Best way to lower nitrates?

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 26, 2016

I;m not even sure what the issue is anymore.

Zoa's, except for one are all open and look good. The one remains closed.

Three hammers and octospawn all open.
Torch, open.
Blue Goni, open
Jawbreakers, superman mushroom, open.
Nem, open and extended
SPS, two PE extended, the others are not, including, red planet, shortcake and a few others.

Fleshy coral, not open.

Sabellafella · Mar 26, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
Thank you for the compliments. I just switched (back) this week to Red Sea Coral Pro. I know the ALK is listed at 12, but after the water change on Thursday (around 30 gallons) and I just finished another 20 gallon change, the ALK hasn't changed past 8.5. I tested the nitrates last night and they were back down to 10-20. I was a little confused by what you said...are you saying I need to go Fallow? If so, why?

Sorry if i skipped anything but velvet is nassssttyy, maybe youve done fallow already. A few months back when i was using rscp, i was getting a large jump in alk from a wc, a little over 1 dkh. The corals werent that fond of And it was messing me up as i was (and still) trying to get my dosing pump tuned in. I switched back to IO and just dose the fresh salt water to the levels of my tank. I can do 20-40% changes without stressing corals this way, but before all this i was using esv because i got real lazy so i would do almost a 50% change every 1-2 months. Esv alk-8.5 calc-450 mag-1400 might fit your needs.
It drives me nuts to see a coral not doing well, but if everything else is thriving i wouldnt tinker or change anything on the tank. I would give a quick dip, maybe it survives, maybe not. 3 weeks ago i litterally moved a cc og darth maul favia about 8 inches down on my frag rack and melted it in a week

Sabellafella · Mar 26, 2016

Do you dose anything/calc reactor? Once again sorry if i passed it

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 26, 2016

Sabellafella said:
Do you dose anything/calc reactor? Once again sorry if i passed it

I have a doser. I dose 20ml's of ALK and 30 of CAL. I am using B-Ionic two part. I always dose Fuel once a week.

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 26, 2016

Also, I have quite a few fish, but only three are "large". My maculicepps tang is around 6 or 7", my Moorish Idol is 6" and so is my Quoyi parrot.

TheWhiteFord · Mar 26, 2016

@Breakthrcycle2 have you tried dosing Microbacter7 with your No3Po4X? It worked like magic to get the nitrates down in my tank. The combination boosts the nitrifying bacteria population hugely!

furam28 · Mar 26, 2016

ReefingWhiteford said:
@Breakthrcycle2 have you tried dosing Microbacter7 with your No3Po4X? It worked like magic to get the nitrates down in my tank. The combination boosts the nitrifying bacteria population hugely!

Microbacter is nitrogen fixing bacteria. It converts ammonia to nitrite and nitrate. With carbon dosing you promote carbon fixing bacteria. If the tank is fully cycled, dosing microbacter will not help much on affecting nitrate levels.