Nitrate Removal

[drew1]

Does anyone have any experience with getting nitrates down to a reasonable level for a FOWLR tank? The problem is that this tank has just been cruising along for years and now I'm considering adding new fish and possibly some soft corals from the frag tank. But because of the lack of water changes, etc over the years the nitrates are off the charts. Even after a 4 five gallon water changes the past four days the readings are still off the chart. Cruising the LFS I noticed that there are several "Nitrate Reducers/eliminators" on the market, the latest being one from Instant Ocean. Does anyone have first hand experience with any of these products? I'm just looking to get the level to a reasonable point where I can maintain with consistant water changes.

[jbird0420]

Try putting a couple bags of Purigen into your sump or filter system. It's reuseable and has worked for me to keep the Nits on the DL..

Does anyone have any experience with getting nitrates down to a reasonable level for a FOWLR tank? The problem is that this tank has just been cruising along for years and now I'm considering adding new fish and possibly some soft corals from the frag tank. But because of the lack of water changes, etc over the years the nitrates are off the charts. Even after a 4 five gallon water changes the past four days the readings are still off the chart. Cruising the LFS I noticed that there are several "Nitrate Reducers/eliminators" on the market, the latest being one from Instant Ocean. Does anyone have first hand experience with any of these products? I'm just looking to get the level to a reasonable point where I can maintain with consistant water changes.

[beastrx]

For such high levels of nitrates those nitrate reducers won't work. They only work for nitrates you want to reduce by maybe 5ppm. If you look at Randy Holmes Farleys articles, you will see that even with weekly 10% water changes it will take months to see a significant change. I would keep up with weekly or even daily changes that amount to maybe 20% more or less a week

[drew1]

Thanks. I'll the purigen route.

[wrott]

I would buy a sulfur denitrator. They will cost you ~$300 but in the long term, if you maintain it, the benefits are worth it. I v;e had a Mid-West (??) for 3 years and it keeps NO3 in check (~10-30ppm).

If you really want to reduce NO3 ASAP do 50-75% WC every other day 3 or 4x.
I don't know the size of your tank, but doing a 5g WC would only work on a 10-15g tank, you can't do multiple small WCs and think that it adds up to one large WC--do the math. In a 75g tank, if you did 4 5g WCs your NO3 would not change w/ a colorimetric test.

[><((((o>]

Do chaeto help reduce nitrate? Sorry I dun mean to hijack this thead.

[ninjamini]

Took a long time to get where you are and its going to take a long time to get back. 10-15% water changes weekly.

Some of the nitrates have been absorbed into the live rock and sand. So you have to give it time to leach out.

Cheato is good. Little neck clams that you get from the grocery is good too.

[billdogg]

I have been fighting this problem for 20+ years - My FOWLR is truly a fish (1) only w/LR - Hannibal is a 4' moray - you think you have nitrate problems? HA!

I would do a 50% wc daily for as long as it takes to get things back to normal. If you don't have one yet, set up a refugium. I did about a year ago (I use a 120g tank for mine) and things have been ok ever since. Mine utilizes a DSB and Cheato. I still have to do waterchanges to keep it in check, but at least now the Nitrate test doesn't look like red KoolAid!

[jasonrp104]

I agree with the 50% water changes. I let my tank slack a little recently and after 3 50% changes over a little over a week, it's back to normal.

[droth335]

I would buy a sulfur denitrator. They will cost you ~$300 but in the long term, if you maintain it, the benefits are worth it. I v;e had a Mid-West (??) for 3 years and it keeps NO3 in check (~10-30ppm).



if you are interested in a suflur denitrator, I have one for sale on this site....going to be moving soon so make an offer - it is new in box (just haven't had a need for it as my nitrates continue to hover around 0)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17421379#post17421379