What do bacon and my reef tank have in common?

[Red_Beard]

Both are high in nitrates!

Tested last night and it is of the red sea charts, over 64ppm! And that was after my monthly water change! It is time for an intervention.
Currently i have a refugium that is growing well, but not crazy like i would expect with that high of nitrate, also po4 is at .12ppm so that isn't limiting. I was thinking of trying one of two options, biopellets or vinegar dosing. Anybody have any good experiences dropping crazy high levels?

 

[G Santana]

I'm in your neighborhood, my tank is lightly stocked, I feed once a day, my scrubber has to be cleaned weekly and my nitrates are in the 40s.
For months I thought I was good until I got the Hanna checker and well, not so good have been my readings.
I started Vodka dosing 4 weeks ago, it's slow going and have only seen a slight improvement but I'm holding the course to see where this dosing goes.

 

[MnFish1]

Both are high in nitrates!

Tested last night and it is of the red sea charts, over 64ppm! And that was after my monthly water change! It is time for an intervention.
Currently i have a refugium that is growing well, but not crazy like i would expect with that high of nitrate, also po4 is at .12ppm so that isn't limiting. I was thinking of trying one of two options, bioballs or vinegar dosing. Anybody have any good experiences dropping crazy high levels?

Water changes - lower nutrient input?

Bioballs are not likely to lower nitrate.
Vinegar or vodka dosing is all fine - but will take 'a while'. You should watch your PO4 as well - might need GFO.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Both are high in nitrates!

Tested last night and it is of the red sea charts, over 64ppm! And that was after my monthly water change! It is time for an intervention.
Currently i have a refugium that is growing well, but not crazy like i would expect with that high of nitrate, also po4 is at .12ppm so that isn't limiting. I was thinking of trying one of two options, bioballs or vinegar dosing. Anybody have any good experiences dropping crazy high levels?

My question is always - do you know what form of nitrate your test kit measures? Nitrate ion versus nitrate-nitrogen? Nitrate ion readings will be 4.4 times higher than nitrate nitrogen.

Randy in the chemistry forum can explain this better than I can....

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Both are high in nitrates!

Tested last night and it is of the red sea charts, over 64ppm! And that was after my monthly water change! It is time for an intervention.
Currently i have a refugium that is growing well, but not crazy like i would expect with that high of nitrate, also po4 is at .12ppm so that isn't limiting. I was thinking of trying one of two options, bioballs or vinegar dosing. Anybody have any good experiences dropping crazy high levels?

By the way - when I said 'water changes' - I mean like 3 30 percent water changes every 2-3 days - until your nitrate is down to where you want it.

 

[SPR1968]

I’m glad you didn’t say ‘fried’ I was holding my breath! Lol

Its not that bad, my S650 was around 40 for ages and was thriving

If the tank is ok, and we don’t know what size it is yet, and full tank shots are good so we can see, I would do a few more water changes to bring it down as the easy option

Thats what I would try first and keep the refugium going and to do so you need to keep the food source

 

[Dkmoo]

If the size of your fuge isn't undersized, just let it grow out before harvesting the algae. The more algae it has in there,, the more it absorbs.. rate of growth/absorption is exponential, so could take a while to ramp up effectiveness.. If its chaeto, check for iron, it may be deficient which limits growth.

Or could be light, get something stronger like the kessil h380.

If fuge is undersized then you gotta add additional methods of nutrient export - skim more/longer, add filter socks that you will swap every 2 - 3days. Etc..

 

[Red_Beard]

I'm in your neighborhood, my tank is lightly stocked, I feed once a day, my scrubber has to be cleaned weekly and my nitrates are in the 40s.
For months I thought I was good until I got the Hanna checker and well, not so good have been my readings.
I started Vodka dosing 4 weeks ago, it's slow going and have only seen a slight improvement but I'm holding the course to see where this dosing goes.

Crazy how that works. Its like getting older. Going about daily life not thinking of it much till BAM! Nitrate levels high enough they could retire. Good luck with the vodka, i am looking at that too, seems like it is a little more concentrated form of carbon so you can dose less volume.

Water changes - lower nutrient input?

Bioballs are not likely to lower nitrate.
Vinegar or vodka dosing is all fine - but will take 'a while'. You should watch your PO4 as well - might need GFO.

Yeah... meant biopellets. Sorry. Been trying to type and also be a junglegym. I was using GFO over a year ago and ended up going to low and pulled it.

My question is always - do you know what form of nitrate your test kit measures? Nitrate ion versus nitrate-nitrogen? Nitrate ion readings will be 4.4 times higher than nitrate nitrogen.

Randy in the chemistry forum can explain this better than I can....

Jay

That is good to know, thank you! I will look i to that. I am using the standard redsea algea control kit. If it is the kit measuring nitrate ion, would that mean the real nitrate-nitrogen value is somewhere around 14 - 15 ppm? Because that sounds much more manageable. : )

 

[maroun.c]

Id rely on q couple larger water changes to immediately drop levels a bit then carbon dosing, making sure ur RODI is at 0 tds and not adding to the problem.

