Need to lower Nitrates - or else!!

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philr

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I am about ready to give up and get rid of everthing. My current build is a 90g. It was set up about 6 years ago, but then dismantled when we moved 3 years ago. I have approx. 100lbs of live rock mostly original to 6 years ago. When I moved, the live rock sat in the tank with water and very basic filtration no lighting for about 3-4 months before I could set the tank up.

Perhaps 2 years ago I added some fish, a new clean up crew, and some inverts- shrimp and a bubble tip anemone, I fixed the lights and re-built the filter. I slowly added the following: 2 peppermint shrimp - to rid the aiptasia's, 2 lysamata skunk cleaer shrimp, 1 lysmatta blood shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp. 1bubble tip anemone, 1 maroon clown, 1 dottyback, 1 yelo tang, and 1 clown gobie. There are 10 or so turbo snails, and other snails. I have very little substrate, less than 1/2" scattered around the bottom.

During the past year both peppermints went missing, but I no longer have an aptasia issue. Just this past week the anemone just shriveled up and died.

I had been using an inferior RO unit that was not giving me pure water. Last month when the anemone started to look bad, I went out and bought a new RODI unit. I now get water that has no nitrates.

Never during the past 2 years with this setup have the Nitrates been below 20ppm. Zero ammonia, zero nitrites, under .25 phosphates, but not zero phosphates. Steady PH 8.3, and Salinity at 1.024.


OK ---


I need help / advice on what to do to reduce Nitrates to Zero,, 0,, Nil....


Ask any questions about anything, and I will answer,, I will also work to post some pics. If I can remember how to post them. I love this hobby, and want to continue but this is really getting under my skin.

Help.
 
Tidal Gardens
Are you running a skimmer? Are you having algae issues? Personally I do not think nitrate is your issue.

You can try carbon dosing be it:Vodka, Vinegar.....Or bio-pellets.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
philr said:
I am about ready to give up and get rid of everthing. My current build is a 90g. It was set up about 6 years ago, but then dismantled when we moved 3 years ago. I have approx. 100lbs of live rock mostly original to 6 years ago. When I moved, the live rock sat in the tank with water and very basic filtration no lighting for about 3-4 months before I could set the tank up.

Perhaps 2 years ago I added some fish, a new clean up crew, and some inverts- shrimp and a bubble tip anemone, I fixed the lights and re-built the filter. I slowly added the following: 2 peppermint shrimp - to rid the aiptasia's, 2 lysamata skunk cleaer shrimp, 1 lysmatta blood shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp. 1bubble tip anemone, 1 maroon clown, 1 dottyback, 1 yelo tang, and 1 clown gobie. There are 10 or so turbo snails, and other snails. I have very little substrate, less than 1/2" scattered around the bottom.

During the past year both peppermints went missing, but I no longer have an aptasia issue. Just this past week the anemone just shriveled up and died.

I had been using an inferior RO unit that was not giving me pure water. Last month when the anemone started to look bad, I went out and bought a new RODI unit. I now get water that has no nitrates.

Never during the past 2 years with this setup have the Nitrates been below 20ppm. Zero ammonia, zero nitrites, under .25 phosphates, but not zero phosphates. Steady PH 8.3, and Salinity at 1.024.


OK ---


I need help / advice on what to do to reduce Nitrates to Zero,, 0,, Nil....


Ask any questions about anything, and I will answer,, I will also work to post some pics. If I can remember how to post them. I love this hobby, and want to continue but this is really getting under my skin.

Help.
Click to expand...
I felt the same at at one time. I tried the bio pellets before they had a better tumbling one, tried all the additives. Three letters ATS I have never looked back. They will completely rid you of nitrates and slightly lower po4.
 
I change 5g every other day. Feed the fish 1 cube frozen food daily - usually one day weekly I will skip feeding. Just to have them scavenge and clean up. Skimmer yes the ASM G1 or G1X the bigger of the 2. How often and how much should I look for the skimmer to eliminate?? I really don't want to try dosing.... I did use NPX bio pellets, and have and have a reactor (empty) to use, the problem was that they made the water very cloudy - not proper water flow. I currently use Chemi-pure elite, with purigen, and phosguard. in the chemical chamber of the sump.

What is ATS??
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
An ATS is an Algae Turf Scrubber.

