High Nitrate and Phosphate control

[Jimmyneptune]

I have a system that is about 120 total gallons whigh has high nitrates and phosphates.

50 for the nitrates - Salifert

.94 for the phosphates --Hanna Checker



I did a 35 gallon water change 3 days ago and last week I dossed Lanthanum Chloride, only a small amount 2ml. Prior to both those actions my Nitrate was around 80 and my Phosphate was 1.24. I do have a refugium with chaeto that is stable but not growing. My LPS seem stable but my SPS has taken a turn for the worse. It will grow and then recced.



I have some Seachem Matrix on order, should get in about a week, for the Nitrate and I was planning on dosing Lanthanum Chloride as my Nitrate lowered.



I was thinking about vinegar dosing to start bringing down my nitrate until the Seachem Matrix lowers the nitrate. Do you have to dose vinegar every day? I will be away from my aquarium for 4-5 days and I don’t want to leave dosing to anyone but me. Suggestions, ideas, questions, or a plans of action are welcome.

Thanks

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Matrix is great bio media but won't necessarily just drop your nitrate.

Sure it has the capability of going anaerobic but would need to be in really low flow but may not be all that effective.

 

[clm65]

I was in a similar (but worse) situation earlier this year (nitrates over 400, phosphates around 2.5). I started dosing NOPOX, which resulted in a pretty bad bacteria bloom problem (even though I was dosing less than the recommended amount). I switched to vinegar, and it did a good job of bringing down the nitrates. Still had bacteria blooms, but they gradually decreased over time. I started manually dosing, but quickly ended up getting a BRS dosing pump so that I could dose a consistent amount at regular intervals. I recommend this, which would also help when you leave the tank for a few days. While I was doing daily doses of vinegar, I also did weekly or biweekly lanthanum chloride dosing (mostly with Phosphate RX).

And I was not good at vacuuming my sand over the years (tank is about 19 years old). This was a major contributor to the high nitrates. During my nitrate reduction efforts, I vacuumed a portion of the sand with each water change. This had a very noticeable impact on nitrate levels, and immediately resulted in a step changes for the better.

I also added quite a bit of Matrix. I think between the Matrix finally kicking in and not reducing the vinegar dosing quick enough, I ended up bottoming out my nitrates. I think this contributed to some cyano that I'm currently dealing with. So my advice there is to closely monitor your nitrates and slow down the vinegar dosing before they get too low. And don't reduce your phosphate too much, or the vinegar dosing may not be effective for nitrate removal.

 

[Nitcrawler]

I was in a similar (but worse) situation earlier this year (nitrates over 400, phosphates around 2.5). I started dosing NOPOX, which resulted in a pretty bad bacteria bloom problem (even though I was dosing less than the recommended amount). I switched to vinegar, and it did a good job of bringing down the nitrates. Still had bacteria blooms, but they gradually decreased over time. I started manually dosing, but quickly ended up getting a BRS dosing pump so that I could dose a consistent amount at regular intervals. I recommend this, which would also help when you leave the tank for a few days. While I was doing daily doses of vinegar, I also did weekly or biweekly lanthanum chloride dosing (mostly with Phosphate RX).

And I was not good at vacuuming my sand over the years (tank is about 19 years old). This was a major contributor to the high nitrates. During my nitrate reduction efforts, I vacuumed a portion of the sand with each water change. This had a very noticeable impact on nitrate levels, and immediately resulted in a step changes for the better.

I also added quite a bit of Matrix. I think between the Matrix finally kicking in and not reducing the vinegar dosing quick enough, I ended up bottoming out my nitrates. I think this contributed to some cyano that I'm currently dealing with. So my advice there is to closely monitor your nitrates and slow down the vinegar dosing before they get too low. And don't reduce your phosphate too much, or the vinegar dosing may not be effective for nitrate removal.

I’m going though the same problem.