Water changes not helping nitrates, biopellets or algae scrubber?

rostervandross

Active Member
hello reef forum friends,

I'm trying to get serious about getting my nitrates down. There is not really any corals or fish suffering and my tank appears healthy as can be but it's gotten to the point that my api Nitrate test is maxed dark orange to red indicating 50-80 ppm and changing 30 gallons / 80 gallon total volume every week and a half to two weeks isn't doing anything for them and is expensive. has anyone been in my situation and gotten their nitrates down well using more advanced methods?

While there's not really any issues going on I still think I would likely get better coral growth with less nitrates and im always attempting to make the water as heathy and natural for the inhabitants as I can . I know nitrates are always going to be higher in our tanks than they should or would be in the ocean but I think I need to get them down to 10 or 20 ppm at most in any case. Thanks for any suggestions. I'm just indicisive on what to do


WRT biopellets I do not have a phosphate test, but I assume there are phosphates I do not run any media currently
 

cracker

Well-Known Member
Hey Roster, There are lot's of people who have luck with scrubbers . I ran bio pellets and they worked too well and striped the water bare and my corals didn't like it. You have a refugium? Maybe try some chaeto for a lower tech less $$ method.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
... it's gotten to the point that my api Nitrate test is maxed dark orange to red indicating 50-80 ppm and changing 30 gallons / 80 gallon total volume every week and a half to two weeks isn't doing anything for them ...

First get a new test kit for nitrate. Getting a phosphate kit while your at it. Do another water change and test your new water. Levels should be close to normal. Do your water change and test the tank again. You should see a proportional drop in nitrate and phosphates.

That will at least let you see and fix any water change problems.
 

silver97

Active Member
I had high nitrates for a while too but have recently gotten them under control. In my 40 gallon tank, I found it helped more to do 10% weekly water changes instead of 20% or more every 2 weeks, which is what I had been doing before. I had nitrates at a steady 40+ ppm for at least a couple of months, and after about 3 months of 10% weekly changes I have them down to below 10 ppm (as far as I can tell from the API kit) and can definitely say everything in the tank looks healthier. I've even seen noticeably different behavior and growth in my fish and corals in the short amount of time with less nitrates.
I'd definitely listen to Dave about the new test kits, I've learned myself that the API kits, while relatively inexpensive, aren't nearly as good as some of the other test kits out there. I'm switching to the Red Sea test kits soon, which are way more accurate and more easy to read.
Another thing you might want to rule out, again kind of going along with what Dave said, is to check your water source. Do you use RO/DI or treat the water with something before mixing? If not I'd say that might also be a huge contributing factor to your nitrate problems. I don't have an RO/DI filter personally, but I treat my water with a conditioner for a good while before I even add the salt mix.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Are you using RODI water with the water changes?

If you are using tap water and your tap water is high in nitrates and phosphates, then you aren't going to be able to bring the nitrates down in the tank. You are replacing the nitrates you just took out of the tank.

Sometimes it can take a year of the rocks leaching nitrates and phosphates before the tank stabilizes. It can be a huge pain, but almost all of us go through it with new rocks.

Using something like ferric oxide (GFO) can help with the phosphates. And make sure your skimmer is working well. Wet skimming works well pull even more nitrates out of your system then if you skimmed dry.

I'd also suggest that when you do water changes to siphon the sand to pull all the detritus out of the tank before it degrades and adds more nitrate to the system.

And lastly, make sure that all the food you are adding to the tank is being eaten and is not left to decay. If you need to turn your pumps off to feed in order to make sure your fish are eating all the food, then do so.
 

Choff

Well-Known Member
Look into seachem matrix and/or siporax for nutrient control. My sps dominant reef tank is overstocked with fish and I feed like an Italian grandmother and I have to dose Nitrate to keep the colors on my coral. Yep, I dose nitrates.

I run a large reactor with matrix as well as 10G of siporax on my 310 gallon system.. Other than that, I just run a skimmer, do no other dosing nor do I run GAC or GFO. There is no question that its the additional biological filtration handling the nutrients.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Every time I've had algae problems, I've basically cleared it up with extremely clean, RODI, fairly large water changes (20% per week) and seachem phosnet (specifically that product).

I'm sure others mileage can vary.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
One thing I just noticed is you said your tank is fine. Maybe your test is just not reading right?

Personally, my test for phosphates and nitrates is pretty simple these days.

I look in my tank and see if I have an algae problem. If I do, my nitrates and phosphates are probably too high. If I don't, then they probably are fine. :)

Another way of saying, if your tank is fine, I'm not sure it even matters, but maybe the test is even wrong.

P.S. I used to test the heck out of my tank twice a week. My standards have changed. :)
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Hey Roster, There are lot's of people who have luck with scrubbers . I ran bio pellets and they worked too well and striped the water bare and my corals didn't like it. You have a refugium? Maybe try some chaeto for a lower tech less $$ method.

I like the idea of scrubbers. I bought one from one of our sponsors. I may install it one day. :)
 

rostervandross

Active Member
Thanks for the word everyone, I'm going to try everything basically. to grow some macroalgae/ chaeto first off in the sump. I hope draining and dragging the sump out to spray out and take the dirty sand out of the refugium section will be a good start to with doing more detritus clean up , need to siphon sand out of the main tank more often during water changes at that. In the past I've had a lot of trouble getting chaeto to grow, one or two clumps have grown for a short time only to also turn to mush or disintegrate away but maybe now that I don't use a chemipure bag of phosphate remover carbon combo it may do better. Then I'll be looking into building or buying an algae scrubber if my chaeto does all right and likely look for a secondhand reactor and try some biopellets or denitrifying bacteria media of some sort. I have lots of live rock and ceramic matrix like medias in play at present. Here goes nothing :smile:

Also pat thanks for the anecdote about algae indicating in the tank and not to worry too much about levels if things are doing ok. I'm on board with you just concerned that while I have good health overall that my nutrients are mounting and that ideally I could cut them down and have an even better environment, the one thing I've noticed lately is my urchin is losing a spine or two every so often and I read they are an indicator of high nutrient levels.
 
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