Lowered my nitrates, Now What??

[NervousReefer]

So I’ve managed to get my nitrates down below 20ppm. For about 6 months I trusted my Mastertronics reading of 5ppm or below and I even turned my skimmer off because of the low reading but I kept seeing algae sprout up everywhere on the rocks.

I manually removed it during water changes and it came right back. So I pulled out my Hanna checker hr and it was 20+ ppm, I sent of a water sample to Ati just to be sure and it was the same. Recently (well last night) I added the Brightwell Xport no3 brick after seeding with MB7 for 24 hrs and today my nitrates are at 10.1ppm.

I haven’t seen that number in awhile. I’m very pleased with how fast it worked. My question is do I continue to manually remove during water changes or let the bacteria do its job?

I have 2 tuxedo urchins and a variety of “algae” eating snails, but I have never seen them actually eat it. My tank is not big enough for herbivorous fish.

Thanks.

 

[KrisReef]

What is growing in your tank besides algae?

That NO3 brick has your tank on course to bottom out nitrates in a day if it keeps removing nitrogen. That could cause issues with coral if you have any?

For a fish tank you are going strong.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

So I’ve managed to get my nitrates down below 20ppm. For about 6 months I trusted my Mastertronics reading of 5ppm or below and I even turned my skimmer off because of the low reading but I kept seeing algae sprout up everywhere on the rocks.

I manually removed it during water changes and it came right back. So I pulled out my Hanna checker hr and it was 20+ ppm, I sent of a water sample to Ati just to be sure and it was the same. Recently (well last night) I added the Brightwell Xport no3 brick after seeding with MB7 for 24 hrs and today my nitrates are at 10.1ppm.

I haven’t seen that number in awhile. I’m very pleased with how fast it worked. My question is do I continue to manually remove during water changes or let the bacteria do its job?

I have 2 tuxedo urchins and a variety of “algae” eating snails, but I have never seen them actually eat it. My tank is not big enough for herbivorous fish.

Thanks.

I have had algae issues and when I used a tuxedo urchin w a mix of snails and pods and good husbandry practices things kinda balanced out and 20no3 is something I hit in my current mixed system with out any long lasting detrimental effects. I’m Prbly between 10 and 20 now.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Any more tank info?

 

[Badboyan93l]

What's your phosphate levels, alk and magnesium at?

 

[NervousReefer]

What is growing in your tank besides algae?

That NO3 brick has your tank on course to bottom out nitrates in a day if it keeps removing nitrogen. That could cause issues with coral if you have any?

For a fish tank you are going strong.

I have a few corals. I’ve already anticipated the no3 bottoming out so I have some no3 to dose. I didn’t know what else to do to get them down, I’ve tried everything. Water changes every week, NoPox, I even raised my Po4 to balance nutrients according to redfield ratio. This was the only thing that helped.

 

[NervousReefer]

What's your phosphate levels, alk and magnesium at?

My phosphates were around 0.02- 0.04, so I started dosing to raise it up so it’s at 0.08 - 0.1 now. My alk stays between 8.0-8.5 and my mag is 1350-1400

 

[NervousReefer]

I have had algae issues and when I used a tuxedo urchin w a mix of snails and pods and good husbandry practices things kinda balanced out and 20no3 is something I hit in my current mixed system with out any long lasting detrimental effects. I’m Prbly between 10 and 20 now.

I still have all the snails and urchins, they won’t eat the stuff. I’ve added 4 bottles of pods from algae barn, I even bought a microscope to identify the algae (Derbesia). My nitrates never went below 15

 

[NervousReefer]

Any more tank info?

Sure. It’s a Waterbox maybe about 55 gal total, I have 7 fish all under 5 inches. Skimmer, fleece roller and the rock is from art reef rock and “supposedly” it’s nitrate and and phosphate free through curing. Tank has been up for about 2 years. I do know that me trusting my MT on the low nitrate reading set me back a great deal.

 

[Spare time]

Are you sure it wasn't a testing error instead of the brick and microbacter?

 

[NervousReefer]

Are you sure it wasn't a testing error instead of the brick and microbacter?

My Hanna checkers were spot on with my icp test. I also tested the saltwater from my tank that I used to seed the no3 brick. 19ppm before and 0 the next evening , same tester.

 

[Spare time]

My Hanna checkers were spot on with my icp test. I also tested the saltwater from my tank that I used to seed the no3 brick. 19ppm before and 0 the next evening , same tester.

Do you keep getting 0? Do you have a second test kit? It just seems hard to believe that the brick and microbacter actually did it that fast.

 

[NervousReefer]

Do you keep getting 0? Do you have a second test kit? It just seems hard to believe that the brick and microbacter actually did it that fast.

I’m amazed myself, but I also added the no3 cubes to another tank and nitrates when from 25 ppm to 14ppm. This is the Brightwell no3 brick, it’s not the same as the bio brick from Brightwell . The description says that is “sulfur doped” which accelerates the process. Similar to a sulfur denitrator.