Nitrate help

Jonathan Schor · Jun 20, 2017

I've been using aquaforest for 3 weeks. Done weekly water changes and adding pro bio s and np daily. Also running with gfo,
carbon and bio life fil in the sump. Pros has gone to 0 but can't get nitrates lower than 10-20.

Any help?

austinl · Jun 20, 2017

Hey Jonathan,

It takes some time to see changes. I have been dosing NP and Pro Bio S for awhile and am only seeing a slight drop so far.

Pife · Jun 21, 2017

If your po4 is zero I'd back off the gfo some.

jsker · Jun 21, 2017

As @austinl stated, it takes time.
I run pretty much the same media in my system. I switch to a larger reactor and now stack my GFO and carbon. I have noticed that my nitrates have gone way down by stacking and using the reactor that circulates more water through it.

@Pife is correct, your system needs a slight amount of phosphates to maintain coral growth. .02 is a good number to have. .01 to .03 phosphates is ok but again to low and things starve and too high we have algae everywhere

Jonathan Schor · Jun 21, 2017

The other strange thing is that the pH has been dropping a bit. Was alway rock stable at 8.2-8.3. Now running 7.9-8.1.

austinl · Jun 21, 2017

My ph has done the same but I know it's because of the weather. Windows have been closed so I know my ph drops when I can't get fresh air in all the time.

So depending on your climate you could see the same results

Jonathan Schor · Jun 21, 2017

This never happened before after 2 years

Jonathan Schor · Jun 21, 2017

Maybe turn off the GFO for a little bit. I have a 40 gallon breeder and a phone an reactor. Could I stack the GFO and carbon in one reactor?

austinl · Jun 21, 2017

Jonathan Schor said:
Maybe turn off the GFO for a little bit. I have a 40 gallon breeder and a phone an reactor. Could I stack the GFO and carbon in one reactor?

I stack my AF carbon and AF Phos minus in one reactor...and input a small piece of phone between them. Carbon on the bottom then foam then Phos Minus

Pife · Jun 21, 2017

Jonathan Schor said:
This never happened before after 2 years

What hasn't happened before?

Jonathan Schor · Jun 21, 2017

The ph never dropped like this before.

Vahanyos · Jun 21, 2017

You should not be worried about 10-20 nitrates, seriously. If you're dosing to reduce that, i suggest you stop before you create a bigger head ache for yourself. My nitrates are always above 40... but my corals are popping, thriving, growing, and my fish are super healthy. I even have coralline algae growing... I just keep up with my weekly water changes and it's been like this for several months now... I think my corals like the extra nitrates in the water, to be honest.

Pife · Jun 21, 2017

Jonathan Schor said:
The ph never dropped like this before.

Don't worry about ph. It will be fine. It could be an indication that your skimmer isn't functioning properly or some reason your system isn't gassing off like it used to like you change the positions of the power heads etc etc.

As for not worrying about nitrates because they're 20 I would as long term I have experienced problems.

Vahanyos · Jun 22, 2017

Pife said:
Don't worry about ph. It will be fine. It could be an indication that your skimmer isn't functioning properly or some reason your system isn't gassing off like it used to like you change the positions of the power heads etc etc.

As for not worrying about nitrates because they're 20 I would as long term I have experienced problems.

Hey Pife, can I ask what your long term problems were? How long were your nitrates over 20 before you noticed a problem? I'm going on 6 months now and i've never been able to get them under 20.. it's usually in the 40's. I do weekly water changes, and sometimes bi weekly and like i said my tank looks great and my inhabitants are always happy including my coral.

Pife · Jun 22, 2017

Vahanyos said:
Hey Pife, can I ask what your long term problems were? How long were your nitrates over 20 before you noticed a problem? I'm going on 6 months now and i've never been able to get them under 20.. it's usually in the 40's. I do weekly water changes, and sometimes bi weekly and like i said my tank looks great and my inhabitants are always happy including my coral.

Yes you can ask. I actually don't believe that high nitrates are specifically the problem. I do believe that it imbalance in your nutrients between nitrates and phosphates cause issues. A lot of those issues come from a slight bump in alk or maybe you change the flow in your tank a little bit and you have a couple of corals die. I've had beautiful sps with over a hundred nitrate so it's possible but any little change takes it toll a lot harder on the corals.
These are pictures at 100 nitrates.

Vahanyos · Jun 22, 2017

Ah i see...

so what issues did you have specifically? and how did you contribute it to high nitrates? were your phosphates low or high as well like your nitrates?

Thanks for taking the time to answer, i'm fairly new (less than a year) in the hobby and i would definitely like to know from experienced people who have high nitrates if it will bite me in the butt later lol

Pife · Jun 22, 2017

Vahanyos said:
Ah i see...

so what issues did you have specifically? and how did you contribute it to high nitrates? were your phosphates low or high as well like your nitrates?

Thanks for taking the time to answer, i'm fairly new (less than a year) in the hobby and i would definitely like to know from experienced people who have high nitrates if it will bite me in the *** later lol

I must not be articulating very well in my answers.I've been doing this for many years and have tried many different ways to keep colorful sps. I and 99 percent of reefers find that lower nutrients are the answer to keeping and growing coral. When I had high nitrates any little thing that changed in my tank resulted in Coral losses. Lack of PE, a lot of coral not colored up very well, poor calcification ( corals not growing), death of coralline algae, and I could keep listing stuff but I think you get it. Coral dies.
I don't know how you want me to try and draw a connection between everything in high nitrates other than coral thrives and grows great now that my nutrients are back in check. My po4s have always been low.

Over the last three months my nitrates have been around 25 as well and I couldn't get them to drop. I finally found that one of my skimmer pumps was not working. When I replaced that and got it back online it only took 4 days for my nitrates with carbon dosing to drop down to 5. The color change after those five days over the last 3 days has been impeccable. I run a Master Flex on my calcium reactor and I've had to up it by 20 ml every day just to try to keep my alkalinity and calcium steady. This means that my demands and coral are growing rapidly. Now that my nitrates are back down to where they usually are kept my corals are going back to looking amazing and the growth is skyrocketing.

You're welcome. Sometimes it is difficult to get anyone to answer your questions. I understand.

Jonathan Schor · Jul 3, 2017

I stopped dosing abev and continuing water changes weekly. The nitrates are now consistently 50. Should I increase the amount of np and pro S?

Anirban · Jul 3, 2017

Jonathan Schor said:
I stopped dosing abev and continuing water changes weekly. The nitrates are now consistently 50. Should I increase the amount of np and pro S?

Can we get a complete system detail with all filtration sump media etc. Also couple of pictures of the system and sump both.

Pife · Jul 3, 2017

Jonathan Schor said:
I stopped dosing abev and continuing water changes weekly. The nitrates are now consistently 50. Should I increase the amount of np and pro S?

I went through several bottles of each and had little to no effect on my tank.