Red Sea Reef Mature Kit question

Jrga1996

New Member
I have a New Red Sea Max 170e. I have 40 lbs of live sand and started with 35 lbs of Live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I am waiting to add another 35lbs of live rock and my clean up crew. I started the Reef Mature Pro Kit 9 days ago. I have 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrites However my Natrates are 40ppm . They were around the same on day seven so instead of doing a 5% water change I changed 10%. Any sugenstions? Thought on what I shoudl do tomorrow day 10?
 

Crowther

Member
I'm battling nitrates as well. I started dosing a mixture of vinegar and sugar. That didn't work as quickly as I would have liked. So, I ordered some NO3PO4-X. Before I started that, I started a bio-pellet reactor. I ran that alone for a while, but nitrates were still climbing back to around 40 ppm. So, I've been dosing the NO3PO4-X while continuing to run the bio pellet reactor. The risk there is lower oxygen levels. But, so far, so good. That combination along with protein skimming and reduced feeding have brought nitrates back down to 20 ppm as of yesterday. Today, I'm hopeful they are still coming down.
 

Jrga1996

New Member
Thanks, I am also using the NO3PO4-x its part of the Reef Mature Pro Kit. I am running the protein skimmer that was included with the Red Sea Max 170e. I have no fish so I am not feeding anything. I did add some Seachem bio Matrix to my Media Rack a few days ago. The Nitrates just seem higher than I expected
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
When you are starting a new system, you often get a fairly high nitrate reading after ammonia and nitrite have dropped to 0.

At this point you don't have too much happening in the tank. You can use various nitrate removal methods, and wait. This will work. However, many others just make a one or two massive water changes at this point. A 50% water change = a 50% reduction in nitrates.

Yes, denitrification bacteria are very slow growers. This is why it takes denitrification systems so long to get going.
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
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Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :nessie:
 

Jrga1996

New Member
When you are starting a new system, you often get a fairly high nitrate reading after ammonia and nitrite have dropped to 0.

At this point you don't have too much happening in the tank. You can use various nitrate removal methods, and wait. This will work. However, many others just make a one or two massive water changes at this point. A 50% water change = a 50% reduction in nitrates.

Yes, denitrification bacteria are very slow growers. This is why it takes denitrification systems so long to get going.
When you are starting a new system, you often get a fairly high nitrate reading after ammonia and nitrite have dropped to 0.

At this point you don't have too much happening in the tank. You can use various nitrate removal methods, and wait. This will work. However, many others just make a one or two massive water changes at this point. A 50% water change = a 50% reduction in nitrates.

Yes, denitrification bacteria are very slow growers. This is why it takes denitrification systems so long to get going.

Thanks for the advice, I am now on day 15 and my Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 have tested 0 for the past 9 days However my Nitrates are still 40ppm. I did another 10% water change today and tested Nitrates again and it did not appear to have much if any affect.
I am using the Red Sea mature Reef program that includes NO Pox and I thought that might speed things up a bit. I will give it few more days and if I don't see any drop I will try the 50% water changes idea to see if that will bring them down and keep them down. I am also getting another 30 lbs of live rock sometime in the next week. Maybe the additional rock will help. Thanks again. I'll keep you posted.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
...However my Nitrates are still 40ppm. I did another 10% water change today and tested Nitrates again and it did not appear to have much if any affect. ...

When you do water changes at this point you want to be changing about 30 - 50% of the water. You msy need to make several of these large water changes, spaced a few days apart.

You didn't see much of a change because you only changed 10% of the water. Lets do the math.

You tank holds about 45 gal of water with nothing in it. If you change 10% of the water, you'd change about 4.5 gal. The existing water has nitrate at 40 ppm. If your new water was 0 ppm nitrate, you'd only reduce nitrate by about 4 ppm, so you'd only be down to 36 ppm. This is hardly going to show on most typical aquarium test kits. This is why your readings don't seem to change.

Let's say you changed 5-% of your water. You'd reduce nitrates by 50% and you'd be down to 20 ppm.

One thing else, be sure to test your new water. Make sure that is not a source of nitrates. Neyly mixed water should read close to 0 if your using RO/DI water.
 

mr_tap_water

Well-Known Member
Hi there
IMO you also need to take into account with No3 it's not all about just doing water change,
doing large water changes may bring it down but maybe only for a limited time you really need to find out where it stemming from as well otherwise you're just in a vicious circle.


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