Phosphate nitrate controlling

Volpone · Jul 24, 2013

Hello reefers :
My tank running now for more than 6 months , and I try many solution to bring down phosphate and nitrate , I have reactor for bio pellets and I'm using reef octopus bio pellets .
My tank 100 gallon , and still reading nitrate for 30 ppm
I tried water change weekly but still not going down , I add chaeto and I have refugium now ,
Is it because of sand and rock because I read a lot about that and here is many tank doesn't use the sand because it cause that problem.
I'm using also ro/di water , my tank only soft coral with few fishes , I'm no over feeding the fishes , once daily .
Anyone use good media to bring down the nitrate and phosphate ? And give me the name plz
Thx in advance

Zero Nitrates · Jul 24, 2013

Try vacuuming your sand and get more clean up crew.

Volpone · Jul 24, 2013

Vacuuming ??? Sound looks risky specially if I clean up sand bed , is it save to do that ???

Dowtish · Jul 24, 2013

Your tank is only 6 months old, so it is safe to vacuum the sand bed.

Volpone · Jul 24, 2013

But I have a lot of soft coral and I dont want to shock the system ,
Because I will get foggy water and maybe spike in ammonia and nitrite ,
Just I prefer to go for less risky way like to add media or reactor I'm using bio pellets now and I hope I will read the good result soon because the bio pellets still new in the system for three weeks now

Dowtish · Jul 24, 2013

Volpone said:
But I have a lot of soft coral and I dont want to shock the system ,
Because I will get foggy water and maybe spike in ammonia and nitrite ,
Just I prefer to go for less risky way like to add media or reactor I'm using bio pellets now and I hope I will read the good result soon because the bio pellets still new in the system for three weeks now

I thought the pellets had been on the tank for 6 months. If it has just been 3 weeks, you still have 3-5 more weeks before they fully kick in. Just give it some time. But I would start testing when you hit the 5 week mark to make sure you dont strip the nitrates and phosphates too fast.

Volpone · Jul 24, 2013

Thx mate , I use very slow doze , so for my tank they recommend 400 ml
And I start doze with 100 ml and wanna add more every two weeks

Reefpro · Jul 25, 2013

Also for phosphate control I run GFO, (granulated ferris oxide) great may to control phosphate IMO. No will need GFO a small gfo reactor and small pump, be careful you can reduce levels too low over night! Always best in this hobby to do things slow. Good luck

beaslbob · Jul 25, 2013

IMHO the best way of lowering nitrates and phosphate is with macro algae. Or even an algae turf scrubber.

But overall you tank seems to be fine.

my .02

Reefing Madness · Jul 25, 2013

Vodka Dosing.
Using Bobs theory, your sump needs to be of a substantial size in order for it to actually help your system.
Melevsreef.com - Dosing Vodka to Lower Nitrate & Phosphate

Eric B · Jul 25, 2013

Just like Dowtish said you still have some time for the reactor to start working to remove the nitrates/phosphates. Is your bio pellet reactor a recirculating model or is it a straight flow through? I have been running a recirculating model for almost a year now and it took about 4 weeks to see levels change at all. Once they started dropping via the testing I was able to adjust the flow through the reactor so I could control the rate at which the levels dropped. I never added anymore bio pellets because once your levels get down to where you want them you will need less bio pellets to keep them at those levels. Now after 4 or so weeks and you don't see levels dropping at all you might want to increase the total amount of pellets until you see levels falling, but just go slowly and good luck. I also run the water exiting my reactor into the skimmer intake as some people develop a white film in the tank and running the exit water through the skimmer removes this!

Volpone · Jul 29, 2013

Thx Erich , I'm looking for the reactor now and try to figure out when I will have this drop of phosphate and nitrite , I have one problem that I can't put the water which going out from reactor directly to the skimmer , but it looks nothing wrong with the water , my skimmer is connected directly to the sump reef octopus brand , I will try to find out if I add longer bib to the over flow in this case I can let the water of reactor going through the skimmer ,
And regarding the kind of my reactor it's normal one aqua excel brand with bump 1300 l/h

rich850 · Jul 31, 2013

Vodka dosing works well for me

Mrfresh · Jul 31, 2013

Vodka dose my nitrates went from 200ppm to around 10ppms in a month.

Here's how I did it
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/120915-dropping-nitrates-progression.html

Another perk I have super clean looking water now. No more haze

Jmeza · Jul 31, 2013

Vodka dosing is a joke! Can it help drop nitrates? Yes but it's a freaken bandaid. A properly maintained system shouldn't need vodka! Fix the problem, don't mask it!

kacrocorals581 · Jul 31, 2013

Yeah like jmeza said don't mask it fix it just take out all the fish and stop feeding that should help the nitrates! But for these of us that enjoy our fish vodka dosing is a good fix for the problem

Reefing Madness · Jul 31, 2013

Jmeza said:
Vodka dosing is a joke! Can it help drop nitrates? Yes but it's a freaken bandaid. A properly maintained system shouldn't need vodka! Fix the problem, don't mask it!

Easy there killer. In my system Im not changing 75g of water every week. Sorry, not going to happen. I don't over feed, and have the appropriate skimmer. Is it now a joke? NO, it is not. It keeps my systems Nitrates under control.
I also run a 45g Sump with several macros in it, the trouble is, in order for macros to be of any aid it must be of appropriate size to the DT, in this case my sump is not full as of yet. Running a ATS would certainly help, but I haven't gotten that far.
so as for it being a Joke, I think not, its a hellofa cheap way to maintain water conditions.
I fed my tank every other day, that would not be considered overfeeding, with quite large Tangs I might add, so when I did add food to the system, it was gone quite quickly. I got tired of that, being as the fish rely on me for food, and I thought feeding them everyday was not bad, so I went back to it.