Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
My nitrates are getting high, at 20 ppm, anyone have any suggestions for reducing them?
Help with Nitrates?
- Thread starter Reefer Magreefer
- Start date
afboundguy
Acan's are inedible candy
+1 on equipment and as well what do you have for fish. IIRC your tank's been up and running since Oct/Nov 09 correct? (cheated a little and looked at you're intro post 
) If that's the case 20ppm for Nitrate for a roughly 6-8 month old tank doesn't seem totally out of the realm of normalcy...
Are you running cheato in your fuge?
Also how much are you feeding the fish and how often?
) If that's the case 20ppm for Nitrate for a roughly 6-8 month old tank doesn't seem totally out of the realm of normalcy... Are you running cheato in your fuge?
Also how much are you feeding the fish and how often?
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
I am nearly certain I am not over feeding.
fish: 1 lined bristletooth tang, 7 chromis, 3 barred gobies, one neon goby, and one yellow meringue wrasse.
equipment: remora skimmer, I know its a little small but my super skimmer was spewing bubbles like nobodies buisiness and I couldnt fix it. fuge is out of action for now until I can fix some tubing, as it was letting air in and thus microbubbles.
and yes, there is cheato in the fuge, should I put it in the display while the fuge is out?
The tank has been up for 6 months or so.
fish: 1 lined bristletooth tang, 7 chromis, 3 barred gobies, one neon goby, and one yellow meringue wrasse.
equipment: remora skimmer, I know its a little small but my super skimmer was spewing bubbles like nobodies buisiness and I couldnt fix it. fuge is out of action for now until I can fix some tubing, as it was letting air in and thus microbubbles.
and yes, there is cheato in the fuge, should I put it in the display while the fuge is out?
The tank has been up for 6 months or so.
afboundguy
Acan's are inedible candy
How big is the tank?
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
120 gallons
afboundguy
Acan's are inedible candy
Nothing too horribly out of the ordinary except for the skimmer... I'm sure if you upgraded it that would help...
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
I am currently looking into getting a remora pro
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
The tank only has 90 lbs of live rock, should I look into getting more? should I make a remote deep sand bed? sand in tank is 3-4 in
Skimming and Chaeto resolved my problem. I was up around 20ppm when my tank was a bit younger. Its running around 0 now. I use to feed heavier. I pulled back a little bit, but not much. The tank caught up with the load. But, I suspect you aren't harming anything at around 20ppm nitrate. It may be of concern if it gets higher. A 10% water change goes a long way to bring it down too.
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
Btw, I forgot to mention, the reason I am trying to lower the 'trates is because I have a cyanobacteria issue, I think it is phosphates (test at .25 ppm) or nitrates. How do I lower phosphates? any other advice? Thanks guys.
reefmaster262
Non-member
special and bio fuel works great
if it only has 90lbs of rock in there i would think about putting some more in. the general rule is 1-1.5lbs per gallon of the tank. i would leave the sand as is if you like it like that. there are mixed feelings on DSB. some people love them and some don't.
is this a reef tank or FOWLR? if it fowlr fish can usually take some nitrates..more than coral can.
do you use RO water? if you are using tap water that could be leading to cyano. i had a nast battle with that stuff in my old 55g. i lowered my feeding to every 2-3 days instead of everyday and the fish were no worse for wear.
is this a reef tank or FOWLR? if it fowlr fish can usually take some nitrates..more than coral can.
do you use RO water? if you are using tap water that could be leading to cyano. i had a nast battle with that stuff in my old 55g. i lowered my feeding to every 2-3 days instead of everyday and the fish were no worse for wear.
lisa foster
Non-member
How often are you doing water changes. I find weh I neglect them my nitrates go up.Do a large water change 30 gallonsthat should lower your nitrates.20 is not even bad as up at 40 everything looked fine a few good water changes I am lower. I however keep lps sps would not survive in my tank.
.25 ppm PO4 is pretty high. Running Carbon and GFO will help a lot, as will water change.
I see 6 mos. old. This is pretty common.
There is a Korallin product called PO4 minus that works well IME. Your skimmer will fill quick for a few hours after using it, but then will have noticeably clearer water and lower PO4.
My "dirty" cuttlefish tank runs PO4 around .15 ppm and NO3 around 10 ppm. sps tank PO4 is .01 ppm and NO3 0 ppm.
As your tank matures and provided you do not over feed, your tank will come into balance (biologically). I'd bet that even an overfed tank will come into balance - it just wouldn't be visually appealing to us.
I have less issues with excess nutrients since switching to mainly dry pellet food from frozen.
Reefer Magreefer
Non-member
What is GFO? I am using tap, but looking into ro units. I am doing 5% changes a week. It is a reef, but nothing looks unhappy. I am thinking of pulling a few fish to lessen the bioload, what do you guys think?
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lisa foster
Non-member
I have a 125 I do 20% every 2 weeks although the last two weeks I have been doing it every week to reduce nitrates. I don't know if 5% every week on a 120 is really effective maybe someone with more experience will chime in. I started running carbon like the advice above also to help and I reduced my population I had two big fish taht were adding to much to my bioload.
if you are using tap water that is where you excess nutrients are probably coming from. once you are able to switch over to ro/di water that will help a great deal imo. no matter how many water changes you do, the nitrates will go up if you are adding them with the tap water. i don't have room for an ro/di unit yet so i just buy my water from the store. jay's has great prices on it if you are close enough. most lfs carry it thoough.
if you are doing 5% changes that isn't going to cut your nitrates very much. if your nitrates are 20 and you do a 50% change that will cut your nitrates down to 10. 5% changes are only taking off a little bit each time. one or two good sized water changes will get them low and then i would do 5-10% change every week to two weeks.
if you are doing 5% changes that isn't going to cut your nitrates very much. if your nitrates are 20 and you do a 50% change that will cut your nitrates down to 10. 5% changes are only taking off a little bit each time. one or two good sized water changes will get them low and then i would do 5-10% change every week to two weeks.
