nitrates and inverts...

KillerReef

Wrasse-a-holic
I'm having a bit of a nitrate problem which I believe is due to excess detritus in my sandbed and sump. I have been doing 30 gal water changes weekly without much success. (for 4 weeks)I have cleaned the sump completely so I'm pretty sure most of the problem is coming from my main tank. How will the nitrates affect any cleanup crew I put in to help with the problem?

TIA,
Dave

Params=
nitrates - 50+
amm-0
nitrites - 0
ph - .05
sg 1.024
ph 8.2
temp 80
 
Wow that is very high nitrates! At that level it probably could start to kill of your CUC, but you would see that pretty quickly I would imagine.

Do you have a DSB? If it were me, and I had nailed the problem down to the sandbed, I would start removing it. SB's do need to be replaced every once in a while, and if this is the tank you've had running since 01, i'd say its about due. Don't remove it all at once though, its going to be a bit of a process. And once your done removing all the sand, don't add the new stuff all at once either.

First thing I would do though it find out exactly whats going on. Could it be a bad test kit?
 
My tank runs 40-60ppm NO3 commonly due to bioload. My CUC is unaffected. If your unable to solve the ongoing nitrate problem, cut down on feeds, increase water changes and consider a denitrator.
 
I don't think 50ppm will harm cuc orgainisms. It will, however harm certain corals.
 
thank you for the replies.

Ryand lf, I am pretty positive it is the sand bed, to remove it, should I just syphon a portion of it while I am doing the water changes? Or should I do it another way?Also, tried 2 diff test kits, API and salifert, same thing.

Eric, I currently feed every other day(3 fish), a small pinch gone within 1 min., skim 24/7, denitrator probably not an option, due to space considerations.

tmz, that is what I have heard, which is why I want to get them down. I want to have zoos, shrooms, and a few branching montiporas eventually. I have also heard that zoos can tolerate higher nitrates and can also be somewhat beneficial in nitrate removal. Is this true?

I have been dosing vodka for 4 weeks now, up to 2.3 ml a day with no change yet. Thanks for all the help...
 
MODERATOR, not sure how I put this up in the chemistry forum, but is it possible to get it moved the Reef Discussion forum for more replies?
Or should I just repost it over there?

Thanks,
Dave
 
Killerreef

Disco ma mushrooms wont mind the nitrate. Monitpora digtata and other types don't like them at all in my experience.
Zoanthidae is a family which includes several genera. Zoanthus, palythoa ,protopalythoa and several others. Some live in turbid water and may be more tolerant of nitrates than others. Generally zoanthus are reef animals and live in waters with near 0 nitrate.
Nitrates drive zooanthelae growth in corals as well as nuisance algae growth in the tank. In corals they can brown them up and/or lead to ill health. Keeping them low is a worthy goal.
 
tmz, thank you for the quick reply. Iwill keep on my schedule of getting them back down to 0 before adding the corals...

Bertoni, thank you very much...
 
in my 90g tank i have nitrate level at 80-100 my all acroporas are dead i used any possible treatment to lover the nitrates with no success my nitrates started to go high when i switched to a new tank 3 months ago when i used 80% new live sand and 20% old send which was one year old still don't know what to do to lover my nitrates of course i cut at half feeding the live stock just waiting for some magic
 
xblue, I'll let you know whatever work for me...

going to do a huge h20 change, 50%, and remove 1/4 of my sandbed this weekend for a starter
 
I believe removing 1/4 of sand bed at once may exacerbate your problem. I would just start doing weekly water changes and maybe remove 1/8 at a time. Maybe do a water change every 5 days. Do you have a reactor or old canister filter you can you can load up with nitrate removing media.......
 
Thanks for all the great replies...

xblueone, thanks for the link, is it ok to use that AND keep up the vodka, if not, since I have been using the vodka, I will probably stay that route...

Shane, thanks for the advice on the sandbed removal, I will only take out 1/8 at a time. I do have a calcium reactor I am not using, can you explain more about how I should use that?

Also, thanks for the tip on vodka, I didn't realize it would take that long.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15440105#post15440105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xblueonex1977
in my 90g tank i have nitrate level at 80-100 my all acroporas are dead i used any possible treatment to lover the nitrates with no success my nitrates started to go high when i switched to a new tank 3 months ago when i used 80% new live sand and 20% old send which was one year old still don't know what to do to lover my nitrates of course i cut at half feeding the live stock just waiting for some magic
A sulfur denitrator worked for me. Here is a diy thread fyi:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1288082&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
 
tmz, I am totally not a DIYer, but thank you for the link...

What about macroalgaes? Are there any that can be kept in my main tank(hidden behind my LR) that will survive my purple tang? Or any that don't need much light, if any, that can be kept in the sump successfully?

TIA,
Dave
 
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