Dropping nitrates
- Thread starter reefndude
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saltyphish
Certified Sand Groomer
Yes you can drop it too fast. Especially if you have coral in there. They can start to bleach or have other problems if you remove the nitrates too fast and too much.
You can try to cut em in half each day.
In order to drop the Nitrates in half in one day, you'd need to do 50% water changes.
Able to do 2 25% changes in one day? Only way to get em down fast is doing big water changes. Theoretically if you change 1/2 your water you remove half the nitrates at the same time. I don't really know if changing 25% twice in one day would do the samething.
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reefndude
Valuable Member
I could probably do 2 25% water changes in a 12 hr. Period
I have 25 gallons mixing at the moment. Will see if that puts a dent into my readings. With a 20g change last night that will be 45g in a 24 hr. Period
I have 25 gallons mixing at the moment. Will see if that puts a dent into my readings. With a 20g change last night that will be 45g in a 24 hr. Period
bobman
Well-Known Member
By doing 2x25% water changes you would be lowering the nitrate levels 37.5%. This means doing 2x25% in 1 day shoul lower your nitrates from 34 ppm to about 12.75 (or 13). Then if you did the same the next day you would have 4.78 ppm (or 5 ppm). Thats pretty quick drop in nitrates imo. You also will need to figure out why your nitrates are this high or else you will be doing large water changes forever to fight nitrates.
What kind of filtration do you have?
What kind of filtration do you have?
bobman
Well-Known Member
I just realized my math was off in the previous post if you did 2 25% water changes it would lower you nitrates to about 19. Then if you repeated this again the next day you would wind up with 11 ppm. Then if you did it for day 3 you would wind up at about 7-8 ppm of Nitrates.
Still you would have to figure out where your nitrates are coming from.
Still you would have to figure out where your nitrates are coming from.
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reefndude
Valuable Member
I believe nitrates jumped up when my dsb was pushed around. I must of switched the setting on my powerheads before I went to bed. It ran all night and all next day while I was at work. Returned home to see most of the sand from center of tank was pushed to the both the left and right side of tank.
Been about a month and none of the corals seemed to have been bothered by it. Nitrates has held steady with increased water changes. Up from 5g a week to 10. Now I'm trying to bring the trates down. There's a little bit more algae growth in the tank and glass needs to be cleaned daily since increase of nitrates. I figured cheato would have grown but has not.
Been about a month and none of the corals seemed to have been bothered by it. Nitrates has held steady with increased water changes. Up from 5g a week to 10. Now I'm trying to bring the trates down. There's a little bit more algae growth in the tank and glass needs to be cleaned daily since increase of nitrates. I figured cheato would have grown but has not.
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reefndude
Valuable Member
My filtration was the use of dsb and rock. Chaeto used to growork just fine. I harvested some to give to a fellow reefer and since then it has just shrunk. Not sure what going on there.
Also use ats, which grows some hair algae. Use carbon and some gfo.
Also use ats, which grows some hair algae. Use carbon and some gfo.
bobman
Well-Known Member
For the alge not growing you probably have little to no phosphates. If you want alge to grow run less GFO. I would assume the nitrates might be coming from the sump/fuge containing detrius and/or the deep sand bed.
With nitrate issues there is a process to find out why you are not being able to get them down. First there is water changes however by doing 10% weekly water changes if you have 34 ppm then you are only actually removing 3-4 ppm of nitrate with water changes a week. Thats not a big number. So the second thing to do is figure out where they are coming from at a faster rate than your biofiltration can handle. Have you added anything to the tank that would have increased bio load recently? Is the detrius build up in the sump and rocks? Is there enough rocks in the system to handle your bioload. Are you feeding to much or to often?
Reason I ask all this is you can lower nitrates by water changes alone but doing 25% changes twice a day is very costly and time consuming to be able to maintain over the long term. Sure its a way to cut them into acceptable numbers but it will just climb back up if the underlying source is not corrected.
Also are you able to maintain it at 34 ppm or is it slowly climbing? If it is holding at this level then lowering it back down might just work if while you do these changes you also do a good cleaning. This can eliminate some possible sources of your issue. If it stays down then great problem solved go on being a happy reefer. If it climbs back then you know the source is still there and could possibly be the sand bed causing the issue or something else. Its a process of elimination usually to find the source and correct it. BUt at least you can find it and correct it.
With nitrate issues there is a process to find out why you are not being able to get them down. First there is water changes however by doing 10% weekly water changes if you have 34 ppm then you are only actually removing 3-4 ppm of nitrate with water changes a week. Thats not a big number. So the second thing to do is figure out where they are coming from at a faster rate than your biofiltration can handle. Have you added anything to the tank that would have increased bio load recently? Is the detrius build up in the sump and rocks? Is there enough rocks in the system to handle your bioload. Are you feeding to much or to often?
Reason I ask all this is you can lower nitrates by water changes alone but doing 25% changes twice a day is very costly and time consuming to be able to maintain over the long term. Sure its a way to cut them into acceptable numbers but it will just climb back up if the underlying source is not corrected.
Also are you able to maintain it at 34 ppm or is it slowly climbing? If it is holding at this level then lowering it back down might just work if while you do these changes you also do a good cleaning. This can eliminate some possible sources of your issue. If it stays down then great problem solved go on being a happy reefer. If it climbs back then you know the source is still there and could possibly be the sand bed causing the issue or something else. Its a process of elimination usually to find the source and correct it. BUt at least you can find it and correct it.
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reefndude
Valuable Member
It has held steady at 34 ppm for the month or so since noticing the jump. The big jump was from sand getting blown around. Always checked nitrates monthly. Always registered 0...this set up has been running for year and a half. Because of the 0 readings I did add more fish. Five or six more in a 6 month period. With the new fish phosphates did jump up from .03 to .11 ppm. Added gfo about two months ago, still holding steady. I was only using 75% of recommended amount. I did add 100% of recommended amount this morning.
I'm cleaning sump during this process. Very little detritus in the sump actually. Always blown off my rocks monthly and I throw on a filter sock while doing this. Hoping my sand bed just needs to settle back in and all will be good. If not, maybe it will be time for a skimmer?
I don't plan on feeding any less and I like all the fish...Probably to many in my system but I like it
I'm cleaning sump during this process. Very little detritus in the sump actually. Always blown off my rocks monthly and I throw on a filter sock while doing this. Hoping my sand bed just needs to settle back in and all will be good. If not, maybe it will be time for a skimmer?
I don't plan on feeding any less and I like all the fish...Probably to many in my system but I like it
bobman
Well-Known Member
I dont have much experance with deep sand beds but have heard they can cause spikes if stired up. Could be your issue but could also be the fish and coral are over loading your filtration also. I would do the water changes to bring it back down and see where you stand. I would also consider a skimmer and if the nitrates climb you can always consider vodka dosing (the tank that is)
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reefndude
Valuable Member
Already started dosing vodka...not the tank lol. That's the plan, bring nitrates back down and see what happens. If I can't control nitrates with the way I'm doing it I guess a skimmer will be added to the system.
