High Nitrates

[cbayer]

I know water changes is the best remedy but is there anyting else I can do to lower my nitrate level.

Thanks

[Louie3]

Fuge with a DSB
Reduce feeding

Clean Filters
Nitrate absorbers work well

[Louie3]

Skim to the max.

[JeremyGlen]

Old bulbs cause algae, not high nitrates, just to clarify.

[Louie3]

ha ha I must've been REEEAAAAAAAAALLLLL Sleepy last night

[cbayer]

My metal halide is brand new and I have done water changes I am still seeing algae and high nitrates. What kind of nitrate absorbers do you reccomend. I only have a wet/dry filter and I will hook up my skimmer tonight. By the way does the skimmer really help that much with nitrates? Also whould it help to limit the amount of hours my light is on to reduce the algae growth. Right now my lights are on about 7 hours. If so how many hours should keep it on for a reef tank so none of the corals suffer.

Thanks Clayton

[Jeff]

how old is the tank? how much rock do you have? how much are you feeding? water changes only will only help a little bit. also the algea is using up the nitrates and phosphates.

[seamonkey2]

hmmmm, I been doing some reading over RC, and there is a post about using clams, the HEB kind, to control nitrates

basically, you buy LIVE clams(manilla) clean them and toss them in your fuge, they'll clean your water for ya

there are other comments about it, but I'll give it a shot myself, I dont have a problem, but it will help with filtration

Jose

[auSS/Tin]

I believe that HEB cannot legally sell you anything that is alive. I think they have to kill before the sell (i.e. they can't sell you a lie lobster, but they can sell you a freshly killed lobster).

Bill

[seamonkey2]

hmm interesting, dead shell fish, I always thought they were live

Jose

[cbayer]

I have 45 gallon tank with 40lbs of live rock and live sand. Its been up and running for about 4 months with a wet/dry filtration.

[cbayer]

I have no fish so I am not feeding it. I do feed the corals once a week with reef roids.

[fishcrazy]

RO/DI WATER!!!!!!! Don't use tap water. If you use tap water you will always have a problem with algea. Test you RO/DI water with a TDS meter before you add it. Just because it's coming from a ro/di unit doesn't mean it's actually working!

[Ram_Puppy]

tap water would be my suspect as well.

cheap fast fix... get a ball of cheato from someone in mast. plop it in the tank (put it in a floating hatchery if you must)

the cheato will suck out the nitrates, grow, and when you have a fuge later you can put it in, or when you populate the tank, you can throw it out, whatever floats your boat, but it will remove nitrate naturally.

make sure you do your water changes w/ RO/DI to prevent from adding some of that naturally occuring nitrate in our water from getting in there.

oh, your live rock isn't still curing, or you haven't added live rock recently right? did you clean your live rock well before you added it to the tank? i wouldn't be surpised if there is a dead sponge or something sandwiched between the sand bed and a piece of rock giving off nastiness.

and yes, skimmers help. protiens stick to the bubbles and are exported before they have a chance to break down into nitrate. this assumes that your nitrate source is something in the tank.

[erick]

I had high nitrates too until I used DECENT skimmer..... I use tap water, and have not had an algae problem to date (2yrs strong on 3 tanks :huh ). I'm not using city water (saws), but it is edwards aquifer, unfiltered, same stuff I drink.

[Ram_Puppy]

i don't know about you, but my water out of the tap, and my parents well water out of the tap taste completely different. well water is usually of higher quality IMHO. I think the nitrate we have in our water comes either from the pumping location, or in the system itself.

[cbayer]

I only use RO water from WalMart I dont know if that is bad. My rock was cured when I bought it. It had mushrooms and all sorts of things on it so I would think its done curing.

[Richard]

hmm interesting, dead shell fish, I always thought they were live


The HEB next to us used to carry live clams. They were on ice but still alive. I put some in a tank and they seemed to do fine. They quit carrying them because they were not selling and they had to toss any that died. Maybe some other HEB's still carry them.

[Ram_Puppy]

richard, do you think using those clams would pose a pathogenic threat to tridacnids?

[AquaDen]

Clayton,
I remember you telling me a couple weeks ago that you had a lot of corals die in your aquarium. I would say that is the cause of the nitrate level or the nitrate level is the cause of the corals dying? The live rock that you have is cured, I had it in my aquarium with many other corals for over a month. I would say that you not having any filteration for a long period of time is causing all of your problems! Filteration is a number one element in healthy reef keeping. Filter it as much as possible and keep the protein skimmer going full blast!

[Richard]

richard, do you think using those clams would pose a pathogenic threat to tridacnids?


No clue really. I thought about adding a bunch to my tank but was worried they would die off in my sandbed (they burrow) and give me problems. Many of the food clams prefer cooler temps than reef tanks usually run at.

[Ram_Puppy]

IPSF sells hawiian endemic sand bed clams if this is an approach anyone wants to take.

personally.. i think one full grown maxima would do more for water quality than 50 little sand bed clams... and maximas are far prettier.

[jessinator752]

this might be a dumb question, but what is a fuge? i've heard a lot of talk about them, but i have no idea what it is. i bought a 29 gal set up off of craigslist about 3 months ago. it came fully stocked with live sand, live rock, soft corals, and fish. my nitrates have been around 80 since i got it. i can't seem to bring those levels down. i do a regular 25% water change about every 5-7 days yet the levels stay the same. my livestock seem fine, everything appears to be growing, but every where i read online says you should have lower nitrates. i finally bought a protien skimmer (lee brand) last month and i clean that out regular as well. what do i need to do? is it ok to have a nitrate level of 80?

[Fin-Addict]

HEB sells live clams! We get them all the time (for hard to keep fish)!

[matt]

As Richard said, the HEB clams are cold water clams and would doubtedlessly not survive long in 80o water. But they sure are tasty!

[JimD]

Fuge = refugium, usualy a seperate tank plumbed to the main display tank with low flow to house nutrient absorbing macro algae like Chaetomorpha and other beneficial organisms. Can also be used as a sump to increse water volume. A search should produce much more information.

[jessinator752]

thank you for explaining that to me. i was wondering what fuge meant. this is my first saltwater tank so i'm still new to all the terms.

[Mr_Cool]

Do you have "Bio balls" in your wet/dry? I've never used them, but I hear they become nitrate factories after a while. I would slowly remove them and replace with some liverock rubble.

Again, that's just what I've heard.

[Bill S]

It is not unusual for the HEB clams to be exposed to 80 degree water in their natural environment. I grew up on the east coast, and as kids we clammed pretty regularly. The bays would regularly hit 80 in the summer. That being said, I'm sure they prefer the cooler temps, as we were about the southern limit for them (South Jersey).