Nitrate in my freshly made salt mix

[Uncle99]

I reduced nitrates from 50ppm to 5ppm.
Added way more surface area in form of marine pure blocks.
Increased beneficial bacteria by carbon dosing.
Took about 3 months.
I think you did the right thing.

 

[Brew12]

Sounds like you may have chloramine in your RODI water. It is hard to remove and breaks down into ammonia which can then break down into nitrate.
But... 2.5ppm isn't something I would worry about.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Completely agree with that. Wasn't thinking it was causing the high 25+nitrate. just thought it strange it had any at all.

I would caution against trying to interpret it.

It might be test error, but salt mixes are known to contain a little ammonia (say, 0.1 ppm), and so may the source water. If even a small fraction of that gets oxidized to nitrite, it will show falsely as a lot nitrate. 0.02 ppm nitrite will read as 2 ppm nitrate with many kits, by design.

 

[Lovefish77]

Ime the only thing that can lower nitrates is big blocks like marine pure if you have the space for it. You need anaerobic bacteria deprived of oxygen deeper in the pores of those blocks. But that takes time as well.

Hope that helps.

 

[Spieg]

I added some of these to my QT because Nitrate was very high (almost 100ppm), 2 weeks later it was near zero.

 

[SaltISlife]

My tsnk is at 40ppm nitrates 24.7 i wouldnt fret about 25 lol. I would be more concerned with nitrates at 2 than i would 40. Based on my experience.. but then i only have near 100 types of corals in my tank.

Best way to lower nitrates i found though is using the seachem denitrate rocks. Make a homemade reactor and put the flow to 25-30gph. And ina few weeks youll have grown aenerobic bacteria and itll lower the nitrates.

I made two reactors using 1 gallon water jugs from thr gorcery store. I cut a small hole in the plastic on the bottom.. put a olastic barbed fitting in then.. siliconed it so seal it. then cut a hole in the top for the outlet barbed fitting. Silicone. Filled the jugs each with denitrate. So i have 2 gallons of denitrate. I run a little eheim surface skimmer on it. Meaning i run a hose from the skimmer outlet to the first jug. Then the first jug connects to the 2nd jug. And then into the tank.

I can actually test my tanks water and the outlet of the denitrate and physically see a difference in color on the test tubes.. i dont even have to look at the color charts to see it.

This maintains my nitrates at 20-40ppm.. depending how much i feed my fish. I have 5 tangs and 10 other fish in my tank btw. So i feed alot..

And if i feed way too muchcand nitrates get too high. I just lower my feeding to once a day for a few days and nitrates drop back down really quickly.


You can call what i did ghetto. But it was cheap works and honestly i think what i did with a 1$ water jug from thr grocery store is pretty dang ingenious

 

[Hellybell80]

My tsnk is at 40ppm nitrates 24.7 i wouldnt fret about 25 lol. I would be more concerned with nitrates at 2 than i would 40. Based on my experience.. but then i only have near 100 types of corals in my tank.

Best way to lower nitrates i found though is using the seachem denitrate rocks. Make a homemade reactor and put the flow to 25-30gph. And ina few weeks youll have grown aenerobic bacteria and itll lower the nitrates.

I made two reactors using 1 gallon water jugs from thr gorcery store. I cut a small hole in the plastic on the bottom.. put a olastic barbed fitting in then.. siliconed it so seal it. then cut a hole in the top for the outlet barbed fitting. Silicone. Filled the jugs each with denitrate. So i have 2 gallons of denitrate. I run a little eheim surface skimmer on it. Meaning i run a hose from the skimmer outlet to the first jug. Then the first jug connects to the 2nd jug. And then into the tank.

I can actually test my tanks water and the outlet of the denitrate and physically see a difference in color on the test tubes.. i dont even have to look at the color charts to see it.

This maintains my nitrates at 20-40ppm.. depending how much i feed my fish. I have 5 tangs and 10 other fish in my tank btw. So i feed alot..

And if i feed way too muchcand nitrates get too high. I just lower my feeding to once a day for a few days and nitrates drop back down really quickly.


You can call what i did ghetto. But it was cheap works and honestly i think what i did with a 1$ water jug from thr grocery store is pretty dang ingenious

Nowt wrong with a bit of DIY. I'll have a look into that, see what I an do.

 

[Hellybell80]

To be honest I'm not stressing of the 20+nitrate. Just want to keep it controlled. I had a small amount of briopsis algae and quite a bit of bubble. The reflux dealt with the briopsis. The bubble algae is somewhat abating.. syphon and removal. A small amount of red cyno has crept in the last couple of days. Just looking to reduce both the nitrate and phosphate a little bit. It was the first bit of algae I've had in this tank since starting it up 8 months ago.
The corals themselves are growing well and color is good. But always room for improvement

 

[leighla wolf]

I'm using tropic marin pro reef salt. Have done more months

I don’t know if this helps but I’ve tried fritz, coral pro, and petco brands. I noticed that ALL had initial nitrate when freshly mixed as well! I contacted the companies and actually learned that it’s normal for there to be some nitrates when freshly mixing salt because the salt is allowed a certain amount of decayed compounds (Think about how good allow a limit on things like bugs or random particulate in the foods you eat like chocolate from factories or flies in a milk factory...If you’ve ever been in one, like mayfield for instance, they’re overrun with flies and have machines in place to zap/capture them)...but some amount have to be accounted for. I use an RODI system...I’m not sure if you can add on a DI resin but it does help make nitrates 0 in the water being made. Also, if you circulate the freshly mixed saltwater, after some hours if you check, the nitrates will go down. I think that’s part of the reason salt companies advise reefers to mix the water for set hours before adding straight into your tank....that and it helps with oxygenation. Hopes this helps! I know the if you call the Petco salt brand, they were super helpful at explaining why in a more scientific manner.

