Nitrate

jorgeherrera89 · Aug 20, 2018

Hello everyone I’ve had my tank running for 3 months now and my nitrate levels have not gone lower then 20ppm it usually stays at 40 but today’s test showed 20ppm. I want them to be lower, I have bio blocks right now but I was thinking of growing chaeto. I do WC every 2 weeks I feed my fish twice a week and corals also twice a week both on same day. What can I do to lower nitrates? Thank you

Diesel · Aug 20, 2018

More Water changes, tweak the skimmer, bump up the refugium.

If you feed twice a week how much do you feed.
Do you test your phosphate.

Reeferdood · Aug 20, 2018

There are several ways to lower them..
Carbon dosing, more live rock, more frequent water changes..
20 PPM is not horribly bad, what is your target number?
For what it is worth, I am not a fan of bio blocks. I think they leach aluminum and perhaps other metals. I saw no improvement while I employed them but when I took them out things started looking better. I even tried the blocks from Brightwell that have sulfur imbedded, was not not impressed at all.

4FordFamily · Aug 20, 2018

I agree 20PPM is pretty good for nearly all tank configurations. I’d go macroalgae route if you wish to increase nutrient export.

Katrina71 · Aug 20, 2018

Mine dropped quite a bit using chaeto and weekly water changes of 20%

Diesel · Aug 20, 2018

MNB is a great way to drop it as well

jorgeherrera89 · Aug 21, 2018

Reeferdood said:
There are several ways to lower them..
Carbon dosing, more live rock, more frequent water changes..
20 PPM is not horribly bad, what is your target number?
For what it is worth, I am not a fan of bio blocks. I think they leach aluminum and perhaps other metals. I saw no improvement while I employed them but when I took them out things started looking better. I even tried the blocks from Brightwell that have sulfur imbedded, was not not impressed at all.

Between 5-10