High nitrates...new Skimmer !?

[hans4811]

Little background....so I bought my current RS Reefer 250 (65gal) from a member here a few months back, which was a running system for 6-7 mos prior, and I kept everything as is...and everythng has been fine , other than my high nitrates...25ppm everytime I measure (Salifert). It hasn't really been a 'problem' per se as my corals seem to be doing exceptionally well, after finally getting my dosing figured out after much trial and error with the All-For-Reef, no algae or anything, so I haven't really put any time into fixing it. But I thought I'd try my hand at some easy care SPS by adding some Monti's and a birds nest and from what I've read, SPS don't like high nitrates.

So with that said, I thought I'd take another look at things to try and fix this....My return pump is a Rio HF20 rated at 1290gph, so that should be fine. 2 socks prior to skimmer, a 4-pack of the eShopps Bio-Lux , a bag of Carbon, about 3/4 of a cup's worth . I pulled the GFO offline recently as it was bringing my phosphates to zero. All my other params seem okay...from my most recent measurements:

Alk - 8.5
Ca - 425
Mg - 1400
Nitrate - 25
Phos - .02

I only have 5 fish which I feed twice a day, WC's every week 10-15% religiously. 60 lbs or so rock and a sand bottom of maybe and inch or so.

Then I took a look at the ratings of my current skimmer, a Reef Octupus Octo classis 110-s. Its only rated at 90g for low bio-load, 65g - med, 40g - high.

So I'm wondering if it would help to get a bigger skimmer ??...say a Tunze 9410 DC or a RSK 300 or many others which are rated a LOT more than mine...265g and 225g respectively

Thoughts ??

Also have some SeaChem de*nitrate ordered which I thought I'd try in my reactor that I had my GFO in as well...shot of tank without the Montis added and birds nest...

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Billldg]

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. When they size the skimmers, they are actually pretty close or even under a little. Getting a skimmer that is to big will be a pain to dial in as you will not have enough waste for it to skim properly. I ran my tank N03 at 20 ppm and P04 at .08 for a year and the sps just adapted. That being said, it doesn't mean you can run you N03 and P04 as high as you want it, just that, if its within reason corals will adapt.

 

[Vakko]

I would double check with another test kit just to make sure.

 

[hans4811]

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. When they size the skimmers, they are actually pretty close or even under a little. Getting a skimmer that is to big will be a pain to dial in as you will not have enough waste for it to skim properly. I ran my tank N03 at 20 ppm and P04 at .08 for a year and the sps just adapted. That being said, it doesn't mean you can run you N03 and P04 as high as you want it, just that, if its within reason corals will adapt.

Thanks for the reply Billldg...good to know, didn't think of that, it being a pain to dial in...why I asked !

Kind of what I was thinking as well, that they'll adapt. Have read many members having the same thing and doing just fine with it. I may try the SeaChem denitrate route first and go from there.

 

[hans4811]

I would double check with another test kit just to make sure.

Yep, ordered a Nyos nitrate test kit with my Seachem order, just to double check it. Also tested my RODI water for nitrates just in case...but zero there, so no issue.

 

[Auquanut]

How often are you changing your socks? Wow! I sound like my mother.

I've had several acro's do very well with NO3 at or above 25. Not recommending it, just sayin.

 

[Billldg]

How often are you changing your socks? Wow! I sound like my mother.

I've had several acro's do very well with NO3 at or above 25. Not recommending it, just sayin.

OMG, with that sock comment now you have me thinking of my childhood, LOL!!! ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

 

[hans4811]

How often are you changing your socks? Wow! I sound like my mother.

I've had several acro's do very well with NO3 at or above 25. Not recommending it, just sayin.

lol...you'll poke your eye out !!

But i change em once a week or more if needed. But yea, i hear ya about the level. not chasing numbers atm, but thought I should try something to bring it down, hence the seachem.

 

[hans4811]

So @Billldg, what did you do to finally get your No3 down, as it sounds like you got over that hump?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Rather than spend the money on a skimmer, go buy a brute 55G trash can and mix up 50G of salt water. Your tank is 65G so the nitrate problem can go away very easily. If it were me I would take a power head and blow out every single crevice of rock and get the water cloudy with all the detritus and then do a 50% water change every other day. 3 water changes and you should have very low nitrates. Then I would monitor it and see how quickly is jumps by testing daily for a week at least.

If it goes right back to 20 then you know you either have too many fish or you're feeding too much.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I have 140 total gallons with a skimmer rated for 400 gallons and my nitrates are always threw the roof. I'm actually going to try a surfer denitrator next. Even with a ton of water changes it never gets in check. And is a waste of salt. All tanks run different just need to find out what works for yours

 

[hans4811]

I have 140 total gallons with a skimmer rated for 400 gallons and my nitrates are always threw the roof. I'm actually going to try a surfer denitrator next. Even with a ton of water changes it never gets in check. And is a waste of salt. All tanks run different just need to find out what works for yours

Yea, I knew I was kinda reaching with this, but thought I'd ask and see what others had to say.

