of sump

Cycled using Red Sea's Reef Mature program.

Added CUC yesterday to deal with diatom outbreak at the end of cycle.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 50 ppm (after 10 gallon water change today)
Alk - 9.2
PH - 8.08
Calcium - Not 100% sure but dosing Kalkwasser solution from my ATO

What's the best method from "ground zero" (i.e. before adding anything but CUC to get my Nitrates under control?

Biopellets?
Dosing Vodka/Vinegar/Sugar?
Dosing NoPox?
Sulfur denitrification reactor?
Let the Chaeto do it's thing? (should I run fuge light 24/7?)
 
Was your live rock fully cured? If not it may be contributing to the nitrate problem temporarily. For now I would just let the chaeto do its thing along with some water changes but I would up the percentage a bit till everything starts to even out. I would expect aggressive growth from the algae with the high nitrate so not sure on the 24/7 lighting for it, I run mine on a reverse cycle of my DT lights.
 
Don't overstock, don't overfeed, blast the rocks with a powerhead on a regular basis and either stir up or vacuum your sandbed every now & then as well. If you commit to this and don't slack off you should be able to bypass everything you listed above. Keeping your Nitrates low doesn't necessarily have to be a big science project just as long as your willing to do a little work.
 
Last edited:
What is your tank stocked with? 50 ppm nitrate would seem to indicate
1) your tank isn't done cycling
2) You are dumping nutrients into the water to "help cycle" it
3) you have a significant amount of fish
 
Answering a few people's questions...

The live rock cured for about a week, before being added to the tank. I'm not sure if it was fully cured or not but I haven't noticed any further decay since putting it in the tank.

Two MP40s are moving water over the rock at a fairly high rate.

The tank isn't stocked with anything but my clean up crew - snails and hermits. No fish, no coral, nothing.
 
If I were you, I'd do a couple 25% water changes a week apart and just let the cheato eat out the rest. Then keep up with 15-20% water changes biweekly (I do mine weekly when Im on top of it)

Ive had good luck with cheato depleting nitrates/phosphates in my system. I struggled with nitrates above 20-30 for almost a year until I set up the fuge box, now they are less than 10 or undetectable. I run that light 24/7 (not sure if this is optimal though but it sure did help!). Im a fan of chemipure elite also.

Good luck!
 
meverha1 said:
To promote the growth of coraline and to keep my calcium and Alk levels steady.



The plan is to add coral once my Nitrates are under control
Click to expand...



How is dosing kalk going to promote coralline algae growth?

You don't even know your calcium levels so how would you know if they are steady? Do you know your daily uptake, if any? What are your magnesium levels? Because if you keep adding kalk and not have the uptake to use it up, you will get high levels of Alk n Ca. And without a proper level of magnesium, you might get precipitation.

As for the nitrates, tank is new and just finished cycling. 1 big water change will reduce your nitrate levels significantly. If your nitrates are still climbing and you still get nitrite readings, tank is not cycled.

I would stop dosing kalk till you get a measurable uptake that your water changes cannot keep up with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
meverha1 said:
Answering a few people's questions...

The live rock cured for about a week, before being added to the tank. I'm not sure if it was fully cured or not but I haven't noticed any further decay since putting it in the tank.


The tank isn't stocked with anything but my clean up crew - snails and hermits. No fish, no coral, nothing.
Click to expand...

If the live rock was uncured when you obtained it then I'm pretty sure it is the main source of your nitrate. There is untold nooks and crannies in LR so don't expect to really see decay but I assure you it is there. Water changes, chaeto and time are your friends right now, with time being the most important factor. Keep up with the water changes and monitoring your other parameters and most importantly resist adding anything else.
 
Totally normal for a newly cycled tank..
This is why I recommend doing water changes during cycling as soon as nitrates are detected to keep them from being "high" at the end of a cycling and having to work harder to get them down..

As stated regular/frequent water changes/time,etc.. will get them down (provided you aren't overfeeding,etc...)..
essentially a 50% water change will lower nitrates 50%..


Carbon dosing (biopellets/nopox/vinegar/vodka are all carbon dosing) is also just fine too.. I just switched from vinegar to the "DIY Nopox" recipe (1 part rodi/3 parts vodka/4 parts vinegar) a few days ago and hope that will work a little better..

The solution to pollution is dilution.. and water changes excel at that..
 
I think your culprit is the live rock having some die off still. Assuming that your test kit is accurate of course. If there is nitrite then the nitrate readings may be off. If there is no live stock I wouldn't bother with 25% water changes as that won't knock them down by much. My advice is to monitor the tank for now and see how high they climb if they don't pass 50ppm then most likely something released the nutrients causing the nitrates to spike and it was a one time thing. If the nitrates keep climbing I would just let them climb until they level off there's no rush since you technically aren't harming anything. In the meantime I would set up a refugium


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Also I think your coraline growth will be slow because of the high nitrates


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mcgyvr said:
Totally normal for a newly cycled tank..
This is why I recommend doing water changes during cycling as soon as nitrates are detected to keep them from being "high" at the end of a cycling and having to work harder to get them down..

As stated regular/frequent water changes/time,etc.. will get them down (provided you aren't overfeeding,etc...)..
essentially a 50% water change will lower nitrates 50%..


Carbon dosing (biopellets/nopox/vinegar/vodka are all carbon dosing) is also just fine too.. I just switched from vinegar to the "DIY Nopox" recipe (1 part rodi/3 parts vodka/4 parts vinegar) a few days ago and hope that will work a little better..

The solution to pollution is dilution.. and water changes excel at that..
Click to expand...


I was trying to follow the Red Sea Reef Mature program which only has you do a 5% water change every week. I upped this to 10% today and still have high nitrates.

I wonder if there is any equilibrium between dosing/pellets and chaeto? I'd consider pellets or homemade NoPox but I don't want to totally starve my Chaeto either since I'd like it for pods.

Could I dose NoPox until the Nitrates decline and then slowly back off when I start to see Chaeto die-off?


I think your culprit is the live rock having some die off still. Assuming that your test kit is accurate of course.
Click to expand...

That's a good question. I think I'll take a water sample to my LFS tomorrow for a second opinion. I've never seen my test kit (Red Sea) indicate anything but zero nitrates or 50+. I'm wondering if maybe there's something a bit off about it and any ppm of nitrate shows up as 50+.

It's showing zero nitrites, FYI

In the meantime I would set up a refugium
Click to expand...

Already done. Deep Sand, about 10lbs of live rock rubble and chaeto
 
Biopellets?

Yes!

I don't like the idea of chemicals or dosing with booze - and using table sugar is very crude way of bringing nitrates down! Too much and EITHER could kill your hermits!
A biopellet reactor with glucose pellets will do the trick for you.
 
monkeysee1 said:
Biopellets?

Yes!

I don't like the idea of chemicals or dosing with booze - and using table sugar is very crude way of bringing nitrates down! Too much and EITHER could kill your hermits!
A biopellet reactor with glucose pellets will do the trick for you.
Click to expand...

I dose myself with booze and sugar every night and I'm algae free and doing fine...
 
I dose nopox have zero nitrates and my chaeto and sea lettuce probably have the same growth rates as before dosing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
1K
wvned
wvned
W
Cycling new Tank
Replies
2
Views
3K
C.Eymann
C.Eymann
R
some random questions
Replies
1
Views
132
SantaMonica
S
jeryl
Free Equipment - Parkland
Replies
1
Views
946
jeryl
jeryl
J
Tank restart after 8 years 😳
Replies
15
Views
3K
Reefing102
Reefing102
Back
Top