Then either you're feeding each fish a cube of food a day and not telling us or the rock is leaching. I'm going with the latter. There was probably a big die off when it was shipped due to poor shipping practices in the exporting country.
Im not sure. I felt the water actually got clearer. After I got a handle on things, backed down the dose, the residue in the sump dissipated. I just assumed that's what it was from. Using vodka.OK, because I never saw any bacteria except hazing of the water at super high doses. I know some people do get unsightly bacteria, but that seems to be much less than half the time.
Thanks for the thoughtful Reply Mindy. I do remember seeing in some threads people posting 50ppm NO3 readings. I can only assume that it is not the case in my tank as I do see an increase in algae growth when the Nitrates are higher vs lower. Maybe I am getting some interference but the good news is I haven't had 50ppm Nitrates in a while. Other than a weekly brown dusting on the sand/glass things are looking a lot better...they're just not where I want them to be yet.A few thoughts...
In the spring when "everyone" on this side of the pond started using Aquaforest there was a whole whack of people getting 50 ppm NO3 readings from Salifert test kits in tanks that certainly didn't look like they contained 50 ppm NO3. "We" were wondering if there was some sort of interference with the test kits. I never saw this happen in my tank using Aquaforest, but I didn't really use NP Pro, and maybe that's where the issue was. I'm not sure if there was ever a real conclusion to this 50 ppm NO3 reading.
A second thought, did you start with dry rock? I've seen a lot of tanks started with dry rock struggle with NO3 for the first 12-18 months. Not every tank, but certainly a good portion. I assume this is probably because it takes time for dry rock to develop anaerobic bacteria populations for denitrification. It seems like many products on the market that use anaerobic bacteria for N and P reduction can develop these anaerobic populations quite quickly, though maybe this is because of media size - biopellets for carbon dosing, and products like Siporax are certainly much smaller than a chunk of dry rock. Maybe adding some Siporax to the sump (particularly in a low flow reactor to encourage an anaerobic zone) would help reduce N and P until the dry rock can catch up.
Lastly, are you using GFO or some other phosphate reducing media? If you bottom out PO4 to absolute zero, then NO3 will have a tendency to rise since the anaerobic bacteria require NO3, PO4, and organic carbon in order to survive. So if you are missing any one of these 3 ingredients, the other 2 may rise. So a lack of PO4 could cause NO3 to rise, just as a lack of NO3 could cause PO4 to rise. You can do all the organic carbon dosing your little heart desires, and if there is no PO4 you won't see significant NO3 reduction. This is why manufacturers don't recommend using GFO with carbon dosing. It's easier to "not recommend" it, than to explain this.
. I don't want to drive the system too hard with carbon dosing but I am using it as a supplement technique along with hopefully removing/reducing Nitrate sources/sinks.
Thanks for the thoughtful Reply Mindy. I do remember seeing in some threads people posting 50ppm NO3 readings. I can only assume that it is not the case in my tank as I do see an increase in algae growth when the Nitrates are higher vs lower. Maybe I am getting some interference but the good news is I haven't had 50ppm Nitrates in a while. Other than a weekly brown dusting on the sand/glass things are looking a lot better...they're just not where I want them to be yet.
I did originally start with BRS dry pukani rock. The tank has been up since the winter of 2014/2015 and the rock went through an acid bath. I would hope that any remaining organics would've leached out by now. However, I know I had some dead spots that were recently relieved by adding a Gyre 130 so hopefully that will only improve things over time.
I actually have a gallon of Matrix media (minus any stones I removed that clearly weren't meant to be there) that has been in the sump since the Spring. I could always add more but I assumed a gallon would put me right in line.
I am not using GFO or any other phosphate reducing media nor do I plan to
Thanks for the recommendations Jason. I went to AcanLord today and Stephen is a stand up guy and runs a nice shop! He has some of the cleanest tanks I've seen in a store which is really nice to see.
Yeah honestly I do not feed a lot. My wife is a little more heavy handed than me and she feeds during the week but regardless we aren't putting a ton of food in the water. I recently switched over to Larry's LFS Reef Frenzy so hopefully that will make some difference (how much time will tell). To put it in perspective, I have a 30 gallon tank (in addition to this 60 gallon) that I cannot keep nitrates in and I would say I feed proportionally. That tank is barebottom, however, and I do not carbon dose in it.
Yes I am aware and it's really funny that you say that because it has been a thought in my mind as well. I've even thought about holding on to some of the NSW that I make with the probiotic reef salt for a week to test it for NO3 but I doubt it would show anything without nitrifying bacteria present to break things down.
