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View Full Version : Best short time approach to reducing nitrates safely


IansAquatics
03/04/2015, 09:52 PM
Hi all. To make a long story short. I hadn't tested my water in probably 6 months duel the fact that all of my levels pretty much stay in check. But recently I added some corals to my tank (Xenia,gsp,condy nem, and green bubble tip. All the corals and inverts were doing great except xylem Xenia. Which was baffling me. So last night I tested the water and calcium was 440, dkh 9, and my nitrates were 180ppm. I didn't believe this as I have 0 cyano and 0 gha and I have kessils. So I immediatley retested because I was in disbelief upon retesting they came back at 80 ppm but let's be honest anything over 15 is bad!!!

What is really puzzling to me is that even when my nitrates hit 25ppm I had issues with cyano and gha. But literally I dont k ow what's going on. I might add my tank crashed in May of last year since then I did a 100% water change over months. Also i never did water changes regularly before my tank crashed(chemiean) and my nitrates were never over 25ppm.

The only thing I can figure is that me and my girlfriend broke up for
Abot 4 months and she was in the possession of the tank but she hardly fed the fish so how on earth are my nitrates this high? Granted there were no changes but still this is astronomically high!

So I've been reading a lot lately of measures I can take. Now water changes are obviously the first choice. But seeing as that I have anemones I don't want to rapidly change the salinity by doing a large water change.

Option 2. Vodka dosing. This seems like more trouble than it's worth and doesn't seem like a long term solution. And I don't like the fact that is uses up oxygen. Been there done that with chemiclean.

Option3 bio pellets. I've heard good things about them. Yet I've also heard it's hard to really dial them in exactly where you want to where they don't completely wipe out your nitrates. And you need a really good reactor.

My choice im
Thinking of doing 14 gallon water changes every other day for the next 3 weeks. Do you guys think this would
Be a good safe approach? Also my tank is 125 with a 30
Gallon sump.

Bio load very small
Hippo tang 4 inches
Yellow tang 4 inches
Coral beauty
3 osc clowns
Diadem pseudochromis
Melanurus wrasse

Also all my frozen foods are triple rinsed. And I use nore. No flake

mcozad829
03/04/2015, 09:59 PM
I think water changes are your best bet, and water changes don't affect salinity as long as you make sure the new water you are mixing is the same salinity as your tank. I would do something like 30% weekly for a month to get back on track and retest.

TangingOut
03/04/2015, 10:28 PM
I wouldn't consider that a very small bio load.

I've kept my nitrates in check with red sea nopox.

alexander_ktn
03/05/2015, 03:10 AM
Definitely water changes or a sulphur denitrator to get the levels so somewhere more reasonable (under 20 ppm for example) and from there you can go the carbon dosing route.

What is your phosphate? If it's close to zero you will probably get issues with corals, anemones or ornamental algae if you start carbon dosing at such high nitrate values, since phosphate will be the limiting nutrient then.

billdogg
03/05/2015, 06:51 AM
I would do a few days of 50% water changes. That will bring it down. Then just figure out why it happened and fix the issue.

tmz
03/05/2015, 08:22 AM
A sulfur denitrator will bring them down within a couple of weeks . It can be used continuously thereafter or the nitrate level can be maintained by a variety of alternative approaches including ;organic carbon dosing, keeping less decaying organic material (siphoning detritus, more aggressive skimming, ,granulated activated carbon ,less feeding etc.), more areas for anaerobic bacterial activity ,ie, live rock , substrate et al.

Dosing soluble organics (vodka and vinegar )has done well for me for over 5 years. IMO, it has advantages over bio pellets in terms of simplicity , precision of the dose and the absence of unwanted more complex bacterial reactions and by products vs bio plastics. The bacteria for any of the organics vodka , vinegar or pellets use oxygen ;there no difference specific to more with vodka vs the others. Aeration and photosyntensi replenishes O2 used by a variety of biological activity by bacteria, fish and other consumers in the aquarium .

lazydaze73
03/05/2015, 09:28 AM
If everything is fine except one coral why worry? Maybe your test kit just isn't working properly?

Jason S
03/05/2015, 09:55 AM
Like a few have said, the fastest way to get them down is several water changes with R/O water. While you are lowering them this way, I would definitely look at another method to keep them down such as better skimming, vodka, sulfur denitrator, bio pellets, etc. They each have their pros and cons, so pick what's best for you. Have you done any water changes in the last 6 months while you were not testing? Regular water changes along with what is mentioned above will help keep them down

Sk8r
03/05/2015, 10:56 AM
One of the reasons of high nitrates is something in the water stream that's holding gunk. A sponge, a forgotten carbon bag, a filter pad.

Quiet_Ivy
03/05/2015, 12:29 PM
All the corals and inverts were doing great except xylem Xenia. Which was baffling me. So last night I tested the water and calcium was 440, dkh 9, and my nitrates were 180ppm. I didn't believe this as I have 0 cyano and 0 gha and I have kessils. So I immediatley retested because I was in disbelief upon retesting they came back at 80 ppm but let's be honest anything over 15 is bad!!!


