High nitrates

legionofdoon · Jun 4, 2023

Poor Man's Nutrients Control - Donovan's Nitrate Destroyer

Hello fellow reefers!. I have been in the hobby for more than 3 years, the first 2 years was tough. Cyno, diatom, nuisance algae, high NO3 (120ppm at one time) and ich/velvet. I have tried several nutrient control method (poor man, so most of it were DIY project). GFO, water fall scrubber...

www.reef2reef.com

legionofdoon · Jun 4, 2023

Hands down best nutrient control I've ever used.

legionofdoon · Jun 4, 2023

It's simple easy to make and you can "tune" it to your desired nutrient level.

Bozburn · Jun 4, 2023

I feed twice a day, chunk of reef frenzy in the morning and cube of brine shrimp in the evening. Ive got a Naso, white tail, salfin, CBB, wrasse, 2 clowns and 2 firefish and I think I feed a bit too much.

Also feed nori once a day, here is a video on the best way to feed it.

Bring down the feeding and do consistent water changes and hopefully that will help.

Justdrew · Jun 4, 2023

I concur with too much food. I feed 5 fish about 1/4 of a cube a day.

ClownSchool · Jun 4, 2023

gabriel21946 said:
Going to cut back to 2 cubes per day since I don't feed pellets. To see the impact since I used to feed 4 cubes per day. I used to feed nori twice a day as well, Do you feed any nori and if so how often

No, the veggie pellets give them the nutrition they need. Then, they spend the day polishing the tank of algae.

gabriel21946 · Jun 4, 2023

ClownSchool said:
No, the veggie pellets give them the nutrition they need. Then, they spend the day polishing the tank of algae.

How do you measure the pellets you feed

ClownSchool · Jun 4, 2023

gabriel21946 said:
How do you measure the pellets you feed

I use small pellets, so it’s like throwing about 1/2 of a spoonful I use for the wet food (about 1/8 tsp).
I target feed ReefRoids once a week too. It keeps my PO4 from bottoming out.

ClownSchool · Jun 4, 2023

Bozburn said:
I feed twice a day, chunk of reef frenzy in the morning and cube of brine shrimp in the evening. Ive got a Naso, white tail, salfin, CBB, wrasse, 2 clowns and 2 firefish and I think I feed a bit too much.

Also feed nori once a day, here is a video on the best way to feed it.

Bring down the feeding and do consistent water changes and hopefully that will help.

Making a tight bundle of nori is a good tip. I stopped feeding it, but may start again. Thank you.

Idech · Jun 4, 2023

gabriel21946 said:
Going to cut back to 2 cubes per day since I don't feed pellets. To see the impact since I used to feed 4 cubes per day. I used to feed nori twice a day as well, Do you feed any nori and if so how often

My tang won’t eat it so I don’t feed it at the moment but I used to feed it to my other tang about 3 times a week. Make sure to feed only what is really being eaten and use a pouch feeder if you can (less goes flying into the tank).

gabriel21946 · Jul 28, 2023

Hello all, so I took some action based on feedback. I have removed 3 fishes. Currently have 12 fishes in my red sea 350, I even changed 35 gallons of water and reduced feeding to just on cube a day and 1 teaspoon of pellets and on sheet of nory a day and still no change whatsoever on nitrates, my Hannah still says over 75 ppm. I don't know what else I can here.

I had mu return pump running at 100% just reduced it to 50% not sure if I am not giving the mechanical filtration enough time. I noticed my reefmat 500 goes through my roller pretty quickly and it doesn't catch much hence why I reduced the pump.

Could it be the sump water level as well. I'm running out of ideas

mrpontiac80 · Jul 29, 2023

gabriel21946 said:
Hello all, so I took some action based on feedback. I have removed 3 fishes. Currently have 12 fishes in my red sea 350, I even changed 35 gallons of water and reduced feeding to just on cube a day and 1 teaspoon of pellets and on sheet of nory a day and still no change whatsoever on nitrates, my Hannah still says over 75 ppm. I don't know what else I can here.

I had mu return pump running at 100% just reduced it to 50% not sure if I am not giving the mechanical filtration enough time. I noticed my reefmat 500 goes through my roller pretty quickly and it doesn't catch much hence why I reduced the pump.

Could it be the sump water level as well. I'm running out of ideas

I’m just now seeing this thread, but here is how I personally would approach it… keep in mind I’m no expert and only my 3rd year in the hobby.
First I agree that the feeding is what got you here. I have the following fish
Foxface lo 6”
Purple tang 5”
Two spot bristle tooth tang 5-6”
2 clowns
2 pj cardinals
2 bangi cardinals
Midas blenny
2 zebra dart fish
Melanorus wrasse 4-5”
I personally feed 1 sheet of two little fishies nori daily, 1 cube of frozen mysis or brine and a chunk of Rods original frozen about the same size as the cube, daily. So essentially 2 cubes and nori daily.

Personally I don’t see a problem with juvenile tangs in your system but I do agree an upgrade would be needed in the future.

I tried for my first two years to keep nutrients where everyone said I should… know what? The numbers seemed to have changed lol. Now people recommend more. Short story is that I’ve seen amazing tanks with high numbers and amazing tanks with near none. I’ve decided to monitor mine but care less. Maybe worry is a better word. I’m watching the trend. My 65 gallon ran about 30 nitrates before a water change.. and my 180 stays about 4 ppm. (All the fish above moved to the 180 in an upgrade a few months ago)
Remember that your water change is going to remove nitrates. If you have 200 ppm and do a 50% water change you’re still gonna be at 100. The question is are you replacing the nitrates in between the water changes? If so, decrease feeding maybe. If it were me I’d try to do 20-30% water change every week until I got the nitrates down where I wanted them.