 

[MnFish1]

Yeah... meant biopellets. Sorry. Been trying to type and also be a junglegym. I was using GFO over a year ago and ended up going to low and pulled it.

I kind of thought you might have meant that. I would say - if you want to go the route of carbon - I would recommend (If you dont want to do more water changes) - vodka dosing. starting slow - and building up. I have used bio pellets - they are are hard to dose, require a reactor - which just adds potential complications - and if you overdose - it gets to be a problem.

 

[Red_Beard]

I’m glad you didn’t say ‘fried’ I was holding my breath! Lol

Its not that bad, my S650 was around 40 for ages and was thriving

If the tank is ok, and we don’t know what size it is yet, and full tank shots are good so we can see, I would do a few more water changes to bring it down as the easy option

Thats what I would try first and keep the refugium going and to do so you need to keep the food source

Lol, yes luckily not fried! Tank looks fine, acro growth is there but not fast, and i only have 2 frags of it, but want to get more going and was going to start tuning up for that. Definitely keeping the refugium though.

If the size of your fuge isn't undersized, just let it grow out before harvesting the algae. The more algae it has in there,, the more it absorbs.. rate of growth/absorption is exponential, so could take a while to ramp up effectiveness.. If its chaeto, check for iron, it may be deficient which limits growth.

Or could be light, get something stronger like the kessil h380.

If fuge is undersized then you gotta add additional methods of nutrient export - skim more/longer, add filter socks that you will swap every 2 - 3days. Etc..

Could be the light, i am using a hydroponics grow light, but should be 60watt.
Definitely going to do a multi pronged approach, more waterchanges wetter skim and vinegar/vodka dosing maybe adding biopellets. Still thinking that over.

 

[Red_Beard]

FTS: Had to thin out my hammer, i was starting to loose heads in the sand. Goby was getting rowdy with his excavations. Did some zoas while i was at it too, that is the rack on the left. The one on the right i have been wanting to redo the right hand side of the scape. For a year...

Here is the fuge, it is a 40B

 

[Red_Beard]

I kind of thought you might have meant that. I would say - if you want to go the route of carbon - I would recommend (If you dont want to do more water changes) - vodka dosing. starting slow - and building up. I have used bio pellets - they are are hard to dose, require a reactor - which just adds potential complications - and if you overdose - it gets to be a problem.

Thanks man, sounds like vodka it is for now. That is kinda what i had heard with pellets, was too easy to have problems and was hoping for feedback!

 

[Red_Beard]

Thinking harder about this, i wonder if it is my food that is a major culprit. I make my own with blended shrimp, clam, squid, and muscles. But the last batch i thought why not add some fines for filterfeeders. And i added copepod powder, spirulina, and a couple of those frozen coral food flats. :/ might whip up another batch without the extra stuff as that is what i was doing before. And do more water changes coupled with vodka dosing. Thanks all!

 

[Red_Beard]

Started dosing 20ml 5% vinegar the last few days, noticed skim production has gone through the roof! Hopefully that equates to n & p reduction. At least one of the days... skimmer overflowed on the other and i dont think it caught anything but tank water that day.
Going to pick up a bottle of vodka this weekend too and get some diy nopox mixed up. Thanks all for the input!

 

[GHOSTLY]

First of all good title and secondly id dose vinegar. Itd cheaper and bio pellets you need a protein skimmer

 

[MnFish1]

Started dosing 20ml 5% vinegar the last few days, noticed skim production has gone through the roof! Hopefully that equates to n & p reduction. At least one of the days... skimmer overflowed on the other and i dont think it caught anything but tank water that day.
Going to pick up a bottle of vodka this weekend too and get some diy nopox mixed up. Thanks all for the input!

I will be picking up a bottle of vodka also - but will not be using it in the tank. BTW - one thing you can do - about slime - since you're already doing water changes is - 1) either turkey baste it off or 2) siphon it out with water changes. Other non-slime producing bacteria will still grow - but you will gradually get rid of the slime

 

[MnFish1]

I will be picking up a bottle of vodka also - but will not be using it in the tank. BTW - one thing you can do - about slime - since you're already doing water changes is - 1) either turkey baste it off or 2) siphon it out with water changes. Other non-slime producing bacteria will still grow - but you will gradually get rid of the slime

PS - another hint - more flow in your tank.

 

[ZoWhat]

What do bacon and my reef tank have in common?​

Two things your spouse won't let you have more of...

.

 

[Red_Beard]

What do bacon and my reef tank have in common?​

Two things your spouse won't let you have more of...

.

LOL, no way dude. I married an angel!
We were out to dinner at the local steak house and I saw they were selling CASES of bacon. 30 LBS. She let me get 2...