nitrates

[sbazain]

high to the forum haven't been by in a while question i tried bio pellets , vinegar dosing and my nitrates won't come down i have chaeto in the sump my skimmer pulls out plenty of stuff it just won't come down according to my tests is reading 100ppm corals are fine i know they should open more when i moved i did a 80% water change and three days later my nitrates we're at 100 could it be my test kit is from salifert i re checked with api and it was high too any idea what it could be

 

[Maggie321]

Numbers aside, how does everything look?

 

[mta_morrow]

Is it possible to post all of your major parameters?

Nitrates
Phosphates
Salinity
Alkalinity
Calcium

Also, what test kit are you using and have you checked the expiration date?

Is it possible to post a pic or your tank?

 

[Susan Edwards]

following. In the same boat. 40-80 all the time, no matter what, even after water change. Yet all looks great.

 

[NinnJinn]

following. In the same boat. 40-80 all the time, no matter what, even after water change. Yet all looks great.

Same here. Did 2 50% water changes in the course of 3 weeks nitrates are still running between 40 and 80.

CUC and chocolate chip starfish seem happy

 

[theMeat]

Rocks and sand are nitrate bank.
Keep dosing and stick to schedule. It doesn’t work until all of a sudden it does. Could take a month or three.
Stir up sand bed and blow off rocks with turkey baster once a week

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

high to the forum haven't been by in a while question i tried bio pellets , vinegar dosing and my nitrates won't come down i have chaeto in the sump my skimmer pulls out plenty of stuff it just won't come down according to my tests is reading 100ppm corals are fine i know they should open more when i moved i did a 80% water change and three days later my nitrates we're at 100 could it be my test kit is from salifert i re checked with api and it was high too any idea what it could be

All of the methods you tried will work if you used them in sufficient amount, but they all also can become limited by things other than nitrate. For example, if phosphate is very low for some reason, chaeto may not grow well, and even bacteria may become limited.

Most likely, however, is that you just didn't use "enough" of chaeto or vienegar, for example, for long enough to see the effect.

 

[StingrayNYC]

How long did you run a biopellets reactor? Did you add any type of bacteria while biopellets reactor was running?

What test kit did you use to test NO3?