Nitrates just not dropping!

[ruarox]

this guy is stumped with high nitrates and i am letting him know of my problem maybe its his to maybe not trying to help thanks for clearing that up though nice biowheel

[ArgonDreams]

Frankly something doesn't add up here.

The second filter cart looks dirty, it's brown on the outer layer, that's a bit odd. I am betting maintenance here.

What is your water change schedule?

How much do you change each time?

What are your full testing results? Amm, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, Calcium etc?

How do you change your water?

I have a feeling in your maintenance somewhere there is something off. Not "wrong" per say but likely something we are missing.

[sanababit]

cy88, everyone here is right, they have there own ways of dealing with high nitrates, what works for some might work for you, 20 ppm is not that much nitrates, but if you are really worried about it, build yourself a sulphur based denitrifier, it is basically a phosban reactor full of no-no3 media made by carib-sea, hook a little pump to it and put a little valve on the outflow of reactor, slow the water thats coming out to about a drop a second and after 7 days you will be amazed, here are some photos
here it is cycling, for the first 7 days hook it up to a bucket so nothing goes back into your tank.

and here are the results, left is the outflow of my denitrifier and right is the nitrate in my tank

this is an old photo, i already have 0 nitrates in my tank, well any questions please let me know, good luck

sana

[cy88]

Originally posted by ArgonDreams
Frankly something doesn't add up here.

The second filter cart looks dirty, it's brown on the outer layer, that's a bit odd. I am betting maintenance here.

What is your water change schedule?

How much do you change each time?

What are your full testing results? Amm, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, Calcium etc?

How do you change your water?

I have a feeling in your maintenance somewhere there is something off. Not "wrong" per say but likely something we are missing.

1) I change water every 1.5 - 2wk
2) around 10-15% I change each time
3) Amm - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrite - 40-80 (Can't tell VERY clear from the colour, but it's up there), PH - 8.0-8.2, didn't test for Calcium (Should i?)
4) I use a seperate bucket to pre-mix the salt into the RO water, bring the water to the right temperture with a heater. Then, 10-15% of the old water is removed and replaced by the new water.

I have a strong feeling that it's really my filter, and not enough LR?

Sana, thanks for the explanation. My nitrates are sitting between 40-80ppm (I am using the same test kit as you). As I am trying to move my way towards new setup and start keeping corals, I understand that nitrate will be critical. Having that said, I think I might end up holding off on the new setup until I learn more from this smaller tank.

//Chris

[MR PALM BEACH]

Befor you invest in any thing else, buy yourself an skimmer. Hold off on the LR just get a skimmer, If anything you could elminate the HOB and just run the skimmer. It will be 100% more effective than the HOB your running.

[cy88]

Looks like my nitrate dropped a little (closer to 20 now) after I moved the power head to have the water flow through the LR more.

I think it was because of the flow of the powerhead wasn't in the right direction, so the LR wasn't doing the job and/or there isn't enough LR and flow.

Also, I think the filters are being nitrate factory as well.

[Vinnie71975]

Originally posted by jamiep
Add some chaetomorphia macroalgae to one off the drop in box's and add a fuge light to it!

Agree if you just want them down try getting a Breeder net like is used for fish Fry, and put Macro Algae in it.this can go right in your display. when the numbers drop take the algae out and throw it away thus exporting the bad stuff (nitrates) from the tank.

[Vinnie71975]

Originally posted by cy88
Looks like my nitrate dropped a little (closer to 20 now) after I moved the power head to have the water flow through the LR more.

I think it was because of the flow of the powerhead wasn't in the right direction, so the LR wasn't doing the job and/or there isn't enough LR and flow.

Also, I think the filters are being nitrate factory as well.

i run a HOB filter and i have 0 nitrate problems!

[albfelix]

With those type of filters you will not have a lot of luck in salt water setup. They are designed for fresh water. Get a protein skimmer.

[george81]

do you want a fowlr- 20 ppm nitrates is doable, but would you like to live in a polluted environment
get more live rock you need 1.5-2 lbs per gallon....
man made denitrifyers may work...but they are man made and are a band aid....
more live rock+fuge+protien skimmer+good source water+properly maintained sand bed deep or shallow. let mother nature do her thing...it beats any man made gimmick hands down.

it sounds like you re tank never fully cycled..for you to add that much live rock in you re system would cause a cycle all over again. get the animals out and get the proper amount of live rock, let it properly cycle no animals until everything reads zero.

[cy88]

Originally posted by george81
do you want a fowlr- 20 ppm nitrates is doable, but would you like to live in a polluted environment
get more live rock you need 1.5-2 lbs per gallon....
man made denitrifyers may work...but they are man made and are a band aid....
more live rock+fuge+protien skimmer+good source water+properly maintained sand bed deep or shallow. let mother nature do her thing...it beats any man made gimmick hands down.

it sounds like you re tank never fully cycled..for you to add that much live rock in you re system would cause a cycle all over again. get the animals out and get the proper amount of live rock, let it properly cycle no animals until everything reads zero.

Thanks all. I will leave the setup as is right now since I am building a new 75G with a sump. I just wanted to update this thread incase someone else in the same shoes, this might be useful for them

I will keep here posted for my new tank, though.