Help me reduce my nitrate

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 25, 2014

tonizzy22 said:
I have had a similar situation when running gfo and biopellets at the same time. Nitrates began to rise and rise for no reason.

Do you mean for no apparent reason? Because it is clear why nitrate would rise in such a situation if phosphate becomes limiting to bacterial growth.

tonizzy22 · Dec 25, 2014

Yes you are correct phosphate was limited in my system. I believe it will be in op tank as well if he plans to carbon dose now if he continues with the way he uses gfo

ReefFreak@ · Dec 25, 2014

ok so from reading your post it sounds like your made a rather radical change from bare bottom to sand back to bare bottom.And while nitrates should be low but not as low as once thought for sps, sps require STABILITY! By changing things around it sounds like you disturbed the balance that they were acustumed to and that would make them brown out.Hope this helps.

Vmacisback · Dec 27, 2014

ReefFreak@ said:
ok so from reading your post it sounds like your made a rather radical change from bare bottom to sand back to bare bottom.And while nitrates should be low but not as low as once thought for sps, sps require STABILITY! By changing things around it sounds like you disturbed the balance that they were acustumed to and that would make them brown out.Hope this helps.

no it didnt help, I know they require stability, they are not browned out just not popping like they use to be. I think you read this wrong I went from BB tank and added sand nothing else.

Vmacisback · Dec 27, 2014

Randy,

Do you see anything wrong with dosing VSV or vodka and running a ATS? Reason is the ATS seems like a slow route for a SPS tank with high nitrates as of now. Id like to get them down fairly quickly with VSV and continue to dose it or just let the ATS do its things after the nitrate and phos have reached a minimal level. Let me know what you think of the combo of these 2 methods together. Thanks