75ppm Nitrates

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

So as the title says I have 75ppm nitrates. It is a 90g with a 30g sump. I have a lot of live rock. Its been up and running for 3 years.
I have a purple tang, flame hawkfish, diamond goby, 2 yellowtail damsels, and a maroon clown. Its stocked with coral and doing good except my candy cane. I also have a ritteri and rock nem.
Mg 1350
Ca 440
KH 9
PO4 .03
NO3 75
SG 1.024
PH 8.2

I run a vertex 150 and a reactor with matrix carbon and phosgaurd. Also live rock in my sump. I feed about 10ml of fish frenzy once a day. I do not dose anything besides Ca and Mg. I do a 10g water change once a week religiously. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt. My RODI is a brs 6 stage with Spectrapure filters and DI resin. My tds is always zero coming out of RODI. I have NOPOX and debating to use it. Thanks for reading this far and ALL opinions are welcome.

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

Diesel · Jan 7, 2016

That's high!
You must have somewhere a No3 source in your tank. Food or ditritus somewhere that spikes your No3.
I would do a large WC first and see if it drops.
Blow your LR with a pump first to get the ditritus out. If it does lets see if it's stays there.
Dosing bacteria can also lower your No3 and of course the use of algae in your sump.
Lets see who from the neighborhood cam shine some more light on this [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

twilliard · Jan 7, 2016

What are you using to test no3?

143MPCo · Jan 7, 2016

Have you disturbed the sand bed at all?

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

twilliard said:
What are you using to test no3?

Red sea AND salifert

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

143MPCo said:
Have you disturbed the sand bed at all?

Yes the diamond goby is relentless.

tankstudy · Jan 7, 2016

You could possibly drop the phosguard and use biopellets. This way instead of just removing just phosphates, you will remove nitrates and phosphates at once.

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

tankstudy said:
You could possibly drop the phosguard and use biopellets. This way instead of just removing just phosphates, you will remove nitrates and phosphates at once.

Ive tried. My reactor isnt powerful enough to tumble. Guess i could get a new pump.

tankstudy · Jan 7, 2016

Yeah, biopellets may work well for you because you have so much nitrate.

In my tanks, I just don't ever have enough nitrates for biopellets but I have plenty of phosphates!

143MPCo · Jan 7, 2016

joshkirkland83 said:
Red sea AND salifert

how old are those?

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

143MPCo said:
how old are those?

The red sea is brand new. Got it on black friday sale. I have two. One algae management and the other nitrate only. The expiration on the tests are 2017 except the new one which is 2018.

twilliard · Jan 7, 2016

Testing error?
If you have the algae control kit it has the colormetric wheel.
What is the color of the vial when testing?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 7, 2016

There are many good ways to reduce nitrate, which is coming from foods.

The NOPOX or other type of organic carbon dosing can be a fine plan, but is not the only one.

I use many at the same time and compare methods here:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

twilliard · Jan 7, 2016

Or .75 is what the wheel states

I think I see the error

143MPCo · Jan 7, 2016

Diesel said:
I would do a large WC first and see if it drops.

I agree with this!
It will help get it down the fastest.

But, you'll still need to try and root cause why so high once under control assuming it's not a testing error.

joshkirkland83 · Jan 7, 2016

twilliard said:
Or .75 is what the wheel states
I think I see the error

Im sorry. Yes .75. The darkest pink. Basically purple.

DLuce510 · Jan 7, 2016

Tank looks good man, if the fish are happy and the corals are happy I wouldn't go too crazy to fast. Some times its just a number that's bothering us when everything else is happy. I had great results with NOPOX, in fact too good, after a period of time it stripped my system of any nutrients. Start slow and let it drop over time but, once again, if your fish and corals are happy and there's no algae blooms what are we really trying to fix? A number?