High nitrates in established tank

[aquablizz]

With nitrites and phosphates both near zero, I have always battled high nitrates in my fish only tank.
I have a 75G display and a 40G sump with fuge.. I did water changes, about 25% every week for a month on top of the vodka dosing which has been going on for 2months.. My nitrates still seem to hover right around the 60 ppm range.. Fish are all doing great but this is very frustrating.. I am very stingy with my feeding as I have had this tank for over 10 years.. Plenty of coraline algae on rock and glass. Not much substrate maybe 1/2 inch but always vacuumed well when doing water changes.

Is it possible to bring the nitrates down to less then 5ppm without removing the fish and basically doing a complete water change. would be tough to come up with 100 gals of water at one shot.. I make it but no place to store it..

Any thoughts out there??

 

[tankstudy]

You could increase the number of nitrate consumers in the tank. You could start with macro algae or dose larger amouns of vodka or even add a large biopellet reactor.

 

[aquablizz]

I have macro (grape calupra ) growing but I'm only dosing 7 ML for approx. 90 G. I tried to us cheato but no matter what I did it kept dying off..

 

[ahiggins]

I second a biopellet reactor.
I have a 25 gallon that has an appropriate sized skimmer on it. My nitrates rose to about 60-70 and I was going nuts. (I have coral) and it wouldnt come down.
I added a small biopellet reactor (same size/volume as skimmer) and made it so the outflow of the reactor is the inflow to the skimmer. I rarely go over 5 ppm now-and I have to feed pretty heavily to keep it at 5.

 

[tankstudy]

I have macro (grape calupra ) growing but I'm only dosing 7 ML for approx. 90 G. I tried to us cheato but no matter what I did it kept dying off..

I had bad luck keeping chaeto as well. I had better luck with Dragon's Breath.

I second a biopellet reactor.
I have a 25 gallon that has an appropriate sized skimmer on it. My nitrates rose to about 60-70 and I was going nuts. (I have coral) and it wouldnt come down.
I added a small biopellet reactor (same size/volume as skimmer) and made it so the outflow of the reactor is the inflow to the skimmer. I rarely go over 5 ppm now-and I have to feed pretty heavily to keep it at 5.

How many mL of the biopellets are you running? I was actually thinking of decreasing my biopellets to just about ~20 mL for a 20g nuvo.

 

[aquablizz]

good to know that it is possible to reduce it without a complete water change.
Thanks

 

[aquablizz]

I had bad luck keeping chaeto as well. I had better luck with Dragon's Breath.



How many mL of the biopellets are you running? I was actually thinking of decreasing my biopellets to just about ~20 mL for a 20g nuvo.

I do not have a reactor at this time.

 

[ahiggins]

I use this one. I dont measure solids in mL so Im not sure on that but I fill it up about 1/3 of the way. I have about 1" floating at the top though that bugs the crap out of me...

 

[ahiggins]

I do not have a reactor at this time.

You should try one theyre easy to operate and mine helped out SO MUCH

 

[jhoop]

Vodka dosing took my tanks over two months to kick in. Now nitrates are zero.

 

[Lowstorm]

During your next water change can you take rocks out and swish them around in the old water. I'm betting there's detritus trapped in pockets that's slowly decaying.

 

[ahiggins]

During your next water change can you take rocks out and swish them around in the old water. I'm betting there's detritus trapped in pockets that's slowly decaying.

that could be too-building up as fast as youre doing water changes

 

[Reefaddiction]

What brand of test kit? Try different test kit. R u using ro with di. Water from ro/di come out 0? Do you have good skimer? Is it pul out nasty stuffs? If you have good protein skimer it will keep your nitrate down no problem. Good luck