Dealing With High Nitrates
- Thread starter katonge
- Start date
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OP
OP
I did start with dry rock & the timing is about right
IsaacHunt
Community Member
I own shares in RedSea
with there current embargo on Russian goods I think Vodka has increased in price and view dosing quality Smirnoff as sacrilege.
on a more serious note if I knew the correct type and dose of vodka or Vinegar I'd be inclined to use it. NoPox is a known quantity which has clear instructions on use.
k2-
Well-Known Member
1) If its not a quarantine system - my recommendation will be to add a skimmer
You have 2 paths to take here :
Wait
Or 100% water change -
I remember my system spiking to 238 (yes not 23.8) and i did a 100% water change and things have been better.
Any dosing method is highly dependent on bacteria process and there is a magic ratio(20:1) in which Po4 and nitrates need to be available for bacteria to eat away the excess nitrates. If the po4 is too low the process may not happen efficiently and ultimately you might have to wait for a long time. Sometimes RCA is not worth the effort and money.
You have 2 paths to take here :
Wait
Or 100% water change -
I remember my system spiking to 238 (yes not 23.8) and i did a 100% water change and things have been better.
Any dosing method is highly dependent on bacteria process and there is a magic ratio(20:1) in which Po4 and nitrates need to be available for bacteria to eat away the excess nitrates. If the po4 is too low the process may not happen efficiently and ultimately you might have to wait for a long time. Sometimes RCA is not worth the effort and money.
Yep, I'd be willing to bet that's what's going on. From what I've witnessed, it doesn't seem to affect anything. My theory is that it's the final stage of cycling where (possibly anaerobic) bacteria is blooming deep inside the larger pieces of rock. The cool part is that once it's done, there will be an abrupt drop in nitrates and it will stay that way. You'll have what I consider "mature" rock at that point.
I'm going to go against what everyone else said to do and NOT use carbon dosing to get the number down because once the cycle is done, it'll crash the nitrate to zero and bleach out your coral. That's my $.02!