I wonder if your test kit is old/wrong? Especially since everything in your tank is happy. I had what I thought was 15ppm nitrItes, on repeated home tests. LFS tested and they were maybe .10.

hope that helps a bit
ivy

IansAquatics
03/05/2015, 08:08 PM
Sk8r now that mention it. I've had the same filter pad in my sump for the last 2 years. I'd say it is about 2 inches thick and roughly a sq foot. Do you think that it could have something to do with it.

Also since I moved back in I haven't done any water changed because of my spouse haha. My tank is the bane of her existence. So I knew as soon as she saw me linking huge jugs of water she would be ****ed.

I just don't get how my nitrates spiked astronomically high. My Xenia isn't dead. It just looks awful. It's like the heads have fallen off and now there's like tiny mini heads.

Sgt Jonny Cat
03/05/2015, 08:56 PM
I wouldn't consider that a very small bio load.

I've kept my nitrates in check with red sea nopox.

+ 1 on that....NoPox works great!

IansAquatics
03/07/2015, 08:00 PM
Alright guys so after listening to everybody. I went and got 40 gallons of new water to do a 30% water change. And I alsso ordered doe nopox. However I tested the water today and they were still 180ppm.

My question is how on earth do my anemones look so good . Well everything with the exception of my Xenia? I thought you couldnt keep anemones over like 20 ppm at the max. Also my new gbta that's been in hiding today finally came out and he's huge. I've got some pics of my tank. As you guys can see zero algae. Now I'm kinda of scared to do a huge water change because everything is doing really good! Any thoughts

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/iansizemore/FB0D6F7A-1DF5-4CE1-A617-8CDD5D0E17A8.jpg (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/iansizemore/media/FB0D6F7A-1DF5-4CE1-A617-8CDD5D0E17A8.jpg.html)
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/iansizemore/7D3300A8-9547-43AA-9F6C-724A0382DFD8.jpg (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/iansizemore/media/7D3300A8-9547-43AA-9F6C-724A0382DFD8.jpg.html)
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/iansizemore/B020FB90-8101-46D5-9166-B569EB0478B8.jpg (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/iansizemore/media/B020FB90-8101-46D5-9166-B569EB0478B8.jpg.html)

firewill65
06/09/2015, 09:31 PM
I have the same issue as you are having....nitrates 80-100, xenia and star polyps, dont grow or spread, softies are doing fair, and I have 12 RBTA that are doing great!~ What gives?

Clownfish Chris
06/09/2015, 10:19 PM
I would never be afraid to do a water change. It takes the bad stuff out and puts the good stuff in. If you use RODI water and match the salinity using a refractometer there is no downside to water changes. I have a 5.5 gal pico that gets a 20oz daily change. If I didn't keep up with that, within a very short time it would likely crash.

pyithar
06/10/2015, 05:35 AM
i think you should test the water with a new test kit or let your lfs test it just to make sure. 30% water change wouldn't hurt either imo.

firewill65
06/30/2015, 10:41 AM
Q11@

nuxx
06/30/2015, 10:49 AM
Had 64+ nitrates.

Did 1 150 gallon change and 5-6 100 gallon changes on 650 gallons of water.

N03 went down to 8ppm.

Doing Vodka dosing, automatic water changes and wet skimming to try to get them lower... but 8 is probably fine.

Blue spot
06/30/2015, 11:02 AM
I would get a new test kit. Something sounds fishy. Lol.

leetch
06/30/2015, 11:14 AM
Clean out all of your filter media - these things can be nitrate factories if not maintained properly.

Do weekly water changes for a month.

Get some Chaeto (this will take a while to work)

Get a new test kit.

andrek787
06/30/2015, 11:32 AM
Well, I am having the opposite issue. I run bio-pellets, carbon, phosbond and have a mix of cheato and caulpera in my fuge under a kessil a150 6700k (20 hours/day) and for the past couple of months my nitrates have been undetectable with RedSea pro kit. I have not done a water change in about 2 months hoping to get some nutrients in the system.

bobbychullo
06/30/2015, 12:16 PM
i change my filter pad out every three days! it is in a tray so that the entire water volume going thru the sump must pass thru it so it grabs a lot of junk. i would guess 2 years would be bad.



Sk8r now that mention it. I've had the same filter pad in my sump for the last 2 years. I'd say it is about 2 inches thick and roughly a sq foot. Do you think that it could have something to do with it.

Also since I moved back in I haven't done any water changed because of my spouse haha. My tank is the bane of her existence. So I knew as soon as she saw me linking huge jugs of water she would be ****ed.

I just don't get how my nitrates spiked astronomically high. My Xenia isn't dead. It just looks awful. It's like the heads have fallen off and now there's like tiny mini heads.