High nitrate despite Chaeto algae?

[oualid]

I have very high nitrate, 50 ppm, despite very good growth of Chaeto algae as you can see in the picture.
The quantity of the Chaeto in the picture should absorb a part of the nitrate.

The only change I did was to add PhosBan for two weeks ago.
Could it be the cause of the rising of nitrate??

The aquarium is about 6 years old and volume is a bout 158 gallons.

Any idea?

 

[GHOSTLY]

I find removing some then placing it back in will bringing down much faster

 

[M Stein]

How heavily are you stocked and how much do you feed?
Also what are your other methods of filtration?
Chaeto is not always enough.

 

[oualid]

How heavily are you stocked and how much do you feed?
Also what are your other methods of filtration?
Chaeto is not always enough.

Roller + Chaeto + skimmer.

 

[M Stein]

How much do you feed?

 

[Miami Reef]

That cheato is not going to suck 50ppm of nitrites. Not even close tbh. You need 100+Gal of cheato for that effect.

Here’s what I would do: first check your RODI or saltwater for nitrates. You need to know if you are adding nutrients without knowing.

Next, check your feeding regimen. Are you over feeding?

Filtration: Filter socks? Skimmer? Anything??? The cheato doesn’t count unfortunately. Too small for your tank size.

Dose vodka to the tank. There is an online chart when you google “vodka dosing chart reef tank” that will tell you exactly how much per how long. It’s very effective because it fuels the beneficial bacteria that consumes the nitrates. It works naturally with your filter. Note: protein skimmer is required with this method.

Last but not least: water changes.

 

[oualid]

How much do you feed?

Two times per day.

 

[M Stein]

Two times per day.

How much, as in how many cubes.

 

[oualid]

How much, as in how many cubes.

It's pellets, two smal spoons, and some flakes.

 

[oualid]

That cheato is not going to suck 50ppm of nitrites. Not even close tbh. You need 100+Gal of cheato for that effect.

Here’s what I would do: first check your RODI or saltwater for nitrates. You need to know if you are adding nutrients without knowing.

Next, check your feeding regimen. Are you over feeding?

Filtration: Filter socks? Skimmer? Anything??? The cheato doesn’t count unfortunately. Too small for your tank size.

Dose vodka to the tank. There is an online chart when you google “vodka dosing chart reef tank” that will tell you exactly how much per how long. It’s very effective because it fuels the beneficial bacteria that consumes the nitrates. It works naturally with your filter. Note: protein skimmer is required with this method.

Last but not least: water changes.

Maybe NoPox?

 

[M Stein]

Maybe NoPox?

I just use the cheapest 40% vodka. But NoPox should work.

It's pellets, two smal spoons, and some flakes.

small spoons as in teaspoons? also what kind of fish do you have? Do they need that much?

You need 100+Gal of cheato for that effect.

according to BRS you can run an small refugium on large tanks as long as you use high quality lights. I've never used a fuge before so I can't speak as to how effective they are. But it stands to reason that if you're using cheap gro-lights instead of proper refugium lights your cheato won't be effective enough.

The aquarium is about 6 years old

How long have you had this problem for? Maybe this is the result of some kind of change you made.
One other thing to look into, is flow. If you have dead areas, there might be some detritus built up there. Wafting the areas with your hand prior to doing a water change might help.

 

[Spare time]

That cheato is not going to suck 50ppm of nitrites. Not even close tbh. You need 100+Gal of cheato for that effect.

Here’s what I would do: first check your RODI or saltwater for nitrates. You need to know if you are adding nutrients without knowing.

Next, check your feeding regimen. Are you over feeding?

Filtration: Filter socks? Skimmer? Anything??? The cheato doesn’t count unfortunately. Too small for your tank size.

Dose vodka to the tank. There is an online chart when you google “vodka dosing chart reef tank” that will tell you exactly how much per how long. It’s very effective because it fuels the beneficial bacteria that consumes the nitrates. It works naturally with your filter. Note: protein skimmer is required with this method.

Last but not least: water changes.

I strongly disagree that chaeto will not remove that much nitrate. You can run chaeto as a primary nitrate export with no water changes and achieved 0 nitrate.

 

[Spare time]

The GFO you added is competing with the chaeto for phosphate, and the chaeto rwquires both phosphate and nitrate to grow. Thus if you remove phosphate via one way (not algae), the chaeto stops removing phosphate and nitrate together.


If you are not testing phosphate then stop the GFO and wait till you can test it.

 

[Dan_P]

I have very high nitrate, 50 ppm, despite very good growth of Chaeto algae as you can see in the picture.
The quantity of the Chaeto in the picture should absorb a part of the nitrate.

The only change I did was to add PhosBan for two weeks ago.
Could it be the cause of the rising of nitrate??

The aquarium is about 6 years old and volume is a bout 158 gallons.

Any idea?

Stay with what works. You simply need to grow more Chaeto. Do what you are doing on a larger scale. This possibly means adding PO4 if it becomes depleted. And I also wonder, but have no answer about, large amounts of macro algae growth depleting micro nutrients like iron. Something to keep in mind if you scale up Chaeto growth.