need help with nitrates

[dsagriff]

I have been fighting nitrates for awhile now. I do a 10% weekly water change and my nitrates are still between 20 and 30 I've done big water changes and it just seems to never go down anyone have any ideas other than spending a ton of money non nitrate reactors
thanks dereck

 

[Loki]

What size tank? What do you feed and how much? How old is the tank and what fish are in it?

 

[dsagriff]

I have a 75 and a sump made out of a 29 feed my clown and tang frozen brine shrimp o(half a cube) once a day and I feed my lion fish one minnow a day tank is 4 months old

 

[Alkamist]

switch foods, i had high nitrates when i was feeding frozen also, or cut back on the brine to 1/4 a cube per day

 

[Loki]

I know this isn't what you asked for but you may want to switch from feeding your lion freshwater fish. Saltwater fish can get fatty liver disease if they are fed freshwater fish mainly. At least that's what I am told anyways.

 

[Loki]

Just think of it this was (it helped me) all of the food you put in there will be waste. Either it won't be eaten or will be poop. So each day you are adding 1/2 a cube of waste and a small waste fish. I recently read that in most cases fish only absorb like 10-15% of the food they eat. The rest is tuned into poop.

 

[Loki]

Do you run a skimmer? On a 75 gallon tank it would be a good idea to get one. Especially with a lion in it. You can also cut back your feedings to once every other day or even every three days. That would decrease the amount of waste into the tank. I am feeding a lot less than you and I have a 120 with almost three times as many fish as you listed.

So feed less often/amount, skimmer, water changes. That would be where I would start.

 

[Steven R]

Remote deep sand bed if you have the space. Or chaetomorpha under lights. I have three tanks running chaeto and one with both chaeto and a remote sand bed. And with my weekly changes all three systems stay at almost zero. I put the par38 5000k led light from lowes over all three refugiums and grown is good in all three refugiums.. just my 2 cents

 

[dsagriff]

I have a Skimmer and I have a 6" sand bed in my sump canine put macroalgee on top of my sand in my sump?

 

[Oceanslayer18]

think sand beds, tend to hold and trap nitrates under them espically if the feeding is high, i tends to happen if you have clams, inverts, or fish that stir the sand or your hand lol will release the nitrates.

 

[reeffirstaid]

75 is a bit small for a Lionfish (unless it is a dwarf). What species of tang are you keeping? Some tangs are suited to life in a 75 gallon but most are not. I would assume feeding plus nutrient load from your fish population points towards the issue. I would recommend 3 weekly water changes of 10% for a 30% total. If that doesn't help do them daily to bring that nitrate level down then start on 3 weekly changes. Honestly though 20-30 ppm nitrate, while a bit high - isn't something to worry about fish wise. If you are keeping SPS corals then it could become an issue.

 

[dsagriff]

My sand bed in my display is less than a inch in most places

 

[Loki]

Yes you can put macro algae on your deep sand bed. You will need a light (if you don't have one already) for the macro algae in your sump.

 

[Cherub]

You should consider adding some macro algae and more clean up crew. If you're not running a skimmer that should be high on your list as well. I added dragons breath in my display and have chaeto and red hayi in the sump to help with nitrates. Also have a ton of crabs in the display. Some hermits, a couple of emralds, a pom pom and several shrimp. I added 2 bristle worms too. Some people hate them but they do a fantasic job at cleaning up. Have you checked for leftover minnow lying around?

 

[Ace25]

Algae scrubber? I feed 10 frozen cubes a day on my 75G and I can't get nitrates to go above 0.

 

[dsagriff]

Interested on building an algae scrubber and where should i put it

 

[Ace25]

To give you a couple ideas to consider, here are my ONLY filters on my 2 tanks (one is SPS/LPS, other is LPS/Softy). First once cost me about $80 to make and it was the OSRAM 660nm LEDs that pushed up the price, second one cost me less than $10.

First one is an overflow fed ATS on my 75G (55G sump):

This is how much algae I harvest every week from it.

And this is my ATS on my 60G (20G sump)

 

[Hbulick]

For 15 years our 180g fish only tank has had perfect numbers on everything but nitrate, in March we tried Aqua Bella Bio-enzyme and have for the first time seen numbers in the 15ppm range. When I called the customer service (neil was wonderful) about getting lower numbers he did say we would see a slight nitrate spike but after we hit the 2 month mark should have no nitrate issues, that is if our tank was within the recommended size of under 125g. We gambled on using it in our tank but after so long of fighting it was worth a shot.

 

[dsagriff]

i am looking into buying chaeto algae to put in my sump my lfs said that would be the macroalgae to get but idk it that is because that is the only stuff they have wondering if that is the stuff i should get or get somthing else. i want to build an algae scrubber but just dont have the space to do it at the moment above my sump so looking at building a new sump to accommodate a scrubber.

 

[dsagriff]

also how well do people like the api test kits because i get a different reading at my house then my LFS does they use a different kit than i do but i dont know what one. so just wondering how accurate api kits are