High Nitrates

[chris489]

Hi guys, need some help please!

I'm getting readings of 40-60ppm nitrate. Ammonia and Nitrite read 0
Sg 1.024 ph 8.2

I was changing 10 percent of the water weekly, I've now increased to 20 percent weekly.
I vac the sand each time I do my water change.
I have 3 Chromis
2 snowball clowns
3 hermit crabs
2 cleaner shrimp.
25 kg live rock
250 litre Aquarium with sump.
Tmc skim pro 450
Using seachem purigen ( recommended by lfs)
Tank has been running for 5 weeks (after cycling)

Any ideas??

 

[Bad Company]

cheato in the sump or a waterfall algae scrubber will solve nitrate issues. Over time, your liverock may develop anaerobic bacteria that my help reduce nitrates as well. It is also possible that you are feeding too much. Good call with the more water changes, it is also possible that your rock is still curing. What kind of lights are you running? Algae growth in the tank may be next.

 

[chris489]

Thanks for the reply. The live rock I've got is from an established system that's been running for 2 years plus. I'm using an aqua medic ocean light, it has to blue t5s and a metal halide.

 

[chris489]

Just been looking at some chaeto, can I place it anywhere in the sump? I have an led sump light already

 

[3dees]

watch your feeding. the way to bring your nitrates down quickly is larger water changes. 10% won't cut it once they are high.

 

[chris489]

I'm only giving small feeds once a day, just feeding what they can eat in a minute. Feeding flakes and brine shrimp with garlic

 

[Bad Company]

cheato works great in a sump, but it must be well lit.

 

[chris489]

Ok. How many hours a day will it need light for? Should I place the chaeto in a high flow area?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, you want decent flow through the Chaeto, that and or a powerhead on it.
You could also try doing a 50% for 2 consecutive days to knock that number down considerably. Then get back to your 20% weekly and see how that goes.

 

[chris489]

Thanks for the help guys

 

[Roty]

Simple the tank is just young do not add anymore live stock just let it cycle your nitrates are high because there is nothing feeding on it fast enuff

 

[Roty]

No worries keep up weekly changes and just be patient

 

[Roty]

Cheato may or may not work

 

[chris489]

My high Nitrates just turned out to be a bad test kit!!!! Retested at lfs with two different test kits and readings were 5ppm. Phew!!! Got some chaeto on the way so I'll see if I can get them down further.
Thanks for the help guys...

 

[Roty]

Nice

 

[CoralHut]

That's good it was only the test kit. If you ever do get high nitrates do a 50% water change which should bring the number down significantly. Refugia with macroalgae help more to keep nitrates from building but not take existing nitrates away. Algae turf scrubbers do work as well.

 

[cope413]

Chaeto (or any other macro) isn't going to do much for your nitrates unless you have a LOT of it. All you need is a standard compact flourescent bulb - the lower the kelvin the better - for it to grow. It's important to remember that you must harvest (remove from tank) the algae in order to remove the nitrates from your system.

Unless you want to run at 0, or near 0, and plan to have an SPS dominated tank, 5ppm -10ppm is totally fine for LPS and softies. I've noticed some of my LPS aren't as happy when my tank is at 0 nitrates.

The skimmer and WC are your best nitrate controls, though. Keep the skimmer running efficiently and keep up with the WC and you'll be fine.

 

[Thefirechief]

It's funny that you would ask, I tried for a long time to owner my nitrates and found that anoxic heterotroph bacteria ate nitrate for lunch. Here is a blog I wrote on how I lowered my nitrates to 0. http://www.pbmas.org/board/index.php?showtopic=7962&hl=

The WACDNED or the Wallwork, Anoxic, Carbon, Dosing, Nitrate, Elimination, Device. (Currently being constructed at Oceans Below http://www.oceansbelowinc.com )

We currently use biological filtration that utilizes live rock and or drip filtration through bio balls. Below is an explanation of that process.

Ammonification/Nitrification
Nitrification is the conversion of ammonia (NH3+) to nitrate (NO3-). How is this done? This is a two-step process that is done with oxygen and two types of bacteria, Nitrosomonas (ammonia-oxidizers) and Nitrobacter (nitrite-oxidizers), known collectively as the nitrifiers.

