Nitrate not going down??

[waxhawreefer]

ive been using the np pro and the pro bio S for two weeks, 4 drops each daily to try and lower my nitrates, which my test kit read around 8-10 from Red Sea test kit, but my ati icp test came back 16 ppm, can I up the dose?? Trying not to cut back on my feeding, I have allot of live rock and additional miracle mud and marine pure blocks and sphere in my sump, phosphate levels were reading .07 but after phosphate minus in my reactor it now reads 0.0!! Thx

 

[Mariners]

I wouldnt add more as i hate using additives to reduce things. If its around 10-16 i wouldnt worry about it unless it gets real high like in the 40s to 80s. I would check for sources for nitrates instead—like your ro/di water (maybe time to change, check your tds), brand of salt, foods u are using to feed as some foods have more phosphates and such.

 

[Anirban]

ive been using the np pro and the pro bio S for two weeks, 4 drops each daily to try and lower my nitrates, which my test kit read around 8-10 from Red Sea test kit, but my ati icp test came back 16 ppm, can I up the dose?? Trying not to cut back on my feeding, I have allot of live rock and additional miracle mud and marine pure blocks and sphere in my sump, phosphate levels were reading .07 but after phosphate minus in my reactor it now reads 0.0!! Thx

2 weeks is not enough it will take atleast a month or two to show the effect. Its bacterial driven and they take time to colonise and show effect. Also you need some PO4 to reduce NO3 as bacteria will need both.

 

[Piranhapat]

Like stated it takes time more in 6-8 week range. Water changes will help.

 

[waxhawreefer]

2 weeks is not enough it will take atleast a month or two to show the effect. Its bacterial driven and they take time to colonise and show effect. Also you need some PO4 to reduce NO3 as bacteria will need both.

Thx for the input, yes tds is still 0, water changing might be the answer, even though my checker reads 0.0 they do have a +\-.04 so I’m not too worried about not enough phosphate, I do have a few areas of green “turf” algae so if they are surviving I know my phosphate levels are still there,

 

[Ernie Aungon Nebit]

Hi Wax, any update from your tank? What is our No3 reading now?

 

[waxhawreefer]

Hi Wax, any update from your tank? What is our No3 reading now?

No not really, I’ve had allot of changes since
November, I removed my sandbed, thought that was my problem, might have solved some of my cyano problems by turning up my flow now, I’ve been dosing around 8 drops of both to get it down and nothing, trying cheato again in my 3 gallon ato again, didn’t have any luck before with it, too soon to tell, but everything is still growing, alittle slow but I’m still gonna dose that amount for awhile, I have two more bottles of bio s, np pro, and they aren’t cheap, I’ve used no3pox before and raised the dose till my levels started to drop then decreased them but since I switched to aquaforest salt and stuff I wanted to try their Bacteria!

 

[goober]

No not really, I’ve had allot of changes since
November, I removed my sandbed, thought that was my problem, might have solved some of my cyano problems by turning up my flow now, I’ve been dosing around 8 drops of both to get it down and nothing, trying cheato again in my 3 gallon ato again, didn’t have any luck before with it, too soon to tell, but everything is still growing, alittle slow but I’m still gonna dose that amount for awhile, I have two more bottles of bio s, np pro, and they aren’t cheap, I’ve used no3pox before and raised the dose till my levels started to drop then decreased them but since I switched to aquaforest salt and stuff I wanted to try their Bacteria!

Be careful to not overdose pro bio s and np pro. I learned myself that you will end up with brown algae on your sand bed when this happens creating a new problem. You need to find the sweet spot in your tank. Balance is key.

 

[waxhawreefer]

Be careful to not overdose pro bio s and np pro. I learned myself that you will end up with brown algae on your sand bed when this happens creating a new problem. You need to find the sweet spot in your tank. Balance is key.

Thx, I would rather not run any cheato but my nitrates haven’t dropped below 10 since dosing?? Watching my feeding and weekly 5 gallon water changes, don’t help, when removing my sand I would do 20 gallon a week, still never dropped, phos does go up to .06 but I just change the phosphate minus, I don’t think it works as good as plain gfo which can be good because it doesn’t strip the water of all nutrients, I’ve even started to run those zeolites to see if that can remove the ammonia before the cycle starts!! We will see!!