Nitrates are at 10 or 20

[BKT]

All other levels are great, but the nitrates are at 10 or 20...how can I decrease this level? Not doing anything out of the ordinary.

Temp 79.3
Ph 8.3 or 8.4
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0


75 gal tank with few corals, damsels and a eel.

any suggestions..

skimmer on side of tank..canister filter, emperor filter, about to install sump this week..

[hobogato]

will the sump include a fuge department? a refugium with some macroalgae would probably help. that eel is a big pooper, and probably is really contributing to your problem by producing lots of ammonia, which gets converted to nitrite and then nitrate, but then stays. do you have a sand bed in your tank? if so, how deep?

[robby]

Hey Brian, I have lots of Caulerpa prolifera, and I'll give you some. If you want a lot, just give me a week because I just cleared some out, but it grows like mad. It's a friggin nitrate sponge.

[NaCl_H2O]

Agree with the above, your eel is a major bio-load and you have to eliminate the Nitrate in one or more of the ways mentioned: DSB, refugium, or of course, water changes. There are some mechanical Nitrate sponges available (Kent has one) that you could also try.

[BKT]

Great, I'll try them...Robby, give me a call and I'll try to pick them up. Hate to lose the eel but if he does produce to much, its what I will probably do. I'll try the maintenance first...

thanks
Brian

[BKT]

also, yeah the sump will have a refuge in it, just finishing a few things before hand...I'll use a 36" pc coralife for the sump...

[jap1]

Is 10-20 really too high? I know that 0 is best, but I wouldn't think BKT's numbers would harm anything. Am I wrong? I'm kinda new so I really don't know.

[GaryP]

Nitrate isn't really a problem in a FO tank. Nitrates have to be a lot higher then that to cause a problem with fish. The problem with nitrates is with invertebrates. They are very sensitive to nitrates.

There is basically 2 ways to control nitrates. Provide a suitable environment for anaerobic den-nitrifying bacteria to grow, such as a deep sand bed, or Bio-Cubes, or remove it through algal growth such as a refugium that was mentioned previously. Many people mistakenly think it can be done with water changes, but that is very ineffective.

The other problem with nitrates is that it, in conjunction with high phosphate levels, can stimulate nuisance algae growth, such as hair algae, bubble algae, and dinoflagellates.

High nitrates is not unusal in a predator tank. I know Don in SA struggled with it for a long time in his aggressive reef tank when he forst set it up. I believe he found a solution for it by a combination of Bio Cubes and a refugium. He has a very elaborate set up that allowed him several options that most folks don't have available to them.

[bigdscobra]

A refuge with a deep sand bed would be great to use, try and do a 20g refuge filled with 5- 6in of sand some live to seed it, and lots of macro algea. With the refuge you are letting nature to its part.

[GaryP]

A refuge with a deep sand bed would be great to use, try and do a 20g refuge filled with 5- 6in of sand some live to seed it, and lots of macro algea. With the refuge you are letting nature to its part.

IMO the only problem with using your fuge as your primary DSB is that you are usually going to have a limited surface area available in a typical under tank fuge for a tank in that size with such a large bioload.

[BKT]

I've added the sump, working properly so far...the only thing that I did wrong and am worried about is a change in water temp. I added 10 gallons to the sump and the new water brought the temp from 79 to 76. My colt coral has drawn in and is deep purple...my chalice is dark colored and the torch coral has drawn in and turned green from brown.

Did I screw this up bad?

[GaryP]

Did I screw this up bad?

Probably not. In the future when you are doing a water change, or whatever, just add the water slowly and circulate. Of course its better to have the water at the same temp. In my setup its hard to do it that way without a trash can of water sitting in the middle of the living room. The wife gets a little upset when I do that.