nitrate pie in the sky?

[salt nate]

I saw some green liquid at the lfs. the bottle said that you put it in your tank and it safely removes almost all nitrates. they say the reef pic on the front of the bottle is a tank that hasnt had a water change since 1986!! Is this stuff good? I forgot the name of the stuff.
thanks

 

[rtspeed]

i have never heard of it, not going to say it doesnt work. I am just think about how many supplements that you would have to add to keep everything at PAR.

 

[maxalmon]

Look at it this way, how many highly experienced reefers do you see on this site who use products like this? Usually they do accomplish the "claimed" results, but by chemically converting the offenisive item into something else, never actually removes it from the tank, just convert's or masks it into something else. Much the same way as Amquel works, IT DOESN'T remove ammonia, it's converts it to a less detectable chemical.
Otherwise every major aquarium in the united states and all of the advanced reefers in the united states would have gallons of this stuff sitting around, waiting to use it, might be ok in an emergency situation, but on as the vry last resort...IMO

 

[salt nate]

wow max you sure are ugly!
i wasnt planning on using the stuff religiously or anything, but even after 25 percent water changes, I cant seem to get my nitrates below 10 ish. My tank is only 2 months old. and there arent even fish in there at the moment. I am treating them for ich in a qt.
should I use it?

 

[maxalmon]

Nitrates @ 10 or 20 are perfectly fine and won't cause problems...I don't know of anyone who can keep their readings at 0....Most of the time high readings are caused by small stuff like, sponges that are not rinsed on a regualr basis, detritus buildup in bottom of the sump or sand thats not cleaned or over feeding...I tell people to do a "spring cleaning" on your tank every 3 months.
I personally see no need for you to use the product, your readings are acceptable, your doing water changes etc...Do an inventory of every sponge or filter your tank, then check your water readings, then do a deep cleaning on your tank, then do a water change, then wait a day and do another water test.
Your readings are also dependent of the quality of the test kits your using
(remember to rinse sponges and filters in siphoned out tank water NOT fresh water, then place them back in the tank)

 

[maxalmon]

Describe your tank, include everything in it, size, sand, LR, filter etc....

 

[salt nate]

75 gal, standard rectangle size
coral life pc's 4 @ 65 watts
10 gal sump
950 gph pump
125 rated super skimmer from corallife
90 lbs live rock
urchin, hermits, cleaner and coral banded shrimps, emerald crabs, sally lightfoot crabs...
torch, star polyps, cabbage leather, toadstool, ricordea, blue green zoos,
pulsing xenia
no fish right now, because they got ich and Im leaving the tank fallow for a few more weeks

 

[aquaknight]

It will take a bit for the live rock to work. Live rock has more of an aerboic power (convert ammonia/nitrite into nitrates) then it's anaerobic power (convert nitrates into nitrogen). Continue your water changes and you should be good.
I agree with everything Max said, except that no one can keep nitrates at 0.

 

[rcreations]

That looks like 0.2 to me.

 

[salt nate]

I got my live rock from the florida gulf and I live in florida so the rock never died off, it gets delivered right to my lfs with tons of coraline, plants, etc... my rocks are flourescent pink and purple(most of them)
So does the rock still take time to do the nitrate/nitrogen thing?

 

[salt nate]

and yeah....that aint zero

 

[haus]

What kind of test kit is that it looks easy

 

[kilted reefer]

+1 on the test kit
If my nitrates were that low, I'd do a dance

or 2

.

 

[rcreations]

How can you tell the difference between 30 and 50 on that test kit?
btw, that looks like a Seachem kit based on the instructions.