Need a few tips to lower nitrate and phosphate

[scoobysnack77]

As of now my nitrates fluctuate between 10 and 12 and my phosphates get up to .08 before my weekly water change. I just wanted to bring those numbers down a bit because my SPS's have a darker color to them and id like to lighten them up a bit without having to switch to the zeovit system. I have no hair algae in my display. So far I'm running GFO , a bag of large particle lignite carbon in my sump, chaeto in my fuge, a tunze 9011 skimmer and a bag of seachem denitrate stones in a mesh bag in my sump. I have one free reactor that i have space to use in case i could try another export method . Any suggestions?

 

[sutton6989]

What about doing 2 waterchanges a week that equal the one your Doing now? I do mine wendsday and saturday or sunday?

 

[scoobysnack77]

What about doing 2 waterchanges a week that equal the one your Doing now? I do mine wendsday and saturday or sunday?

won't that equal one 10% water change at the end of the week?

 

[Petemalibu]

What if green looking like refugium is growing fast from my return water sponges from octopus skimmer ?? Should I clean it or let it grow?

 

[Petemalibu]

I get bout a cup an half of good green water from my skimmer daily an it's a 34 gallon reef with 4 fish but I use hatchery pellets no wet food for fish an feed very lightly! I use microvore for corals like 7 of them an they seem happy

 

[Petemalibu]

When lights on 100% it gets cloudy a lil but soon as lamps start ramp down it clears up I just don't know if I should remove green looking algae like refugium from bubble catching sponges from skimmer they grow FAST!

 

[LowezAkar24]

As of now my nitrates fluctuate between 10 and 12 and my phosphates get up to .08 before my weekly water change. I just wanted to bring those numbers down a bit because my SPS's have a darker color to them and id like to lighten them up a bit without having to switch to the zeovit system. I have no hair algae in my display. So far I'm running GFO , a bag of large particle lignite carbon in my sump, chaeto in my fuge, a tunze 9011 skimmer and a bag of seachem denitrate stones in a mesh bag in my sump. I have one free reactor that i have space to use in case i could try another export method . Any suggestions?

If you want zero nitrates I recommend running Julian Sprung's NPX Plastics in a reactor.

 

[sutton6989]

Yes it would equal 10% but more frequent waterchanges won't let the phos climb that high in between waterchanges

 

[scoobysnack77]

I get bout a cup an half of good green water from my skimmer daily an it's a 34 gallon reef with 4 fish but I use hatchery pellets no wet food for fish an feed very lightly! I use microvore for corals like 7 of them an they seem happy

i think my tunze 9011 skimmer isn't doing the trick for my tank. it says that it can handle up to a 300 gallon tank but i only have a 75 gallon. my old tunze nano skimmer used to skim like mad but it was only rated for up to 55 gallons. i figured the next step up would better suit my tank. it skim about 100 mL a week if I'm lucky. could that be my problem? i heard some people don't even use skimmers

 

[scoobysnack77]

Yes it would equal 10% but more frequent waterchanges won't let the phos climb that high in between waterchanges

ok ill try that if i can get the time. sundays I'm off so i mixx my water saturday night and do my water change sunday morning

 

[beaslbob]

keep the chaeto growing. expand the chaeto. cut down feeding.

eventually nitrates and phosphates will be eventually unmeasureable.

menwhile seems like the tank is actually doing pretty good.

my .02

 

[TriggerThis]

Larger skimmer and a phosban reactor

And dang how many fish in there?

 

[coralcrazy]

Ecobak in a reactor and a refugium full go algae the in sump. Ecobak is expensive but a great product to help reduce nitrate and phosphates. I havent had a detectable nitrate with the red sea low level test in about 6 months.

 

[mannyfresh78]

Look Sir I would suggest don't get all crazy with everyone's ideas try one if it don't wrk move on keep in mind while doing all these types of trials. Keep a close eye on your leves not to hurt anything

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Best way to remove Nitrate and Phosphate is feeding less food to your fish. I have noticed the number one contributor is over-feeding.

Do your water changes until you hit a good level and maintain it. Gravel vac, blow detritus off your LR, etc.

 

[mannyfresh78]

Sir another thing... My 55gal reef has been up running for 1.5 yrs to 2. And I've lost fish in process of doing n moving. Man error if you will. But anyways my point is my levels 3 months ago had gotten bit higher then yours now after doing a 25 percent water changes every wk or bi weekly, light feeding no more than what they eat in a minute, using MY rule of thumb 1gallon per inch of fish plus 10 extra gallons to keep free space, using phosphate media in reacter at 65% tumble speed to prevent it from grinding up., it sure has help bring all levels down. Regards water changes I use filtered water not tap water ok. Now as to my levels we'll guess what phosphate has been at .01-.03 fluctuate which is ok as long as it does NOT sky rockets n you see no major changes in live stock your ok. Calcium is levels are stable. Nitrite&nitrate are at get levels also my phosphate reacter helped so much with that. Keep your socks changed out every week at first if running 55gal or less n you have 2(6-8in) socks then like I said it helped me after the every week for 5-6months, I do now bi-wkly sock changes unless your over feeding. Live stock light requires anywhere from 4-6 hrs of light then again depends on what light system you running. You don't want to bleach out live stock due to lighting.. Not good been done that when I was 17yrs and just starting out. Im 35 yrs now and last but not least well always do research on all you want to or should know as things better newer ideas come up n yes look up you tube for DIY reacters, led lights, n other as this hobby can make holes in your pockets. And last ALWAYS WHEN DOING SOMETHING MAJOR TO YOUR REEF MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL EQUIP. Parts n necessary items or money to do so, as what you do CAN effect your build up... Happy reef life... [email protected]

 

[scoobysnack77]

Larger skimmer and a phosban reactor

And dang how many fish in there?

well i have the tunze 9011 which is rated up to 190 gallons and i only have a 75 gallon. and I'm running GFO in a dual reactor with carbon. can i use phosban and GFO a the same time? i have 6 fish. a wrasse,damsel,Kole tang, royal gramma ,goby and a one spot fox face. i feed brine shrimp once a day and a half a strip of dried seaweed.

 

[scoobysnack77]

keep the chaeto growing. expand the chaeto. cut down feeding.

eventually nitrates and phosphates will be eventually unmeasureable.

my .02

menwhile seems like the tank is actually doing pretty good. yea i did cut down feeding and i have been expanding the chaeto. its growing well. tank is doing pretty well but i have a few acros that are brownish green that i want to lighten up. the rest of my SPS are doing great but their pigment is a bit on the darker side

 

[scoobysnack77]

Ecobak in a reactor and a refugium full go algae the in sump. Ecobak is expensive but a great product to help reduce nitrate and phosphates. I havent had a detectable nitrate with the red sea low level test in about 6 months.

thank you. ill look into it. my next step was a bio pellet reactor but ill check into this first

 

[scoobysnack77]

Look Sir I would suggest don't get all crazy with everyone's ideas try one if it don't wrk move on keep in mind while doing all these types of trials. Keep a close eye on your leves not to hurt anything

thank you, I'm gonna try one at a time cuz so far I've done most of the things I'm hearing. my parameters are all perfect and i test weekly. i always research the pros and cons of everything before i do it. my animals health in important to me