Best ways to lower nitrates
- Thread starter evanjah
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xbrentx
Active Member
I put biopellets on my tank about 3 months ago, went from 40-60 nitrates to 0-5 after 2 months. Now my goal is to find the right balance of pellets in the reactor to maintain 5-10 ppm to keep some nutrients in the water.
xbrentx
Active Member
Other than that, clean the rocks / sand and do water changes after, this mixes it all up in the water and then you pull it out with the water change. Do this more frequently to get the nitrates down.
Yea. Its possible to do. The more frequent the water changes the lower the levels. Another idea would be to Carbon Dose, which I do. I keep the Nitrates where I want to keep them, which is 0-5.
Sun1914
Active Member
Good question.
I'm having a trouble with nitrates right now. They were over 80 ppm. I was over feeding and wasn't aware of how neglected the tank I inherited really was. Anyway, I cut my feeding down to once a day and did a large water change lowering my nitrates by 20 ppm. I then added a skimmer and continued with large water changes lowering it again another 20 ppm. I'm somewhere in between 20-40 ppm which is still way too high but I will continue with my large water changes 2x a week until they get in the range of 0 - 5 ppm.
I'm having a trouble with nitrates right now. They were over 80 ppm. I was over feeding and wasn't aware of how neglected the tank I inherited really was. Anyway, I cut my feeding down to once a day and did a large water change lowering my nitrates by 20 ppm. I then added a skimmer and continued with large water changes lowering it again another 20 ppm. I'm somewhere in between 20-40 ppm which is still way too high but I will continue with my large water changes 2x a week until they get in the range of 0 - 5 ppm.
beaslbob
2500 Club Member
IMHO the best way to lower nitrates is to convert them into fish food and oxygen using plant life such as macro algae.
this has the additional benefit if also consuming carbon dioxide, ammonia, phosphates and stabilizing operation as well. Not to mention filtering out things like copper.
Still just my .02
this has the additional benefit if also consuming carbon dioxide, ammonia, phosphates and stabilizing operation as well. Not to mention filtering out things like copper.
Still just my .02
xbrentx
Active Member
These are all good tips. Water changes in this circumstance would be more of a bandaid fix, since it doesn't address the root cause. If you normally keep up with water changes and still have high nitrates there is a bigger issue, poor skimmer, over feeding, bad flow, etc...
BIO pellets have been magical for me, I have a DT / Sump of about 160 gallons, I picked up a Reef Octopus reactor and a bag of bio pellets, cost me maybe $175 for those plus parts to install it, hooked it up to my return pump. Best purchase I have made other than my reef octopus skimmer.
BIO pellets have been magical for me, I have a DT / Sump of about 160 gallons, I picked up a Reef Octopus reactor and a bag of bio pellets, cost me maybe $175 for those plus parts to install it, hooked it up to my return pump. Best purchase I have made other than my reef octopus skimmer.
You keep forgetting to add, the Sump with Macro Algae, had better be full of the Macro Aglae, and it better be relatively big compared to the DT, or it does relatively no good.
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Most high nitrate problems are caused by overfeeding. Water changes are are great but they are only a quick fix. You have to figure out the source. Carbon dosing is a great way to reduce nitrates and phosphates if done correctly. Make sure your skimmer is working properly and continue your water changes and researce the benifts on carbon dosing.
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