nitrates

[saleencobra]

the nitrates in my hospital tank are about 50ppm. there is nothing in it now. will the nitrates drop with the tank being empty or am i going to have to do water changes. does az-no3 nitrate reducer work, it got a couple of good reviews at premium aquatics.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How big is it? I might just be inclined to do a 100% water change.

 

[saleencobra]

400 gallons...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

oh.

AZ-NO3 seems to work for some folks, but I do not recommend it since they do not reveal what it is.

A good option might be to toss in some macroalgae, light it for a while, and let it take up nitrate and phosphate.

I still might do it by water change since nitrate may not be the only issue with the old water.

This article suggests other methods:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

 

[NeilPearson]

400 gallon hospital tank... wow

 

[Wiggawam]

And your display tank is what size?

 

[NeilPearson]

Current Tanks: 1500 gal system half reef-half fowlr

... but it doesn't say the tank sizes

Must be breeding dolphins

 

[GMAX]

400 gallon hospital tank. Seriously your hospital tank is more than twice my display tank and I have what most consider a big tank. What the hell are you quarantining in that ?

I liked RHF response "oh".

 

[saleencobra]

the 400 is one my old tanks that i cant let go of, so it became a hospital tank. it is 4' tall and very hard to clean to use for a display. the display tanks are all 30" tall. there is a 96x24 and a 92x24,the 2 small ones are 31x31 and the big one is 96x30. guess i will have to start doing water changes to get the nitrates down so i can order more fish.