I've never done an every other day WC but they will help. I'd suggest doing bigger % WC and maybe start with twice a week to get things under control. Then I'd suggest thinking about a solution like adding something like a Bio Pellet Reactor to help keep things under control.

Bio Pellets can cloud the water at first but if you start with half of the recommended amount of pellets you should see better results. Do not touch the reactor once you get it rolling for 6 to 8 weeks. Just let it do its thing. Your cloudy water was more than likely too much too fast.
 
I battled nitrates in my last 2 systems and tried everything with no success, Finally started vineger dosing and now I don't have nitrate problems, Iv been able to add more fish and feed them 3-4 times a day without worrying about nitrate spikes so imo look into vineger or vodka dosing, It will work but can take a little time.
 
90g tank with 20 Nitrates, we should be able to get them down to 0 in 1 month, by Vodka Dosing
 
Nutramar Foods
At this point I am going to try the NPX bio pellets again I have the reactor and will get the pellets tomoro - sunday. I think I will change my approach, and slowly add the pellets 1/2 at a time. I am really at my wits end with this so I hope it will work.
Thanks..
 
You sound really stressed, so ask yourself the heretical question "Why do I have to have my nitrates at '0'?" There are many fine reef tanks out there that have 2, 5, 10 or more (nitrate ion) readings.

Do you think your shrimp and anemone deaths are due to nitrate? Nitrate is basically non toxic at 20 ppm. Nitrate can actually speed up coral growth. Worst case, 20 ppm nitrate may promote algae growth and SPS coral browning/skeletal weakening.

Dropping nitrate down is fine and good, but having '0' is certainly not a prerequisite to a healthy, successful reef tank.
 
Last edited:
The only problem I can find is the higher nitrates. If the Nitrates were at zero or five ppm I would feel safer about keeping livestock healthy
 
There can be many reasons for a tank to not do so well. I understand that you want to drop nitrates to see if the higher level is causing some, or all, of your tank's issues. It's likely not, but reducing nitrates to under 10 ppm is generally accepted as a good thing.

My tank is currently running 15-20 ppm after too many pellets were added by an auto feeder while on vacation (usually, it naturally runs '0' nitrate). Most corals look the same or even better than before, but I now have some sand bed algae to contend with. The algae nuisance is the main reason I'm slowly working nitrate down via aggressive nutrient export (sand bed vacuuming, frequent water changes). Once the algae is gone, whatever nitrate level I end up with will be fine by me :)
 
Deltec
After going some 50 miles -- round trip -- to find my LFS did not have everything I need to create a reactor - basically they didn't have an adequate pump. I have decided to give vinegar dosing a go. I have read the article as given above, and looked at other sources. However I still have at least one question. Should I drip the vinegar into the sump? Nothing seems clear on where to put vinegar. Seems 15ml should work for my 90g tank.
 
You can drip it in the sump, or shoot it in the tank in halves every 12 hours.
 
IMO the worst thing you can do is react to a problem that may not even be a problem. Nothing good ever happens fast in a reef tank. Making one small change at a time and record the progress. Try to add an extra amount of WC over the next month or two and feed 1/4 less food. Just doing this should help drop the nitrates down.
 
Tidal Gardens
Use phos-Zorb API or use phosphate remover from sea hem in media reacter.... Do at least a 25-35% water change but do NOT use tap water use RODI which is basically filtered water to remove all bad chems n metals from water... Let it run for at least 24-36hrs for it to cycle test water if you see improvement let keep cycling for a week then do another 15-20% allow to cycle for 24 hrs change socks keep skimmer always clean and empty feed fish 2 times a day very little. Basically a fish consumes as much as its eye no more than that so go figure that n feed make sure you have good water circulation... Try and see hope all is well n it requires lots of patiens..
 
1) remove all your sand
2) 100 percent water change
3) get your levels straight using bionic/automatic doser
4) 1 week later another 100 percent water change
After that change 40-50percent every 2 weeks
Never use chemicals, pellets, vodka etc. let your rock and a quality skimmer do the work
Don't over feed. They don't need much
Always use rodi and keep the filters changed

2 year old tank, I've never had alge or any other serious problems.

No nitrate, phosphate, or anything else, mostly sps, some lps.

Keep it simple, enjoy the hobby and don't go broke trying figure stuff out

Just my opinion. It works for me
 

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