Seeking advice for lowering nitrates so my corals may live..

eye.guy

eye.guy

Member
I current have a 2 year old reef tank going but nitrates are out of control. I think the major problem is the sand on the bottom of the tank. I would like to remove it, but fear throwing tank out of balance. Most of my fish are as old as the tank. I plan on doing a 48 gallon water changed tomorrow, most of the time I only do 16 or so. The tank size is 95 gallons with a 20 some gallon refugium. My nitrates are over 200 but everything else is in check. PH is a bit high it varies between 8.7 and 9.00 daily. I am adding a CO2 system tomorrow after the water change to manage that. Temp is also a bit high due to I guess warmth of room, so I added a small fan that is blowing over the refugium in hopes it can bring down the temp to normal < 79 ish degrees or so. Should i remove some or all of the sand, I have about 2+ inches on the bottom and @ 145 lbs of LR. I fear stirring the sand up will harm or disrupt the fish somewhat severly, but maybe will help lower nitrates along with the water changes. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated as I intend on starting this large service to the tank tomorrow.
Thanks in advance for you advise.
 
siline

siline

Member

Originally Posted by eye.guy
http:///forum/post/2684875
I current have a 2 year old reef tank going but nitrates are out of control. I think the major problem is the sand on the bottom of the tank. I would like to remove it, but fear throwing tank out of balance. Most of my fish are as old as the tank. I plan on doing a 48 gallon water changed tomorrow, most of the time I only do 16 or so. The tank size is 95 gallons with a 20 some gallon refugium. My nitrates are over 200 but everything else is in check. PH is a bit high it varies between 8.7 and 9.00 daily. I am adding a CO2 system tomorrow after the water change to manage that. Temp is also a bit high due to I guess warmth of room, so I added a small fan that is blowing over the refugium in hopes it can bring down the temp to normal < 79 ish degrees or so. Should i remove some or all of the sand, I have about 2+ inches on the bottom and @ 145 lbs of LR. I fear stirring the sand up will harm or disrupt the fish somewhat severly, but maybe will help lower nitrates along with the water changes. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated as I intend on starting this large service to the tank tomorrow.
Thanks in advance for you advise.
What invert (coral) do you have that can withstand 200 ppm of nitrates??????

I ask you this, 'cause I had a spike of 100ppm and ALL corals died...
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
200PPM nitrates is an unusaully high reading. check the test kit before doing anything else. you mention that the tank is 2 years old, is the test kit the same age? test kits expire and are majorly affected by heat cold etcetera, dmaging them and rendering them useless. try another test kit first.
 
paintballer768

paintballer768

Active Member
To compound things, a pH of 8.7-9.0 is too high to keep anything well. Check the test kits, but I dont know what could be the cause. Im going to guarantee you its going to be a number of things together.
 
eye.guy

eye.guy

Member
I have the ph under control now using CO2 and an aquacontroller 3. I did a 24 gallon water change. I need a new nitrate test kit. Water temp is @ 80.3 using a fan over the refugium. I plan on another 20 gallon water change this weekend. Any other suggestions?
 
geek

geek

New Member
I had quite a problem with high nitrates and a very bad diatom bloom that came in cycles, in my tank even with doing regular water changes and being very careful not to overfeed. I put in some red hawaiian mangrove in my fuge and my nitrates have completely disappeared. I keep a close eye on all of the chemistry in the tank and haven't had to add anything extra besides the regular water changes. The mangrove has really grown quite a bit to the point that I have removed some from my 220 and put it in my 75, and also given some to my LFS for her personal tank.
 
eye.guy

eye.guy

Member
Thanks for the input, I am willing to try that Mangrove if I can find some locally. I have culerpa growing in the fuge now but obviously not helping.
 
eye.guy

eye.guy

Member
I did another 20 gallon water change today and bought a new test kit yesterday. New test kit looks like 40 ppm nitrates for now. I made another 20 gallons of water for changing on Monday.
 
siline

siline

Member
Originally Posted by eye.guy
http:///forum/post/2688698
Thanks for the input, I am willing to try that Mangrove if I can find some locally. I have culerpa growing in the fuge now but obviously not helping.
I had culerpa for some time... did NOTHING!
Then tried Red Mangroves (10 BTW)... not much of a change...
Then AmQuel+ Plus (lowered about 10ppm)...
Then Cleaner Clams (lower a bit more, like 5ppm)...
Then my last option was to try the "Right Now Bacteria"... That thing lower the nitrates from 80+ppm to 20ppm in just 24 HOURS!!!
And BTW that comes in bottles to treat 60 gal and mine is a 75!!!
Now I managed to "mantain" the nitrates down with a combination of ALL of the above... plus a Derasa Clam.
 
siline

siline

Member
Originally Posted by eye.guy
http:///forum/post/2688698
Thanks for the input, I am willing to try that Mangrove if I can find some locally. I have culerpa growing in the fuge now but obviously not helping.
I had culerpa for some time... did NOTHING!
Then tried Red Mangroves (10 BTW)... not much of a change...
Then AmQuel+ Plus (lowered about 10ppm)...
Then Cleaner Clams (lower a bit more, like 5ppm)...
Then my last option was to try the "Right Now Bacteria"... That thing lower the nitrates from 80+ppm to 20ppm in just 24 HOURS!!!
And BTW that comes in bottles to treat 60 gal and mine is a 75!!!
Now I managed to "mantain" the nitrates down with a combination of ALL of the above... plus a Derasa Clam.
 
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