Ammonia + Oxygen + Alkalinity + Nitrosomonas = Nitrite

Nitrite + Oxygen + Alkalinity + Nitrobacter = Nitrate

Nitrite (NO2-) is the unstable form of nitrogen and is easily converted because it does not wish to be in this form. The total conversion of ammonia to nitrate takes 4.6 parts oxygen and 7.1 parts alkalinity to convert 1 part ammonia. ( Lesson 21: Nitrates and Nitrites )

Past practice of hobbyists has been to remove the less toxic nitrate through water changes. More recently the use of liquid or solid carbon dosing has shown promise in the reduction of nitrate. I personally utilize solid carbon dosing through the use of bio pellets. Using the reef octopus Bio Churn 120r I run approximately 1000ml of bio pellets. One of the down sides to this process is that it uses oxygen and over dosing can cause a bacterial bloom and or low oxygen concentration in your water. The technique is working well, keeping my nitrate levels below .05ppm (this is a pre auto water change system number).

As I am trying to create ULN levels I have turned to an anoxic process that will exchange a nitrogen atom in place of a oxygen atom in the bacterial respiration. Thus turning my NO3 into N2 that will escape the tank as a gas.

The application will work without an external food source but adding liquid carbon as a food places the process on overdrive. I have chosen Vodka as a liquid carbon to feed my bacteria. Ethanol is readily available but you can also use vinegar. Methanol works but should not be used in an aquarium or with any live stock! Why plain vodka? Because you want as pure an ethanol as you can obtain. You don't want to introduce any tannins, flavors, additives or by products in your ethanol. Pure is what you want.

Two dosing pumps will be used to maintain this reactor ( it will be the two currently missing from this photo). Pump one will move approximately 1 drop per second through the reactor. The Apex will activate once every 30 seconds to slightly pressurize the reactor. A simple ball valve will control the drip rate. The second doser will dose the vodka to the reactor 8 times a day.

Water flow through the reactor is key, a balance must be maintained. You want to restrict flow enough to keep the reactor anoxic BUT you don't want to make it so anoxic that it produces hydrogen sulfide (a killer). Use of the ORP (oxidation reduction potential) probe from the Apex can prevent this from happening. If the ORP indicates that the reactor is becoming too anoxic it can increase flow through the use of a solenoid. Learn more about ORP here http://www.reefkeepi...-12/rhf/feature

You will also note that I have included a recirculating pump. This pump along with the use of the attached ball valve maintains a constant flow over the media. Media? What media?

The process works better when there is a media that the bacteria can grow upon. This process has been successfully done on sand, bio balls and even in an up flow reactor. The real key is the more surface provided for bacteria to grow on the more powerful the reactor becomes. I have chosen Marine Pure media. The reactor contains three blocks of their product. Each block is 8" X 8" X 4" and provides 230,000 sq' of surface area each. As you can see this product is amazing. I use their bio ball product in all my aquariums and I can attest that it is an ammonia/ nitrite eating machine. http://www.cermedia.com

The fine tuning of this reactor will take time. It should produce water with 0 nitrates but also 0 oxygen. Once again the Apex can help in this area, Neptune offers a dissolved oxygen probe that I will soon add to my complement. The only thing that separates me from this last piece of equipment is $600. It's a little pricey so I'll make it my last addition.

I will post updates to this project so you may follow it progress. Once all the parts arrive (we are waiting on a recirculation pump) Rob at Oceans Below will begin to assemble it. When I get it in my hot little hands I'll post an update. and again when I place it in service.



The WACDNED is complete! If you would like to see it up close before I pick it up just drop by Oceans Below before Thursday night.

Once I have this baby installed I will post an update

UPDATE

The WACDNED is installed and fully operational (still working out a good spot for the vodka) Todays Nitrate reading was .5, with the CAWC system running about a week now. I will give the WACDNED time to maturate and then I will post two reading.

1, Nitrate levels in tank
2, Nitrate levels coming from the WACDNED

UPDATE

The WACDNED ROCKS. Todays nitrate level was 0....This was tested with Red Sea's pro kit

Now onto the coral auto feeding system