Nitrate Reduction - Should I Keep Trying?

[soulpatch]

so if I read this right for a starting stone one could go with the nopox from red sea till they feel comfortable dosing vinegar or vodka?

Would any vodka/Vinegar do like absolute vodka or white vinegar?

 

[jason2459]

so if I read this right for a starting stone one could go with the nopox from red sea till they feel comfortable dosing vinegar or vodka?

Would any vodka/Vinegar do like absolute vodka or white vinegar?

Personally, I wouldn't waste money on nopox. I use cheap store brand white distilled vinegar. There's a suggested cheap brand of vodka in that vinegar/vodka/nopox link.

 

[pwdblue]

I have been looking for a way to reduce nitrates in my 325gl reef and have been kicking around vinegar dosing. My nitrates hover around 25 and my weekly water changes do not seem to want to lower my nitrates. My hanna hand held phosphate reader says I have 0 phosphates which I am skeptical about. I run a biopellet reactor but it is not lowering the nitrates. Can I do vinegar dosing and run biopellets at the same time? Do you use a doser to dose your vinegar? I have an apex running my system and if using a doser is the way to go, I could utilize it. Do you dose directly into the sump or into the top off water? I appreciate any help and advice.
Tim

 

[theMerchant]

Have you looked into a algae scrubber? No room? Then a upflow algae scrubber

 

[BigCountry74]

Thanks for the advice. Will check out the products you mentioned. Skimmer is only 2 weeks in so maybe it hasn't kicked into high gear yet.

A good skimmer will go a long way in this hobby. Give it some time you will most definitely notice a difference once the skimmer breaks in.

You can also head down to the local fish store and buy a small hang on the back breeder box. Float some chaeto algae in it, hang it up top in the DT under one of your lights. It works wonders for my 40g long. Super easy to do.

 

[d0ughb0y]

assuming your newly mixed water has 0 nitrates, and you have cleaned your tank of all nitrate source, then all you need to do is double up on your water change rate and your nitrate will go down to 0 in 1-2 months.

 

[pwdblue]

I use RO/DI water, and I did test my salt water I use for my water changes and it showed approximately a nitrate value of 5. I use reef crystal salt, so I am assuming the nitrate is coming from the salt but could be wrong. With my system being large I do a 50 gallon water change every week. Have been doing this since October. The nitrates still won't come down. I switched out my bio pellets in October to Tropic Marin hoping that would help but it brought my nitrates down a little and now has leveled off at 20. I don't have an algae problem but I don't think the few SPS I have remaining are the happiest. Growth is slow, color is not great.

I have thought about a algae scrubber but I don't have room between my tank stand and my sump to squeeze it in the sump.

 

[d0ughb0y]

test the rodi water, it must read 0. I use reef crystal and it reads 0.

is 50 gallon 20% water change?
if it is not coming down, it means your nitrate source is still in your tank.

make sure your tank is clean. there could be accumulated waste somewhere you don't see or can't reach. as long as nitrate source is there, you will always have > 0 nitrate reading.

 

[pwdblue]

It is around a 15% water change. I will check out if my RO/DI water has nitrates in it.

I have a denitrator as well that I am not using. Would that be bad to run at the same time as my biopellets?

Thanks for the advise.

 

[pwdblue]

Question the algae I have growing on my glass on a weekly basis is brown not green does that mean something?