Can you keep your nitrates below 5 PPM?

[coralstacker]

If you can I would like to know how you are doing it. I have 75 gal with rock and fish.I was told to buy 75lbs rock. Now that I did I'm being told to buy more. I have 4 fish,1 shrimp,some corals, asterina and tiny brittletars, necarrius snails. Even in the beginning when I was accumulating rock and had only 1 fish my trates was always 15-20. My source water does not contain trates. I did the water changes but the only thing this did was waste a lot of salt and exposed top portion of my tank to air and killed my coralline algae.I don't really want to start a refugium with chaeto in it.

 

[gratefulhippie]

What skimmer are you running?

 

[stanlalee]

Reef tank I've done it pretty easily (though I use API test which 5ppm and 0ppm look almost identicle). FOWLR I have never been able to do it. Usually I've done nothing but wait. eventually things stop dying and decaying in the liverock and as coral stock and diversity of micro scavangers and critters goes up so does the use of nutrients in the water. with a functioning cheato fuge (one where cheato is actually growing and exported) its almost impossible not to have zero nitrates. other than that appropriate stocking, not overfeesding and regular water changes are pretty much it. An awsome skimmer is definately not required as I have done it on a high stocked 100g reef with coralife 125 skimmer and cheato and on a 30g reef with seaclone 100 as the only form of filtration.

 

[ophiura]

Yes, you can.
Yes, you can spend a lot of frustration to get there.
No, IMO it is no absolutely required.
It could be as simple as differences in test kits and the person using them. It can take a great deal of joy out of things.
What fish do you have? 4 tangs is not equivalent to 4 gobies. Your tank is not the same as someone elses. What you feed, how it is set up, quality of rock, circulation, depth of sand, water changes, etc, etc. What works for one doesn't work for the next.

 

[cranberry]

Me and my predominently FOWLR tanks are happy with <25!

 

[coralstacker]

I am using a Red Sea skimmer. When you say exporting I guess that means as it grows you cut some out and throw it away to make room for more to grow? I have 1 maroon clown,1 yellow tang, 1 blue hippo tang, 1 coral beauty angel. But as I mentioned before the nitrates are hanging right where it was when I had only the maroon clown in there..So as I continue to add more rock and corals this will reduce the nitrates and how much rock is the proper amount. I do want to leave room for coral placement and growth and room to watch the fish swimming. I guesss I can stack rock up the backside but I do like viewing through the ends of the tank.

 

[ophiura]

No, Live rock will not, IMO, considerably reduce nitrates and in fact can lead to dead spots in many tanks where detritus builds.
You have two tangs in a smallish tank and they eat a lot. If you want 0, and again I see no reason why, you will need to reconsider the tangs, IMO.
But more live rock will not reduce nitrates to 0, unless it means you have no room for fish. Otherwise you are left with watching your feeding, reducing your fish stock via different fish choices, increasing export via water changes and a refugium, or other algal growth export mechanism.

 

[abeandlulu]

I have a refugium in my tank. But before i did i used to take a turkey baister and blow off the rocks where detris has settled it did help

 

[nuro]

my trates are almost always at 0, im running a dsb with an octo skimmer i run every other day, i run 24/7 carbons thats changed every two weeks, 10% water change weekly and a small hob fuge with 3 mangroves that r gowing like crazy

 

[posiden]

I run API tests and I can not tell the difference from when the test has started and ended. A fellow reefer tested my water using his Lamott and it said I had .5 nitrates. I have a 29G Bio Cube and run a ATS.
Oh, no sump or refug.

 

[tang master]

i use chemipure elite and it manages to keep my nitrates at 0.!

 

[nanoized]

Chaeto in the fuge with a high intensity reverse lighting schedule is what keeps my nitrates down.
20% weekly water changes and the turkey baster help as well.
My tank is a mixed reef.

 

[gratefulhippie]

I was using a red sea prism skimmer on my 29. and I couldn't get my nitrates below 20. I switched it with a remora and zero trates ever since. It pulls more nasty junk out of the water in a day than the prism did in a week!

 

[florida joe]

No, Live rock will not, IMO, considerably reduce nitrates and in fact can lead to dead spots in many tanks where detritus builds.
Shout it from the rooftops

 

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by Tang Master
http:///forum/post/3113050
i use chemipure elite and it manages to keep my nitrates at 0.!
Ion/cation exchangers, GFO and carbon in a small bag(s) will not keep nitrates at zero. its always biological/microbial activity doing the vast bulk of the work.

 

[coralstacker]

I want to say thanks for all the good input you guys are giving me. I do think I would like to try something like the chemipure product that claims to reduce nitrates and you can regenerate it instead of throwing it away. I have not thought about the turkey baster to clean the rock with. I will try it. The skimmer you mentioned doing better than mine sounds interesting and I will try to find one.

 

[carne0714]

YES
I have a 125gl with a 25gl sump.....180 pounds of live rock/120lbs of live sand and a medium size load of fish....one is a 7inch long Blond Naso and he's a pig! My readings as of 10 min ago are:
pH - 8.2
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - 0
Alkalinity - 11
Calcium - 400
Specific Gravity 1.024
Knock on wood my levels stay like this all the time and I'm a true believer that it's because of the amount of "fully cured" live rock.

 

[florida joe]

I am a true believer that your readings In relation to ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are the produce of the sum of all your bio and chemical filtration

 

[kanima]

Don't Feel too bad I have a 90 gal mixed reef really loaded , fuge with cheato, skimmer , carbon blahblah and am still reading 10ppm on mine. Everything Lives grows so I gave up on the 0 mark way too much hassle for what little problems it will cause.