Nitrates

[edandsandy]

My nitrates will not drop below 20, I have completed 2 20% & 1 25% water changes this week. I have cleaned the socks in the refugium and changed the media filters.
Any advise?

[frozenapple22]

add some cheato into the main tank

[bertoni]

This article covers nitrate in detail:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm

What kind of media is being used?

[nickts40]

Okay, Bertoni is right, read the article. DO NOT add any Cheato in the main tank. If you have a 150G refugium I am sure you have that in there. Your problem is elsewhere. Need more info.

[acrylic_300]

Nitrate reactors work...and cheato in the main tank wont hurt anything its just unsightly. It actually works as a mini refuge for all sorts of stuff that would normally get chewed up by the return pump if it ever escaped the sump.

Read the various sugar/vodka dosing threads if you feel like living dangerously.

[davy182]

mangroves and clams work wonders on low nitrate problems

[edandsandy]

Well, we did another 20% water change out yesterday my nitrates will not drop below 20, I changed the filter media and the socks in the refugium. I did feed the corals Coral Haven 1/2 tsp in 8 oz of water and cyclopes.
do you think the coral haven is raising my nitrates?
I have some cheato & a mangrove in the refugium, 2 clams in the main tank, 6 feather dusters, 4 cleaner shrimp, 1 gold head sleeper Gobi, 1 watchman gobie, 1 scooter blemmie, 1 high fin Gobi, 1 scopes tang, 1 sailfin tang, lots of stoney corals. I do have a flower pot or melting pot as I call it, it is starting to melt, I don't know to take it out or leave it in.

[bertoni]

A 20% water change will reduce nitrate from 20 to 16, assuming the new saltwater measures zero. That level of change might not be detectable. The test kit might also be bad. I'd get a second opinion.

Mangroves and clams won't do much for nitrate reduction. Neither of them grow fast enough to accomplish anything much. Chaetomorpha needs to be growing rapidly, and then harvested regularly, to do much.

Is the flowerpot coral a Goniopora or similar species? They die quite regularly, so that might not mean much.

The feeding rate might be too high for the tank to sustain. What's the total amount and type of food going into the tank per day?

[podd]

run a algae turf scrubber , the algae grows much faster then any refugium growth.so all you do is harvest the algae weekly and remove nitrate.

[demonsp]

Nitrate wont drop if water source is factor. Also low flow in areas of rock that cant get flow.Uneatean fod and waste collect back there. These areas take time to cause trouble and you would see a drop after water change , though it may be a samll change and may not be visiable on your test kit. Also i wouldnt change anymore then 10% for a few weeks. 25% weekly to many weeks isnt good.

[cutegecko3]

it may also be from the stuff your feeding.in eric borneman's book aquarium corals he said there is no difference in the apparent coral health,color,or growth rates of aquariums that do suplemental feedings and those that dont.the only real difference is those that do have higher nutrient levels.

[edandsandy]

bertoni
the flowerpot coral is a Goniopora, I feed a small amount of mysis shrimp, krill, about 1/4 cube of the formula variety pack, nightly. 2x's a week I use the coral haven, 1x a week DT's phytoplankton.
We have a lot of water movement in the tank 2 Rio 800 gph behind the LR, 1 1100 gph on the left side & 1 Korilla stage 4 on the right side of the tank. We have placed the LR on a egg crate mounted on a PVC frame appx. 1" above the sand (picture to follow).

[bertoni]

I'm not sure what Coral Haven is, but any food will add some phosphate. What's in the refugium? Is it lit?

[edandsandy]

yes it is lit. 3" live sand, Chaetomorpha, 2 feather dusters, snails, live rock.
"Coral Heaven" is a new scientifically formulated diet designed to provide ALL of the nutrition needed for maintaining and propagating today's popular polyp-bearing cnidarians, Coral Heaven forms a slurry containing two components vitally important to coral polyps: a dissolved component consisting of essential trace elements, vitamins, amino acids and soluble organic molecules, and a particulate component made up of complex proteins, pigments, fats, and fiber, from Indo-pacific sea farms. I just added some Live Sand Activator.
Heaven Red (Gracilaria parvispora), Tang Heaven Green (Ulva sp.), Tang Heaven Gold (Sargassum sp.), Feathery Caulerpa (C. sertularioides, 2 types - Long and Short) and Tang Heaven Yellow (Gracilaria sp.). I purchased all this from IPSF. placed it the refugium.

[tanya72806]

My bet is that your sourcs of nitrates is the "200g WET/DRY". Slowly get rid of that and you will see the Nitrates dissappear as the bioballs disappear

[edandsandy]

We don't have bioballs in either sump, we used rock as a media.
also we use ro/di water for the water change outs and top off.

[edandsandy]

anyone?

[kysard1]

Stop the Coral Haven and DT's. Just feed what the fish will eat once per day and see if your nitrates come down in 15 days of this.

Also check your top-off water for nitrates.

Do you have a decent skimmer?

[bertoni]

If the wet-dry still has the bio-balls, I'd try removing them slowly, over a period of weeks. That's assuming there's 120 lbs or so of live rock in the system.

How much Chaetomorpha is being harvested out of the system, and how often?

Coral Heaven is a fine coral food, in my experience.

[davy182]

He doesn't have any bioballs

[davy182]

Do you feed any frozen food. If yes do you thaw it out and rinse it out before you feed. Mysis shrimp thaw out water is loaded with nutriets that could be adding to your load. Bertoni have you ever tried clams and mangroves in a tank that is maintaining only 20 ppm. I have on plenty of tanks with great results ( 0 ppm). Currently my mangroves (3) on a 200 gallon system fend off hair algae, cyano, and nuisanace diatoms. They aren't even fully matured with plenty of leaves.

[spooda420]

http://www.midwestaquatic.com/PRODUC...enitrifier.htm

I had the same issue you have I had nitrates around the 20 marker, I got this, over a period of a few weeks the nitrates went fro 20 to 0 and have stayed there ever since....

It works great and is easy to set up...

[edandsandy]

kysard1,
We do have a decent skimmer, so your saying don't feed the corals for 2 weeks?

davy182, We use frozen food, we thaw it in water that comes from the tank. How do you rinse the shrimp?

spooda420, great site.

[kysard1]

Corals don't need to be fed independantly. Feed your fish and not more than they eat and I think your nitrates will decline.

[bertoni]

Plenty of people have zero nitrate with no clams or mangroves. I have a tridacnid clam, and I don't see how it's doing much for nitrate removal. Neither clams nor mangroves grow all that rapidly.

The Chaetomorpha approach only exports nutrients when Chaetomorpha is harvested out of the system. Reducing the feeding might be appropriate.

Is the live rock in the wet-dry submerged?