High Nitrate Issue

[sfin52]

Zero po4 is a reqson for coral not to be thriving. Coral needs po4 to keep its zooenthelly alive

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I'd restart the refugium, stay away from the seachem prime if it killed the chaeto. Use some reef roids until you can detect po4. Get a hanna po4 tester.
Nitrates don't bind to rock, but does get trapped in detritus.
This takes time. Maybe reduce feeding until you see the no3 dropping.

Up until I tore down the fuge, I was using caulerpa as a replacement to the chaeto that died. I heard caulerpa consumes more po4 than chaeto, so that was one of the motivators to remove it. Someone else here awhile back theorized the reason my biopellets still haven't taken off is due to zero po4 in my system for the anaerobic bacteria to populate, which a few others here over the years have faced and also caused their biopellets to not take off.

Are you sure restarting the fuge is a good idea? If so, chaeto or caulerpa?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

40 isn't terribly high my nitrates are close to 100. I don't chase anymore. Fried my tank and ended with dino.
How often are you changing your socks?

I clean them 2-3 times a week. I wait for the water inside the sock to look like it's starting to build up, indicating the sock is full.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Sox can be nitrate sources if not changes every 3 or 4 days.
Took mine out.

They are cleaned 2-3 times a week.

 

[Jekyl]

Chaeto with a good light will take care of nitrates in quick order.

 

[Pistondog]

Up until I tore down the fuge, I was using caulerpa as a replacement to the chaeto that died. I heard caulerpa consumes more po4 than chaeto, so that was one of the motivators to remove it. Someone else here awhile back theorized the reason my biopellets still haven't taken off is due to zero po4 in my system for the anaerobic bacteria to populate, which a few others here over the years have faced and also caused their biopellets to not take off.

Are you sure restarting the fuge is a good idea? If so, chaeto or caulerpa?

I feed 2 cubes and 8x8 nori in 125 g total. And have excess po4 controlled with gfo. Refugium handles my nitrates < 10ppm.
You should have excess po4 unless something is binding it, marine pure?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Zero po4 is a reqson for coral not to be thriving. Coral needs po4 to keep its zooenthelly alive

I know. And mine aren't very thriving at the moment. My torch shriveled up its tentacles and turned neon green at the ends. My bubble coral melted away, my pulsing pom pom Xenia melted away, my birdsnest grew brown algae and died, my palythoas shrank up, and my Duncans are mostly never open and, when they are, they aren't fully open.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I feed 2 cubes and 8x8 nori in 125 g total. And have excess po4 controlled with gfo. Refugium handles my nitrates < 10ppm.
You should have excess po4 unless something is binding it, marine pure?

I only recently added the marine pure. I've been dealing with this issue long before that block was added, so it's not that.

 

[Jekyl]

I had nitrates way higher than yours. No sump. Between water changes, skimmer and NoPox I have them steady at 15 or 20

 

[Pistondog]

You could also dose vodka or vinegar or both (nopox).

 

[sfin52]

I know. And mine aren't very thriving at the moment. My torch shriveled up its tentacles and turned neon green at the ends. My bubble coral melted away, my pulsing pom pom Xenia melted away, my birdsnest grew brown algae and died, my palythoas shrank up, and my Duncans are mostly never open and, when they are, they aren't fully open.

Can you post pics and have you tested for dino

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I had nitrates way higher than yours. No sump. Between water changes, skimmer and NoPox I have them steady at 15 or 20

Wish mine would do that.

 

[sfin52]

With out po4 every thing is going to stall even the bacteria. That consumes nitrate. Its all interlocked. Are you using any gfo?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

You could also dose vodka or vinegar or both (nopox).

I've been interested in dosing white vinegar. Just never took the plunge. Someone here had my same exact issue where their biopellets never took off then they dosed white vinegar and it magically started up the pellets and nitrates forever went down as a result. I'll try that out. What's the proper dosing for that on a 150 gallon?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Can you post pics and have you tested for dino

These were just taken now.

 

[Pistondog]

I've been interested in dosing white vinegar. Just never took the plunge. Someone here had my same exact issue where their biopellets never took off then they dosed white vinegar and it magically started up the pellets and nitrates forever went down as a result. I'll try that out. What's the proper dosing for that on a 150 gallon?

Thread 'Carbon dosing daily or weekly?' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carbon-dosing-daily-or-weekly.789863/

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

With out po4 every thing is going to stall even the bacteria. That consumes nitrate. Its all interlocked. Are you using any gfo?

Nope. Nothing for any filtration other than what I already posted earlier.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Oh one other thing I forgot to mention, everyone, is that my return is a quiet one 4000. And the height of the return is about 5ft, so that's about 500gph from the return. I'm not sure if return rate is a factor here or not.

 

[JCOLE]

Hi all. I'm hoping someone here can help. For many months, I have been battling high nitrates without any success of remedying it. I've tried several things including the following but it never worked:

1. Large frequent water changes (made no difference)
2. Seachem Prime dosing (which worked for reducing no3 but tanked po4, fried my alveopora, and killed my chaeto)
3. Carbon dosing with sugar (melted my Xenia and stressed out my torch and frogspawn)
4. Reducing feeding (made no difference)
5. Cutting out foods with no phosphorus content (made no difference)
6. Biopellets (I'm at week 6 and it has made no difference at all)
7. Removing the refugium entirely thinking it was eating too much po4 (has made no difference so far)
8. MB7 dosing (has made no difference)
9. Vacuuming the sand bed and accumulated dutritus (made no difference)
10. Dosing Seachem Phosphorus daily at twice the recommended dose for my tank (made no difference at all to my phosphate level)

I have a 150 gallon tall tank (4' x 2' x 31") with a Pro Clear Aquatics model 300 sump, which has x3 filter socks and two compartments. In the large main compartment, I'm using a Reef Octopus Classic 200INT skimmer and a Red Starfish Media Reactor with 600mL of NPX biopellets then a MarinePure 8x8" plate in the second compartment. I feed one cube of frozen mysis twice daily and a small 4x4" sheet of nori once a day. Inhabitants include:

-A pair of Maroon Clowns
-Longnose Butterfly
-Juvenile Emperor Angel
-Flame Angel
-Coral Beauty Angel
-Blue Tang
-Sailfin Tang
-Powder Blue Tang
-Green Mandarin
-Cleaner Goby

Any ideas as to why my no3 is so high and why I can't get it down?

Do you have any corals and if so, how do they look?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Do you have any corals and if so, how do they look?

I do. I posted pics of the ones that look not so good a few posts ago above. I also have hammer, frogspawn, Kenya tree, red montipora, GSP, fuzzy toadstool, rainbow traciphylia, and zoas that look ok.