Decreasing Nitrate

[fshhub]

sorry, but nitrates are not pollution, they are organic,
and the solution to polution(or nitrates) is not dilution, the source still needs to be taken care of, otherwise you still heve the problem which will reoccur
water changes will help, but you still need to eliminate the problem
and angief, i do ralize that the water changes have helped, but your lfs is off base , way off, a dsb with ls will NOT create or raise nitrates, something else must have been wrong, if you need proof, how are they now? did you change your sand? if this were true and you still have sand, they should have gone back up, the ls and a dsb will lower tehm, but if you do not have a dsb, it will be much less effective, if at all depending on how deep you have it

 

[jamesp]

fshhub -- The lfs guy was steered me away from the dsb and said go with one that is about 1/4" deep. If a dsb is so much better why would he say that?
Thanks, James

 

[jamesp]

Just got off the phone with the lfs. He said the reason they don't suggest dsb is because it's so thick that it will trap the fish waste and the tank won't be able to get rid of it.

 

[kris walker]

Hi Clownman, thanks for the bit of info. I'll check for the EPA cert.
Wamp, I agree based on the impression I get from most other folks on this board. I get my water from two independent RO sources (a Glacier water machine at local supermarket, and a water guy who has his own RO machine down the road from me), and they seem to be consistently between 0.2-0.25 ppm. I don't know why, but it's just what I see. Maybe my test kit is not perfect.
I also read in a book by Tullock and another by Goldstein that RO units are not nearly as efficient as DI units. It says RO units typically reduce the contaminants by 90% whereas DI units reduce them by 100%. But I know this is just what someone writes in a book, so it may not jive with what you've observed.
Cheers,
sam

 

[jamesp]

The little common sense I have was telling me exactly that. No gaps no entry. I'm a newbie and what the lfs tells me is all I have to go by. Until I found this board a few days ago.
All that said. I'm going to finish with my conversion over to ls. Which should give me about 1/4" to 1/2". We'll see how my levels do. When I add more sand later what type of sand should I use? I keep reading about people adding sand from Home Depot. Is this the way to go or should I just by more ls from the lfs? If I add Home Depot sand is there any special way of doing so? Do I need more water movement with DSB?
Thanks, James

 

[kris walker]

I have to get this out, there will be trapped wastes in the sand just like there will be some in crushed coral or shell. Critters poop. Some of the other critters eat that poop and poop more themselves that is not eaten. There's poop everywhere! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" /> It is just that simple. But you shouldn't worry about it with a DSB. The whole reason for a DSB is so that the poop everywhere will decay away through the nitrogen cycle. For just a thin layer of ls, if you have some other means for removing the nitrate (like water changes or liverock), then you'll be fine.
So to summarize, James, if you want to go with just 1/4'' or so live sand, then cool. Just remember to watch your feeding rates and water input, since as mentioned, those will be your primary sources of nitrate. Plenty of people do it that way and have no problems with nitrates. It's just when you start getting a larger bioload you are required to change your water or have something else to handle the nitrate increase.
sam

 

[jamesp]

FYI -- Not sure how long it takes for LS do it's job and maybe the water changes did it but my Nitrate level is down to 40 from 80 .
With all your suggestions I will be converting to a DSB. I still need to know how to do it. LS or Home Depot sand and how to? More water movement?
Thanks, James

 

[cyn]

What worked for me was a 3 inch layer of 'dead' sand with a 1 inch layer of live sand on top. I wish I had seen the post about pouring the sand in thru a piece of 2 or 3 inch pvc pipe, it would have saved me a dust storm. All I did was slowly pour in bowls full of the dead sand that I had wet with newly mixed salt water untill the dead stuff was all in, I did change out my cc in sections of about 1/3 each time, so after about 3 weeks all of the dead sand was in. Then I began adding live sand to the top of the other in 1/2 inch layers every 5 or 6 days. So as not to kill off the bacteia I had move from the cc to the sand or what was in the live sand. That was about 2 months ago, and now I never register trates. I am very pleased with the results.
cyn

 

[jamesp]

I put my sand in with a Tupperware bowl with a lid on it. Once the bowl was at the bottom of the tank I just remove the lid and dump the sand. No dust storm. PVC way sounds good though.

 

[jamesp]

Because I have already laid down a 1/4" layer of ls, would it be ok to lay down a 3" layer of dead sand and then add another layer of ls?