Nitrate reduction

[monti1]

I am battling Nitrates a little bit in my tank. Last week they were at 20. I vaccumed the sand bed ( Shallow 2") and did a 15 gallon water change. I vaccumed again tonight and did another 10 gallon change. I have cut back on feeding as well. My question is how frequently should I be doing water changes to drive them down? And by the way it is amazing how much stuff comes out of the sand when you vaccume!

Tank is a 120 with 40 breeder sump/ refuge
asm g2 with mesh mod
3 koralia 3
1 tunze 6101
Been up for 9 months with a moderate stock level


Thanks for any help,


Rick

 

[biggyclops]

I am battling Nitrates a little bit in my tank. Last week they were at 20. I vaccumed the sand bed ( Shallow 2") and did a 15 gallon water change. I vaccumed again tonight and did another 10 gallon change. I have cut back on feeding as well. My question is how frequently should I be doing water changes to drive them down? And by the way it is amazing how much stuff comes out of the sand when you vaccume!

Tank is a 120 with 40 breeder sump/ refuge
asm g2 with mesh mod
3 koralia 3
1 tunze 6101
Been up for 9 months with a moderate stock level


Thanks for any help,



Rick

ever thought of a remote deep sand bed? maybe a 5 gallon bucket.. that would help a lot since you don't have a deep sand bed in the tank...

 

[naturebatslast]

Grow chaeto.

 

[JayM]

I tied in a 40g breeder as my RDSB....nitrates disappeared after an ongoing battle with them

 

[JohnK]

IMO 2" of sand may well be asking for trouble, especially if it's being/needing to be vaccumed.

2" undisturbed sand bed will not likely do much of any denitrification, and if it is disturbed (vaccuming) it probably won't be able to sustain any denitrification. Add to that, you described a lot of crud getting trapped in that same sandbed. That crud will fuel nitrate problems...


I'd suggest going with either more or less sand, and possibly finer sand to keep the crud from settling into it so easily. If you go up to 3" or more and let it get going as a DSB it should offer some denitrification (assuming it's not allowing a ton of detritis to settle in). Otherwise, I'd remove most or all of the existing sand, and add some other means of denitrification such as a remote DSB or a sulphur denitrator.

Without a means of denitrification it may be hard to keep the nitrate down with water changes alone, or at least without a lot of them.

 

[afboundguy]

I would also suggest more sand... I run 4-5" of sand plus a little DIY in tank fuge fill of cheato made from a speciman container. I have undetectable nitrates and phosphates with my setup. Also I agree with naturebatslast about growing cheato, IMO it's a great nutrient export.

 

[JPags]

I had very high nitrates (around 60-80) when I first started because I picked up and established FOWLER tank but I wanted to add some corals, and did not want to get rid of most of the fish. I started with the massive water changes to lower the nitrates, since its only a 46 gal twice a week water changes were managable even though they were a pain.

After a long research on denitrification processes and devices and realizing I did not have enough room for a remote RDSB or a large sump/refugium I bought a simple (cheap) sulfur denitrator. This worked to keep my nitrates down around 15 with water changes every other week, rather than twice a week. I think is is great considering I run a high bio load for the size tank I have.

I did not want to spend a ton of money on a denitrator without knowing if they work. After using one for a while I do find that they work ok but without and ORP monitor/controller they take some fiddling to keep them running correctly or efficiently.

I was looking into buying one of the more expensive sulfur denitrators when I started reading about vodka dosing. I started a dosing regiment a few weeks ago and I am starting to see my nitrates around 10 this week, so I am seeing the benefit from dosing. If the dosing works I may just remove the denitrator completely to see how that goes.

I know that these methods are really not the first ones people start with, but having a small tank in a place with limited space, and not really wanting to invest in re-working the system, I was looking for the simplest method of nitrate reduction. I have found that the Sulfur denitrators will work if they are sized right and setup properly (But they also cost a bit for the good models) and I am finding that Vodka dosing seems to be working.

I will keep you up on the vodka dosing once I see my nitrates bottom out.

John

 

[jbishop]

More sand and some cheato. If you have bio-balls or anything like that get rid of them. Same goes for sponge filters.

 

[afboundguy]

Sponges help with the biological filter if you rinse them off in tank water (like from a water change) 1-2 times a week.

Bio balls IMO would be too much a PITA to clean regularly so if you have some try replacing them with cycled live rock rubble...

 

[monti1]

I have a 6 inch bed in the refuge which is about 20 gallons total. I also have a pretty good size ball of cheato. I m satrting my 180 build this weekend where all contents of the 120 will end up in. I am going with a DSB in the 180 becuase in previous tanks I have had a DSB and never had problems. For the next 8 weeks or so should I continue to vacume and water change frequently until the 180 has cycled? The 180 will have a 75 gallon sump witha 40 breeder for a refuge.


Thamks for the help!

 

[monti1]

jpags,

Let me know how the vodka goes. I am nervous because i read an over dosage can wipe a tank out. I have some pretty expensive corals and clams and would hate to see them perish because I screwed up dosing. I heard from ReefKeeper? that he has had good results from the dosing.

 

[monti1]

Another quick thought what if I was to take the sand out of the tank a little at a time and leave it bare bottom until the 180 is up?

 

[JPags]

My nitrates just hit 0 today (Or close to it because of the test kit I am using). I am going to continue for a few days and then drop back to the maintenance dose. Everything in the tank is ok.

I posted this on the other thread, my skimmer has also been working much better since the vodka dosing.

John

 

[stingythingy45]

I have had a DSB since I started in the hobby and have never registered any nitrates.The addition of another DSB and chaeto in a refugium really slammed the door shut.

 

[monti1]

jpags,

What amount are you dosing in?

Bob

180 will be DSB with 40 GAllon Regufe and Cheato.

 

[JPags]

Sorry I forgot to reply to this thread.

This is the article that I found that gave me the exact instructions for dosing.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

Also has a lot of other info about the dosing process.

I am curently dosing 2.4ml per day with 0 Nitrates for my 46 Gal bow. I did not cut back to the maintenance dose yet, but i am going to do that soon.

Make sure you read the article, its important that you start slow and increase over time.

John

 

[monti1]

Thanks John. Looks like I will be doing some reading.


Rick