How Do You Manage Nitrates in Your Nano?

[JaysLittleOcean]

So I have hit a point where the Nitrates in my JBJ 45 RL AOI Aquarium have hit what I consider inn acceptable levels and have experienced 2 lost Acropora Frags and a third is partially suffering from Slow Tissue Necrosis. After measuring with my Salifert Nitrate Test Kit, it revealed that my nitrates were at 10ppm. I have already begun the increased water changes from 2 gallons of water per week to 4 gallons which has reduced the Nitrate level to 7.5ppm. Question is what do you do to maintain your nitrates to an acceptable level within your nano aquariums?

 

[agfish12]

A refugium with chaeto helps in mine. Do you have any media that is becoming a nitrate farm?

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Nope, I know where my problem. I have too heavy of a bio load. So just researching options available. I am the proud owner of the following. I have already reduced feeding from a single frozen cube of Mysis to half a cube so we will see how that goes as well.

-8 Fiji Green Chromis.
-2 Snowflake Clownfish.
-1 Tiger Tail Cucumber.
-2 Skunk Clear Shrimp.
-4 Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crabs.
-4 Tonga Nassarius Snals.
-7 Margarite Snails.
- Approximately 20 Frags of high end Acropora Corals.

 

[AdamNC]

Look into vinegar or vodka dosing. Whenever my nitrate starts to creep up, I up my daily dose a little.

 

[spartanman22]

I have a 25 gallon display with a 15 gallon frag tank. I had 9 fish at one point, and my tank was doing fantastic. Growth was incredible. But my skimmer started going and nitrates started building. I infrequently tested nitrates because my tank ran so smoothly for so long and never registered any. When things started going south I decided to test nitrates and to my surprise I got a reading of >100. I double checked with a second new Salifert Nitrate kit and the results were the same.

I cut my fish load down to 5 and have been dosing vodka/MB7 for two weeks now. I'm currently between 15-20.

 

[twilliard]

So I have hit a point where the Nitrates in my JBJ 45 RL AOI Aquarium have hit what I consider inn acceptable levels and have experienced 2 lost Acropora Frags and a third is partially suffering from Slow Tissue Necrosis. After measuring with my Salifert Nitrate Test Kit, it revealed that my nitrates were at 10ppm. I have already begun the increased water changes from 2 gallons of water per week to 4 gallons which has reduced the Nitrate level to 7.5ppm. Question is what do you do to maintain your nitrates to an acceptable level within your nano aquariums?

What is your po4 level?
Your no3 isn't the killer at 7.5
It will be another issue

 

[watchguy123]

Lots of reef tanks aim for nitrates between 2-10 ppm. Hard to imagine that is the primary cause of acropora death.

Certainly some advocate nitrates lower but.....

 

[Tahoe61]

I would not bat an eye at nitrates of 10, I doubt that is the issue.

 

[spartanman22]

Mine were in excess of 100 and although I lost about 50%, the other 50% came through. I can't imagine 7.5 being bad. I'm at 15-25 now and what survived is recovering, coloring up, and encrusting quite nicely

 

[rosieosieee]

my NPS tank stays a steady 50ppm for nitrates.

my mixed reef goes from 5-15ppm, and i have multiple sps including acros that are doing just fine, nitrate is not your problem.

being a 45, put a skimmer and a reactor in the back. get an ATO to keep your salinity dead on. feed your fish only 2x a week. get rid of some of your chromis.

whats your phosphate? what kind of light? how long has the tank been set up?

 

[Ljmiller]

It has to be some other issue - po4?

 

[Davehla]

Try rinsing out/defrosting your frozen cube food first. The binder on the frozen cube is all nitrates. Try to get it defrosted in a small net and then feed the actual food instead of the whole cube.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I just placed an order for the Red Sea NO4O4X and Algae Management Program. I came home yesterday to see that my snails were no longer able to keep up with the Algae and thought this was the main reason that my Salifert Phosphate Test Kit was always reporting back 0 phosphates. So I will post some photographs of what the aquarium looks like now and I am hoping to start dosing on Wednesday of this week.

 

[Devlin]

I run chem pure, phosguard, nitrate rocks and have a fuge and the tunze 9001 in my IM 40g. My phosphates are usually zero. Nitrate at 5. I have a really heavy bio load. Which is why I run so much in a small tank. But my parameters stay in check. My alk is on the high end but I have LSP so not a big deal. I dose microbacter twice a week and sponge power daily. 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks. My tank is too new to try my hand at the acros. But my parameters say they should do good.

 

[Devlin]

I run chem pure, phosguard, nitrate rocks and have a fuge and the tunze 9001 in my IM 40g. My phosphates are usually zero. Nitrate at 5. I have a really heavy bio load. Which is why I run so much in a small tank. But my parameters stay in check. My alk is on the high end but I have LSP so not a big deal. I dose microbacter twice a week and sponge power daily. 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks. My tank is too new to try my hand at the acros. But my parameters say they should do good.