nitrate removal methods.

[matt52]

My nitrate levels in my tank are a little high around 40ppm so I have been doing water changes weekly about five gallons a week or more in my 75 gall and nothing seems to be happening. Are there any products that help remove nitrate. I have heard of a product called nitrate sponge has any body used it , and if so does it work.
Thanks for any info.

 

[joker_ca]

what kind of filter are you using? Is there any live rock or live sand in your tank, if so how deep is your sand? Also are you using a RO unit for your water, because if your not tap water usually has a high amount of nitrate in it, you might want to test your tap water to see what the levels of nitrate are

 

[big boy69]

Isn't there a tap water conditioner to add to your water before you add the water to your salt??

 

[joker_ca]

they dont remove nitrate!!!!!!!!!

 

[loopy]

Hi Matt, you want to see a bad nitrite level, c'mon over to my tank.........yikes. Working on that problem. Live rock helps from the info I have gotten. Go post this question on the Fish Discussion board, you'll get faster answers there. I can't help you, I am in worse shape, probably take home the award for 'worst water' here. But do go and post there, and you'll get really kind souls answering your questions, but answer theirs too so they can help you. A newbie I am, but believe me, I am learning from these wonderful folks.....I have just found the other board to be a bit kinder at times if ya know what I mean!!! Keep us updated, I will be interested in what you learn, as it will help me too!!! (Although there probably is no hope at this point, it's a 'wait and see' thing in my tank. Geez

) Good luck, we'll get smarter together!!!! (Are you talking nitrite or nitrate?) Mine problem is the nitrite.

 

[joker_ca]

LOOPY if your problem is with nitrite, they u really have a problem, a couple of large water changes can help you out. also have u cycled your tank? Or did u just add fish after you added your water?

 

[matt52]

I have 90 lbs of LR and 4 to 5 inch live sand bed. A casacade 1000 canister filter and a seaclone 100 protein skimmer.

 

[cowfishrule]

in a 75g tank, water changes of 5g weekly will do nothing
try increasing to 10 or 15g a week until you are below 20ppm
if your trate continues to rise, this is the sign of a bigger problem.

 

[maggot]

I recently had a somewhat high nitrite level but I did as one of the posts suggested and did a twenty percent water change two days in a row. I added bio spira (friendly bacteria) and also used Kent Ammonia detox. It works well and is safe for fish and rock from what i understand even says so on the bottle. I woke up this morning and my nitrates are much much lower and not finding a trace of ammonia. I used both for each water change.

 

[birdy]

Matt- A little more informations would be helpful, Please list all fish in the tank and sizes, What do you feed, how much do you feed and how often do you feed.
How often do you clean your cannister filter and what type of media do you have in the filter?

 

[matt52]

My stock list is:
1 Yellow tang 4 in.
1 Blue tang 3 in.
1 maroon clown 3in.
1 diamond goby 2.5 in.
1 Hawaii feather duster
1 LTA 3.5 in
I had a full cleaner crew but I guess because of the nitrates they all died.
I feed them flake food once daily and brine shrimp twice a week.
I clean my cannister filter once every 3 months. I have sponge media and ammonia carbon plus phosguard.
My ammonia is 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 40ppm

 

[joker_ca]

WE FOUND YOUR PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you need to clean your canister filter more often once every 3 months is not going to cut it, canister filters are notorious for being nitrate factories and i know from experience you need to clean your pre-filters, and carbon usually loses it effectiveness after a month
when i had a fluval 404 on my 40g i had nitrate at 50ppm when i upgraded to my 80g i added a DSB and a sump/refugium my nitrates went down to around 5ppm

 

[cowfishrule]

lose the ammonia carbon... by removing the ammonia via mechanical filtration, you are artificially respirating the thank.
basically, you're preventing the nitrogen cycle from occuring, and when your ammonia loses its removing power, your ammonia is going to spike, since there is no bacteria to convert it.

 

[joker_ca]

SAMUEL JACKSON BEER B_TCH
couldn't resist

 

[birdy]

For a fish only tank nitrates of 40 are not that bad, but for a reef too high.
I never saw if you are using tap water or PO/DI water, if you are using tap then you need to stop, and use a pure water source.
I suggest you only use the cannister filter to circulate water and run the occasional bag of carbon or phosphate remover if necessary. With all your LR and your DSB you do not need all that stuff in the cannister filter. and if you do run carbon or phosphate sponge only leave a small amount in for 48hrs, remove it after that.
Other than that, for long term nitrate reduction look into a refugium with macro-algae, and be sure that sandbed of yours is full of the beneficial worms and stuff.
As far as feeding, sounds pretty good, except brine shrimp is like candy, taste good, no nutritional value, feed mysis and chopped up seafood from your grocery store, and occasionally feed brine shrimp.

 

[matt52]

Thanks for all the help you all have given me. I was wondering how often to clean my cannister filter. Also the guy at my Lfs said if I done a 20 gallon water change in conjuction with cleaning my cannister filter that it would really help lower my nitrates and after they are down a 5 gallon weekly change would keep it pretty well in check

 

[big boy69]

How about putting some NitRx in your canister filter, that should help a lot, plus a 50% water change.