Testing Extremely High Nitrates

[clm65]

I have extremely high nitrates that I'm trying to reduce with NOPOX, water changes, chaeto, less feeding, more cleaning, etc. However, my Salifert test kit only indicates up to 100 ppm, which I exceed. So I have no idea if my efforts to date are making any impact. Is there a way to manipulate the Salifert test procedure to get useable results? For instance, double the amount of water in the test vial without increasing the additives, and then double the results? Or is there another recommended test kit that covers a much larger range?

 

[Litlover89]

Doubling the amount of tank water without increasing the amount of reagent you use should result in a lighter color. As you said, you would then double the result.

 

[Reefahholic]

I have extremely high nitrates that I'm trying to reduce with NOPOX, water changes, chaeto, less feeding, more cleaning, etc. However, my Salifert test kit only indicates up to 100 ppm, which I exceed. So I have no idea if my efforts to date are making any impact. Is there a way to manipulate the Salifert test procedure to get useable results? For instance, double the amount of water in the test vial without increasing the additives, and then double the results? Or is there another recommended test kit that covers a much larger range?

I’m not sure. Sounds like you’re on the right track though. Have you considered reducing your fish load? Multiple water changes over time will get the NO3 to the desired range. If it’s still not coming down, you may have to siphon your sandbed with a gravel vac. Siporax and good husbandry helps keep my Nitrates very low. Best of luck to you!

 

[clm65]

I’m not sure. Sounds like you’re on the right track though. Have you considered reducing your fish load? Multiple water changes over time will get the NO3 to the desired range. If it’s still not coming down, you may have to siphon your sandbed with a gravel vac. Siporax and good husbandry helps keep my Nitrates very low. Best of luck to you!

Thank you! I don't think my fish load is too high - blue tang, yellow tang, eibli angle, two clowns, and three damsels - in a 180 gallon tank. But the tank is 18 years old and the fish have been fed well over the years, so quite a bit of build up of nutrients I'm sure. I've been doing weekly water changes over the last month or two, but only 30 gallons at a time due to the size of my mixing tub. I'm considering getting another one so that I can do bigger changes. I did start vacuuming my sand bed a few weeks ago (after many many years of not touching it). There's still a few more areas that need vacuuming that I'm working on. I also added 8 liters of Matrix to my refugium within the last 2 months, but I'm not sure if it has kicked in yet. I would feel better if I could see that things are improving, but I'm kind of flying blind right now with my current test kits and procedures.

 

[clm65]

Doubling the amount of tank water without increasing the amount of reagent you use should result in a lighter color. As you said, you would then double the result.

Thanks! I'm going to try it tonight and see if it gives believable results.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

Do you have coral in your tank? If so what kind? Are you having some negative affects from high nitrates?

 

[clm65]

Do you have coral in your tank? If so what kind? Are you having some negative affects from high nitrates?

I've only got a couple of ricordia and some zoas. Added them before I realized how bad by nutrients are. I've lost some zoas, but others are holding on, as well as the ricordias.

Edit: forgot I also have xenia and GSP. GSP is looking good but not growing much, and xenia is doing great.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Doubling the amount of tank water without increasing the amount of reagent you use should result in a lighter color. As you said, you would then double the result.

I do not believe this is correct.

The correct way would be to add 1 part tank water to 1 part ro/di, test that as usual, and then multiply the answer by 2.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks! I'm going to try it tonight and see if it gives believable results.

It won’t be useful that way. The reagent to water ratio is not a critical aspect of this test.

 

[Reefahholic]

Thank you! I don't think my fish load is too high - blue tang, yellow tang, eibli angle, two clowns, and three damsels - in a 180 gallon tank. But the tank is 18 years old and the fish have been fed well over the years, so quite a bit of build up of nutrients I'm sure. I've been doing weekly water changes over the last month or two, but only 30 gallons at a time due to the size of my mixing tub. I'm considering getting another one so that I can do bigger changes. I did start vacuuming my sand bed a few weeks ago (after many many years of not touching it). There's still a few more areas that need vacuuming that I'm working on. I also added 8 liters of Matrix to my refugium within the last 2 months, but I'm not sure if it has kicked in yet. I would feel better if I could see that things are improving, but I'm kind of flying blind right now with my current test kits and procedures.

Keep the tank running and vac into a 100 micron filter sock down in the sump. May need about 5 for this job! I bet they will come down!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Thank you! I don't think my fish load is too high - blue tang, yellow tang, eibli angle, two clowns, and three damsels - in a 180 gallon tank. But the tank is 18 years old and the fish have been fed well over the years, so quite a bit of build up of nutrients I'm sure. I've been doing weekly water changes over the last month or two, but only 30 gallons at a time due to the size of my mixing tub. I'm considering getting another one so that I can do bigger changes. I did start vacuuming my sand bed a few weeks ago (after many many years of not touching it). There's still a few more areas that need vacuuming that I'm working on. I also added 8 liters of Matrix to my refugium within the last 2 months, but I'm not sure if it has kicked in yet. I would feel better if I could see that things are improving, but I'm kind of flying blind right now with my current test kits and procedures.

