High nitrate on IM 20g

TimothyTran · Oct 1, 2017

For some reason I cannot get my nitrate to go down, I do water changes every other day about a quarter of a gallon. Also have no live rocks in this tank, maybe that could be the reason why... not sure but my nitrate stays around 20-25. I have siporax that I just put in a few days ago, needs to be cycled more. Everything else seems fine in my tank, only been running it for 2 1/2 months. Any suggestions on how I can bring down my nitrate and keep it down??

apt220 · Oct 1, 2017

The siporax should be able to colonize some denitrifying bacteria but it would probably take a few weeks or even months settle in. Changing 1.25% of water at a time is not going to put a dent in your nitrates. Give it some time, maybe it will drop as the tank matures but not having rock in the tank is not helping the situation either IMO.

TimothyTran · Oct 1, 2017

apt220 said:
The siporax should be able to colonize some denitrifying bacteria but it would probably take a few weeks or even months settle in. Changing 1.25% of water at a time is not going to put a dent in your nitrates. Give it some time, maybe it will drop as the tank matures but not having rock in the tank is not helping the situation either IMO.

Yeah i only have fake rock made from aquarocks, its custom made... heard it takes about 3 months to cycle the siporax all the way.

120reefkeeper · Oct 1, 2017

Siporax does work and it does take time. I currently have 20L of it in my sump. What I did is buy some Life Bio Fil from Aquaforest and added that also. The Life Bio Fil comes pre seeded with bacteria so it's ready to go.

http://aquaforest.eu/en/product/life-bio-fil/