...just got some SeaChem Denitrator delivered. Gonna try putting it in a spare reactor I had and see what that does.

 

[hans4811]

Rather than spend the money on a skimmer, go buy a brute 55G trash can and mix up 50G of salt water. Your tank is 65G so the nitrate problem can go away very easily. If it were me I would take a power head and blow out every single crevice of rock and get the water cloudy with all the detritus and then do a 50% water change every other day. 3 water changes and you should have very low nitrates. Then I would monitor it and see how quickly is jumps by testing daily for a week at least.

If it goes right back to 20 then you know you either have too many fish or you're feeding too much.

2Wheels...thanks, thought of doing that. I have a RODI station already setup with the Brute 55gal cans...was trying to avoid stressing out the fish doing something as drastic as that. I only 5 fish left...after a breakout of velvet/brook...so I don't feed a lot to the remaining ones. Even with the water changes I've been doing on a weekly basis, I check shortly afterwards, and they dont change much.

 

[hans4811]

Oh, forgot to add...got the Nyos Nitrate test kit in and tried it at lunch. The color chart goes from 12 and then jumps to 25...which my value was somewhere in between that. So with the Salifert one showing 25...it may be be a bit less..maybe 20.

 

[Billldg]

So @Billldg, what did you do to finally get your No3 down, as it sounds like you got over that hump?

I used NoPox for a little to get the N03 and P04 down, but ended up battling Cyano for a while, I was going to go with a Algae scrubber, the only thing I can grow in a fuge is GHA, lol, and that is what a algae scrubber does, grows GHA to control nutrients, but ended up going old school and installing a Sulfur Reactor, not sure about it yet though. If worse comet to worse then I will order a bubbler and change it to a calcium reactor and install a algae scrubber.

My SPS adapted and started to grow like crazy, but the color wasn't where I wanted it to be which is why I am trying to lower N03 to around 5 ppm. P04 is easy for me to lower, I just mix in a 1/4 cup of GFO in my carbon reactor, you just have to be careful with GFO because it can strip the P04 from your tank quickly.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Currently in the same situation as you too. NO3 at 25ppm and PO4 at a stable 0.06.

Sfoties and LPS are looking great except for my acros. They're a little on the paler side.

What I'm planning to do is to carbon dose noxpox but vodka or vinegar would also work too. Just personal perference.

I find that although larger water changes can drop your nitrate levels, it would also create a bigger swing in your parameters.

IO salt mixes at around 10-11 dkh and I'm currently running my tank at 8dkh so that would be a swing for me if say I change out 50% of the water.

Keep us up to date on what you're planning to do!

 

[hans4811]

I used NoPox for a little to get the N03 and P04 down, but ended up battling Cyano for a while, I was going to go with a Algae scrubber, the only thing I can grow in a fuge is GHA, lol, and that is what a algae scrubber does, grows GHA to control nutrients, but ended up going old school and installing a Sulfur Reactor, not sure about it yet though. If worse comet to worse then I will order a bubbler and change it to a calcium reactor and install a algae scrubber.

My SPS adapted and started to grow like crazy, but the color wasn't where I wanted it to be which is why I am trying to lower N03 to around 5 ppm. P04 is easy for me to lower, I just mix in a 1/4 cup of GFO in my carbon reactor, you just have to be careful with GFO because it can strip the P04 from your tank quickly.

Exactly what happened to me when i added GFO to a reactor, stripped P04 to 0. Tried setting it up thru Apex to M-W-F, which helped some, but i just ended up taking it offline. Seems to have stabilized around .02 - .04.

 

[hans4811]

Currently in the same situation as you too. NO3 at 25ppm and PO4 at a stable 0.06.

Sfoties and LPS are looking great except for my acros. They're a little on the paler side.

What I'm planning to do is to carbon dose noxpox but vodka or vinegar would also work too. Just personal perference.

I find that although larger water changes can drop your nitrate levels, it would also create a bigger swing in your parameters.

IO salt mixes at around 10-11 dkh and I'm currently running my tank at 8dkh so that would be a swing for me if say I change out 50% of the water.

Keep us up to date on what you're planning to do!

Just added in today some SeaChem denitrate in my old GFO reactor, 500ml. Ill give it a few days and see if N03 drop any. Seems like a lot of people have had good luck with this. Thought this would be easier than going the algae scrubber or fuge route. May still do that, but wanna try this first...path of least resistance !

 

[YankeeTankee]

I'd consider carbon dosing alongside phosphate dosing for a while, just to get back in line then see where it goes. There was a similar thread a while back and op was happy with results.