Nitrate and phosphate

G

gareth.hubbarde

New member
Hey again (oh no, not him again).
Tank is 8 weeks in now, nitrate and phosphate levels are steady but not going down. Did 25% wc yesterday, tested water this morning
Nitrate at 20ppm
Phosphate 0.25-0.5 ppm

I know mcgvr says water changes, and I do what I can when I can, normally 5 gallons a week. Another 5g being done Friday.
Will it just take time to come down as nitrate eating bacteria will grow over time? Its just a tad annoying that I can't get them lower at the moment.
I'm only planning soft corals in this tank as it's my first one, they seem to not mind the levels and are growing and in case of polyps and palys multiplying.
Thanks for the your patience.

94litre kent marine bio reef
11kg live rock
4kg sand, 2kg as live.
200g rowaphos
100g carbon
100g purigen
Filter floss
1000 l/pH return pump
100w heater

1 Mexican turbo snail
2 turbo snails
2 red legged hermit crabs
1 blue legged hermit
2 nassarius snails
2 super nassarius

1 lawnmower blenny

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
 
Water changes... :)

Softies can easily tolerate those nitrate levels.. so don't worry much..
But more water changes will drop that ..50% water change will get you to 10.. another to 5..

and yes sometimes the tank just needs to mature a bit (6 months or so +) and then it seems to take care of itself as more bacteria starts coming online..
For others it just never seems to happen and then people resort to carbon dosing or adding macro algae exports, turf scrubbers,etc...

Time will tell..
 
Yes water changes will help. I have a question: Are you using a man made eco friendly reef rock? Examples Real Reef Rock, CaribSea Life Rock, Walt Smith Reef Rock...
If yes, you may want to add Seachem Lab Matrix to your sump or canister filter
 
It provides bacteria growth especially the Walt Smith/TBS rocks. Real Reef Rock took longer to seed. I can't compare reef rock to eco friendly. I have over the years only purchased eco friendly. With the tank that has Real Reef eco friendly rock I needed to use Seachem Matrix to help it along when it was new. I probably could remove it now but have no reason to. I just started a 40g breeder for my 10 year old daughter. The Walter smith/TBS rocks cycled quickly, and was full of life when I received it
 
Julius Chen said:
Is man made rock that poor in providing surface area for bacteria growth?
Click to expand...

Potentially yes...
Its all about being very "porous"... and rock made from cement,etc.. is very not porous at all.. But natural rock is/can be..
At one time people were attempting to increase surface area by putting rock salt,etc... into their man made rock which would dissolve out creating more surface area/pores...

You need some sort of "foaming" action to open pores,etc..or similar when man-made in the rock to create these internal "low oxygen" areas for anaerobic bacteria which are mostly responsible for turning nitrates into gas which can escape the tank..
All that extra surface area makes a huge difference too.. So surface area + low oxygen areas = great for bacteria both anaerobic and not..

Thats also why "sugar sand" or very fine sand is much more beneficial than coarse sand.. Its FAR more surface area for bacteria to colonize.. But sugar sand also has the drawback of being blown around easily by powerheads,etc...

The "best" filtration will come from very fine sand and very porous rock..
 
My experience from the tanks I've had over the years is that the first 6-8 months of a tank require far more work/water changes,etc..
After that things get much easier.. A tank really does take time to "mature" and get a good bacterial colony going..

My current tank has been up for over a year now.. I was doing weekly 20% water changes just to keep nitrates at less than 20.. I'd get it down to maybe 15 then during the week it would creep right back up to 20 as expected..
Then around 6 months I started to notice nitrates weren't creeping up as quickly.. Then at about 7 months I noticed they were getting lower and lower.. Then at 8 months I noticed they stated at 3 ppm and I went to water changes every 2 weeks and nitrates were still 3 at the end of that time..
Now they are at 1 or less and sticking there and I can go a month between water changes and notice NO increase in nitrates at all..
 
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