Nitrates making me nuts - Page 2

bertoni · #26 01/08/2008, 04:20 PM

Live rock can't leach nitrate. Phosphate can adsorb onto the rock, but nitrate can't. The nitrate could be coming from dying animals in the rock, or perhaps some organism is fixing nitrogen from the air. In most cases, nitrate originates with the food.

I agree that the flow should be fine. Have you tested the RO-DI output? There might be a test kit issue.

I wouldn't remove live rock from the tank to scrub it, if that's what you're doing. That could kill organisms and feed the algal bloom.

I'll have to think a bit about this one.

dileggi · #27 01/08/2008, 04:35 PM

I am now tagging along as well to this one. My tank is only 4 months old, but I can't remember ever seeing my nitrates at anything other than 20. They have never climbed over 20, but I have never been at 0.

I know the whole bioball situation causing the nitrates, but at only 4 mos old, could they be that much of an issue at this point??

bertoni · #28 01/08/2008, 07:41 PM

The bio-ball filtration can be an issue fairly quickly. I'd also get a second opinion on the test kit.

markoantoniojr · #29 01/08/2008, 08:32 PM

i used az-no3 and my nitrates went from 20 to 0 in less than 2 weeks....on the 4th month of running my tank i had corals and 2 clown fish and a yellow watchman 6 hermits and 3 snails and a blood shrimp on a 29 biocube. my fish didnt take well with the additive only the yellow watchmen survived. the stuff worked though. my nitrates were 20 and every week i made a 4 gallon water change and it never went down. i read somewhere to try this and i worked in less than 2 weeks. you put like 2 drops on a 55g on the 1st day the 4 on 2nd 8 on 3rd you stop around 80 drops i think, then decrease the drops.. i started on the first water change 7 days later i made another water change then noticed i was at 0 , 7 days later made another water change.
this was my last weekly water change now i do it monthly and i have 2 tomato clowns the yellow watchmen, shrimp same scavengers..i keep a log and my nitrates dont go up.

it s called az-no3, by the way i have a tunze reef pack it skims the top of the water i put some carbon in it first the i put filter floss on the top i change the floss once every 2 weeks.

markoantoniojr · #30 01/08/2008, 08:42 PM

ps you can see the tunze in my gallery pics its on the top right hand corner

sgallagher7 · #31 01/08/2008, 10:16 PM

Thanks for all the info. I was thinking of using az-no3 also if nothing else worked. Iv never been able to get the nitrates down below 15 even after 50% water changes. Could it be the depth of sand or the fact that the sand was in place during the curing process? Im also wondering if Im skimming correctly or with a skimmer that is too small for my set-up. The skimmer is producing some coarse bubbles and dark skimmate at times and then will not produce anything. It seems very inconsistant.

bertoni · #32 01/08/2008, 10:19 PM

Skimmers are often inconsistent, but yours might need some tuning. The Euro-Reefs get generally good reviews, but I don't know how to tweak them.

Having the sand in place for the curing process is not the issue. I do that with all my tanks.

Wolverine · #33 01/09/2008, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by george81
also try products like zeovit or ultralith...they are scientifically proven to work.

"Scientifically proven" is more than a little bit of a stretch for those products.

Dave

markoantoniojr · #34 01/09/2008, 04:54 PM

try the az-no3, when i started using it the top of my water started filming up and my white filter floss removed that and my nitrates dissapeared. i also run a skimmer a tunze reef pack skimmer i really dont bother with it anymore. i have a 29 biocube so i modified it and put it in the back where the bioballs were but my water level there is inconsistent sometimes i get some skimming when i top off , i know if i didnt use it the nitrates would be 0

sgallagher7 · #35 01/09/2008, 07:56 PM

Thanks. I think thats my next step.

kittyj · #36 01/09/2008, 10:15 PM

I'll probably get a lot of disagreement on this one . . . but try vacuuming your sand bed.

sgallagher7 · #37 01/09/2008, 10:50 PM

I tried vacuming the sand bed a bit in the past. It created quiet a mess. I only did a small spot. Was afraid of taking up to much "good stuff" in the sand. The only time I was able to get my nitrates down was when I used chemi-pure. It did a great job, but was messy with the charcoal dust.