 

[Hellybell80]

I don’t know if this helps but I’ve tried fritz, coral pro, and petco brands. I noticed that ALL had initial nitrate when freshly mixed as well! I contacted the companies and actually learned that it’s normal for there to be some nitrates when freshly mixing salt because the salt is allowed a certain amount of decayed compounds (Think about how good allow a limit on things like bugs or random particulate in the foods you eat like chocolate from factories or flies in a milk factory...If you’ve ever been in one, like mayfield for instance, they’re overrun with flies and have machines in place to zap/capture them)...but some amount have to be accounted for. I use an RODI system...I’m not sure if you can add on a DI resin but it does help make nitrates 0 in the water being made. Also, if you circulate the freshly mixed saltwater, after some hours if you check, the nitrates will go down. I think that’s part of the reason salt companies advise reefers to mix the water for set hours before adding straight into your tank....that and it helps with oxygenation. Hopes this helps! I know the if you call the Petco salt brand, they were super helpful at explaining why in a more scientific manner.

Oh I've seen for myself what is allowed into our food. Worked nights many moons ago in a food factory.
I do run 2 canisters of DI resin on my RO unit. Easier to swop out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t know if this helps but I’ve tried fritz, coral pro, and petco brands. I noticed that ALL had initial nitrate when freshly mixed as well! I contacted the companies and actually learned that it’s normal for there to be some nitrates when freshly mixing salt because the salt is allowed a certain amount of decayed compounds (Think about how good allow a limit on things like bugs or random particulate in the foods you eat like chocolate from factories or flies in a milk factory...If you’ve ever been in one, like mayfield for instance, they’re overrun with flies and have machines in place to zap/capture them)...but some amount have to be accounted for. I use an RODI system...I’m not sure if you can add on a DI resin but it does help make nitrates 0 in the water being made. Also, if you circulate the freshly mixed saltwater, after some hours if you check, the nitrates will go down. I think that’s part of the reason salt companies advise reefers to mix the water for set hours before adding straight into your tank....that and it helps with oxygenation. Hopes this helps! I know the if you call the Petco salt brand, they were super helpful at explaining why in a more scientific manner.

Maybe it is your water or you measurement. Despite their statements, it is not normal to see 2.5 ppm nitrate in salt mixes.

Salt mix studies using good equipment do not typically show anything close to 2.5 ppm nitrate.

This salt study from a number of years ago showed values from min of 0.06 ppm (for Instant Ocean) to 1.1 ppm (Seachem, which was by far the high outlier) :

Aquarium Frontiers Feature

 

[leighla wolf]

Maybe it is your water or you measurement. Despite their statements, it is not normal to see 2.5 ppm nitrate in salt mixes.

Salt mix studies using good equipment do not typically show anything close to 2.5 ppm nitrate.

This salt study from a number of years ago showed values from min of 0.06 ppm (for Instant Ocean) to 1.1 ppm (Seachem, which was by far the high outlier) :

Aquarium Frontiers Feature

I agree Randy! The the measured nitrates are high! I was just stating some nitrates are to be expected. I would honestly look into what RODI unit was being used, how good the membranes were, and maybe measure how high the initial nitrates were. I know systems function differently based on PSI output which truly affects how well our units function as well as how long the system is “flushed”. These might be helpful places to start as well.

 

[excell007]

If it's me, I will just ignore this 2.5ppm on the SW mix. Even if 100% of the water is changed the tank will end up with 2.5ppm which is still on the low side.

 

[SaltISlife]

If the actual water is 25ppm from the tap you have a serious problem. Specially if its city water. Because the legal limit is 10ppm. As nitrates are linked to cancer if consumed alot. And if its well water you need a better filtration system.

My local tap city water is like 5ppm nitrates

 

[excell007]

If the actual water is 25ppm from the tap you have a serious problem. Specially if its city water. Because the legal limit is 10ppm. As nitrates are linked to cancer if consumed alot. And if its well water you need a better filtration system.

My local tap city water is like 5ppm nitrates

it was not mentioned anywhere that tap water is at 25ppm.

 

[SaltISlife]

it was not mentioned anywhere that tap water is at 25ppm.

Well i guess i missed the point in 2.5, In the the thread title said nitrates in my salt mix and then i read 25ppm in the first sentence

 

[excell007]

Well i guess i missed the point in 2.5, In the the thread title said nitrates in my salt mix and then i read 25ppm in the first sentence

yup, 25 is the tank and 2.5 is the salt mix

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

denitrate