nitrates

[jrhein]

I have a level of 20ppm of nitrates in my tank. I have done a water change, chaged the filter out of the emperor and also ran carbon for 5 days. I have also purchased some different types of callerpa. My nitrates are still high.


What is the best thing for me to do to get them down?


Thanks

[Instar]

Is this the tank you set up on Sunday?

[Tim Marvin]

Larry, I doubt it. Unless he used old water. That is pretty quick to get nitrates up that high with new water. Ammonia and nitrite I could see. Have you ever experience a rise that fast?
JRHein, if you head up this way for the frags, I'll give you a bag of caulerpa for free to get you started. Plants are very good at reducing fertilizer, (nitrates), from your tank. I'm sure instar will have some more advice for you too, he is very good at water quality. Trust me, I have the best gold striped maroon clowns I have ever seen, and he raised them from eggs.

[reefer]

if you mean nitrites instead of nitrates....
check out your lfs for a product called "bio-spira marine nitrifying bacteria"it will prevent ammonia and nitrite toxicity. it runs about $28 for 3 fluid ounces, which will work up to a 55gl tank. for larger tanks, just add more
hth!
8)

[Richard]

Here's an interesting chart that might be of interest...

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_brightbill_wcdata.html#nitrate1

[Instar]

Reefer is right. All tanks can benefit from a culture, especially if new or something has gone wrong.

I prefer to use old tank water to start one out, so, if there was any nitrate it could happen. I haven't had that problem though, possibly because I grow a mess of stuff to put in there when I start it out.

Thanks for the compliment Tim.

(I guess I should say "Reefer is correct" for the grammar police... :roll: )

[jrhein]

No it is nitrates.

Instar it is my old tank. So what do you think I should try. Everything looks good except for one piece of coral.

I also got two clowns from Instar and they are great!!!

[Ram_Puppy]

are there and spots with bad flow in the tank? I had a spell where I had high nitrates, and I couldn't figure it out, finally, I just really gave the tank a good inspection and found a spot where mulm would settle out of easy sight, between a couple pieces of live rock. It would sit there and collect, and decay, and tank my water paramaters, so I siphoned it out, put a really tiny power head down at the bottom of the tank to push water through that gap, and things have been nice ever since.

[Instar]

Thanks jrhein. I hope that means they are finally settled in too?

There are several suggestions already here that should be seriously considered if you haven't already. If you have done those, then my next question is - do you have a refugium with macro in it? Sorry, I don't remember if you do or not.

[Richard]

The point I was trying to make from the chart link is that it is almost impossible to manage nitrates from water changes alone. It was late and I didn't feel like typing much.

If you don't have any clams you might think about adding one. Squamosa's are pretty easy to care for and will do alot towards removing nitrates.

[GaryP]

The other question I would ask is whether you are running a wet/dry. They have a tendency to crank up you nitrates.

Gary

[jrhein]

I am running a not much of a system on this tank. It has a emperor 280 and a protein skimmer. I have recently put some calerpa in the tank to help pull the nitrates out. I was told it takes some time for it to be pulled out. So we will see what happens. If it doesn't go down by Monday, I will add some time of nitrate reducer to the tank to help solve my problem.


Thanks for everyones help.


Jason

[NaCl_H2O]

You might want to try a Nitrate Sponge (http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=K-NITRATSP2QT&Category_Code=Kent3)
Use it just like a bag of charcoal - do you have a sump?

I use this in my 125g fairly regulary. I have never had Nitrates > 5 since it cycled over a year ago. Not sure if this is helping that much, but it ain't hurting!

[jrhein]

I will give it a try. That sounds like a goof idea.