Lowering nitrate media

[tucker]

my nitrates are about 20 ppm I recently finally bought a protien skimmer. Hob reef octopus 1000 for my 20 gallon. I was also thinking about adding a small in tank breeder box of sorts to hang inside tank to grow Chaeto algae in. I also was thinking about adding some de nitrifying media in an old bio cube nano protein skimmer. What would you recommend. Was looking at seachem denitrate, seachem matrix, marinepure and purigen, amongst others. What would you recommend? How long does it last and what is the flow recommendation as well as a filter bags to put it in.

 

[DaveK]

None of the above. It's unlikely that a breeder box with Chaeto would remove much nitrate. You'd really want something like another tank, holding about 8 gal of water or so. That way you'd have enough volume for Chaeto to do some good. As for the chemical media, they do work, but are expensive.

What I would recommend is partial water changes. Changing 50% of your water will reduce your nitrated by 50%. Use RO/DI water for mixing your salt and your good to go. For a 20 gal tank, you'd only need to mix 5 to 10 gal of water at a time.

 

[Uncle99]

At 20ppm, nitrate is not to too high but needs to come down to the 2-5ppm range.

This can be easily done with carbon dosing to feed and increase the bacteria population and thus decrease nitrates via skimmer.

I use Nopox to accomplish this.

 

[PSU4ME]

I agree with Davek on the water changes. Have a good clean way to change the water out often and that’s prob the best thing you can do on a 20g tank....... lowers nitrates and helps in many other ways!