Nitrates help

[milkman754]

I’m at the end of my rope. I’ve done and continue to do water changes. I’ve added an external canister filter filled with denitrator, i have a nice refugium going . I put a denitrator pad in the sump and I’m still off the charts. What can i do. I’ll try anything. Oh, it’s a 125 fowlr cause I’m afraid to kill coral at this point. 150 total gallons.

 

[Kamden Uelton]

What are Nitrates at?

 

[milkman754]

What are Nitrates at?

Depends which test i use
Salifert 100 total purple
Red Sea nitrate pro test again total purple 4ppm

 

[Big G]

What size were your water changes?

 

[milkman754]

What size were your water changes?

25 to 30 gallons

 

[Kamden Uelton]

I don't test my water so I don't know what "Purple" is, I'm assuming it's 4ppm?

 

[Big G]

25 to 30 gallons

How many changes have you completed so far?

 

[milkman754]

I don't test my water so I don't know what "Purple" is, I'm assuming it's 4ppm?

Yes

 

[Flippers4pups]

A few questions, so bare with me.

Sand bed?

How many fish?

What do you feed?

How often?

RO/DI water used?

How much rock do you have in the system?

 

[milkman754]

How many changes have you completed so far?

I change water every 2 weeks roughly

 

[milkman754]

I also have a new aqua ultraviolet light

 

[milkman754]

And yes I’m using rodi

 

[Kamden Uelton]

4ppm is pretty low, I'd not be too worried about that with Nitrates at zero you'd have to feed some type of coral food to keep them healthy as even SPS corals need some Nutrients in the water. Last time I tested my water I was at 5 ppm Nitrate and I get amazing growth and color from all my corals, just my 2 cents.

happy reefing

 

[Big G]

I change water every 2 weeks roughly

How many weeks? Trying to understand how much and how often you have completed those water changes total.

 

[NS Mike D]

4ppm is pretty low, I'd not be too worried about that with Nitrates at zero you'd have to feed some type of coral food to keep them healthy as even SPS corals need some Nutrients in the water. Last time I tested my water I was at 5 ppm Nitrate and I get amazing growth and color from all my corals, just my 2 cents.

happy reefing

+1 fish won't be affected at all. Red Sea even list 2 ppm the upper range for growth of sps corals. Corals will consume nitrates most soft corals will thrive in 4ppm so don't rule them out as partners in your ammonia cycle.

 

[milkman754]

How many weeks? Trying to understand how much and how often you have completed those water changes total.

Big G, this is going on for a long time . Maybe a year or more. I never really tested much cause everything was fine. Then a beautiful rbta started turning white and eventually died as did a really nice sea anemone. I’ve lost some nice fish along the way too. Everything else is fine except for nitrates. I’m puzzled.

 

[andyg1960]

Big G, this is going on for a long time . Maybe a year or more. I never really tested much cause everything was fine. Then a beautiful rbta started turning white and eventually died as did a really nice sea anemone. I’ve lost some nice fish along the way too. Everything else is fine except for nitrates. I’m puzzled.

Nitrates of 4ppm are not likely killing your fish. Need to explore another reason for fish loss

 

[milkman754]

A few questions, so bare with me.

Sand bed?

How many fish?

What do you feed?

How often?

RO/DI water used?

How much rock do you have in the system?

Fish about 10 nothing big except a vlamingi tang
Sand bed around an inch and a half
I feed a frozen mix mostly and small pellets every other day
Yes rodi
Couple snails
2 hermit crabs
3 cc stars
4 urchins

 

[Big G]

Big G, this is going on for a long time . Maybe a year or more. I never really tested much cause everything was fine. Then a beautiful rbta started turning white and eventually died as did a really nice sea anemone. I’ve lost some nice fish along the way too. Everything else is fine except for nitrates. I’m puzzled.

Salifert Nitrate test with purple color equates to 100+ ppm of nitrate in a 150 gallon tank. That's a lot of nitrate to remove.

And 25-30 gallon every other week is probably not going to lower nitrate levels in your tank.

To make a significant reduction you are probably going to need to do some aggressive water changes. For example, when my new 90 was finished cycling early last year and it had 1oo+ ppm of nitrate. I did 45 gallon = 50% water change. That significantly lowered it but it was still very high. I ended up doing 3 more 30 gallon water changes over the next 3 days. That brought it down to around a bit less than 20 ppm. Waited a couple of days and did one more 30 gallon w/c. That brought it down to 15 ppm. It's amazing how much water changing as quickly as possible/reasonable it took for me to get my 90's nitrates down. Totaled 1/45 gal, 4/30 gal according to my log. That's a total of 165 gallons for a 90 gallon tank. Now of course your mileage may vary but there it is. Hope this helps.

 

[milkman754]

Salifert Nitrate test with purple color equates to 100+ ppm of nitrate in a 150 gallon tank. That's a lot of nitrate to remove.

And 25-30 gallon every other week is probably not going to lower nitrate levels in your tank.

To make a significant reduction you are probably going to need to do some aggressive water changes. For example, when my new 90 was finished cycling early last year and it had 1oo+ ppm of nitrate. I did 45 gallon = 50% water change. That significantly lowered it but it was still very high. I ended up doing 3 more 30 gallon water changes over the next 3 days. That brought it down to around a bit less than 20 ppm. Waited a couple of days and did one more 30 gallon w/c. That brought it down to 15 ppm. It's amazing how much water changing as quickly as possible/reasonable it took for me to get my 90's nitrates down. Totaled 1/45 gal, 4/30 gal according to my log. That's a total of 165 gallons for a 90 gallon tank. Now of course your mileage may vary but there it is. Hope this helps.

Wow, I’m gonna need a bigger hose.
Thanks