The vacuum might have started it. Did you happen to test before the vacuum? There may be a correlation between the 2.

I love showing this. I just recently change out my gravel for sand after 10 years. This is what the water coming out while doing it looked like

 

[JoshH]

I do not believe this is correct.

The correct way would be to add 1 part tank water to 1 part ro/di, test that as usual, and then multiply the answer by 2.

+1 to this. This is how you read higher nitrate levels with the red sea pro test kit.

 

[clm65]

It won’t be useful that way. The reagent to water ratio is not a critical aspect of this test.

Thanks Randy! I will do it your way.

 

[clm65]

Keep the tank running and vac into a 100 micron filter sock down in the sump. May need about 5 for this job! I bet they will come down!

I actually did that for part of the vacuuming, but with a large 10 micron sock. Although it caught a butt load of crap, I felt like the water passing through still had to be pretty nasty. So I'm just going to vacuum into a bucket during my water changes and not take any chances.

 

[clm65]

The vacuum might have started it. Did you happen to test before the vacuum? There may be a correlation between the 2.

I love showing this. I just recently change out my gravel for sand after 10 years. This is what the water coming out while doing it looked like

You know, you may be right! Looking back at my test results, although they were still high, they at least were within the range of the test kit. That was about a month and a half ago. I wonder how long it is going to take to get them back down. And your bucket contents look like the water coming out my vacuum hose when I started cleaning my sand. I am going to replace a bunch of it over the next month or so, a little at a time.

 

[Reefahholic]

I actually did that for part of the vacuuming, but with a large 10 micron sock. Although it caught a butt load of crap, I felt like the water passing through still had to be pretty nasty. So I'm just going to vacuum into a bucket during my water changes and not take any chances.

10 microns is what I use. I told you 100 microns because your sand-bed is super established and the 10 microns will clog very quickly.

If you’re not worried about clogging then go 5 micron. The 1st sediment filter stage on an RODI system is usually 1 or 5 micron. Those two pull about everything out. When I’m using 10’s I notice no change in NO3 with the water passing through.

If you wanna be SUPER ACRO SAFE....just cut the return pump and do a water change instead of siphoning into a sock. Siphon all that detritus and silt right down the sink or toilet and only do small sections at a time over a week or so. You’ll avoid a big change in stability.

Good luck!

 

[Reefahholic]

The vacuum might have started it. Did you happen to test before the vacuum? There may be a correlation between the 2.

I love showing this. I just recently change out my gravel for sand after 10 years. This is what the water coming out while doing it looked like

Yeah if you disturb too much at one time that very well could impact his numbers. Especially when the both of you have very aged tanks.

Sand gets so funky!

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks! I'm going to try it tonight and see if it gives believable results.

The results of doubling the the amount of tank water will not provide a valid result, aka, you are wasting your time. You need to dilute the tank water with either fresh salt water if it tests very low for nitrate or RODI if you can accept a slightly inaccurate result (the test was calibrated for salt water and will be somewhat off as salinity is decreased), but you must use only the volume of the diluted sample dictated by the kit instructions.

 

[clm65]

10 microns is what I use. I told you 100 microns because your sand-bed is super established and the 10 microns will clog very quickly.

If you’re not worried about clogging then go 5 micron. The 1st sediment filter stage on an RODI system is usually 1 or 5 micron. Those two pull about everything out. When I’m using 10’s I notice no change in NO3 with the water passing through.

If you wanna be SUPER ACRO SAFE....just cut the return pump and do a water change instead of siphoning into a sock. Siphon all that detritus and silt right down the sink or toilet and only do small sections at a time over a week or so. You’ll avoid a big change in stability.

Good luck!

Thanks! Yeah, I'm just going to vacuum the sand and discard the water. Someday I may go for some acros, but for now I'd settle for some healthy zoas.

 

[clm65]

I do not believe this is correct.

The correct way would be to add 1 part tank water to 1 part ro/di, test that as usual, and then multiply the answer by 2.

Well, I did the test this way and the good news is I think it worked. The bad news is my tank is still in pretty bad shape. The color was a little lighter than the 100 ppm color, so after doubling I’m going to estimate that I’m at about 180 or so ppm. Which is still better than my ATI ICP test from about 5 weeks ago, which was 420. So at least now I have a measurable reference value to work with.