Nitrate Control - The natural way (Help needed)

[the.introvertebrate]

Excuse the long post, I am going to try and give you as much information as I can to help figure out the core of my nitrate problem and how to resolve it.

My nitrates are slowly killing my corals I have 3 Trachy's and a bunch of other LPS corals which are slowly starting to show skeletons and my Nitrates are sitting at around 40-50ppm (red sea test kit) on my Waterbox 130.4.

My tank is 6 months old and all other parameters are mostly in check.
My temp sits between 26-27 degrees Celsius
pH is a stable 8.2
S.G is 1.025
kH between 8-9 (trying to stabilize it with auto-dosing)
Calc around 400
Mag was high (1600) but have stopped dosing it entirely for now and will test again in a few days
Phosphate reads 0-2ppb on my Hanna ULR

I've recently introduced more CuC (2 glass cleaning snails, 2 of those surface sand cleaners and 2 of the snails that dig below the sand and live/eat under there) as well as 2 sand-sifting star fish.

I've got a clarisea SK5000 roller, a GW-10 Skimmer and a PacificSun small algea reactor (newly installed, 2 weeks old) and i've been doing 10% WCs every week for the past 3 weeks (before this I was doing a 10% WC every 2-3 weeks), but my nitrates aren't coming down.

The fish I have are:
2 clowns
1 yellow tang
1 lipstick tang
1 sailfin tang
6 blue/yellow tail damsels (mostly small)

Few questions:

1. How long will it take for the algea reactor and chaeto to actually start reducing nitrates? - I have seen it grow twice it's size since I first started it up, and I removed half of it with my last WC.
2. How long can my corals go on like this before they can't recover?
3. How long will the corals take roughly TO recover?
4. Is there anything else I should do to help reduce nitrates?
5. Is it possible my RO-DI system could need canisters changed? Could that be contributing to the Nitrates? The RO system is also 6 months old (bought brand new) and I keep it outside where it's exposed to sun/rain.

I don't particularly want to dose any chemicals to bring nitrates down. I've also reduced my feeding from 1-2 times a day (I had anthias) to once every 2-3 days. As a result my anthia starved itself to death.

I usually feed Anthia Pro S pellets (a few pinches worth, and there's usually nothing left over) and Nori sheets for the tangs (two rows worth every 2-3 days).
I dose 2-part (Kh, calc) and Bio-enhance.
I used to also dose phytoplankton every few days but have stopped that for the last 2 weeks.

I occasionally swap out the pellet feed for frozen cubes once every week.

I struggled with 0 nitrates and corals which lacked colour for months so I started to overfeed, and reduce WC's but I obviously took it too far and learnt my lesson. Now I just need help to find stable ground again and save my corals!

 

[Neoalchemist]

How long did it take for your cheato to double?

 

[Neoalchemist]

How many gallons an hour do you think your main return is pushing?

 

[the.introvertebrate]

How many gallons an hour do you think your main return is pushing?

I have no idea tbh and I don't really know how to check? Its a Mantis Tornado Pump, how can I determine the GpH?

 

[the.introvertebrate]

How long did it take for your cheato to double?

Probably around 2 weeks (I got my first batch of chaeto with the reactor from my LFS) and it was enough to take up 2/3 of a section in the reactor, yesterday did a WC and took out half of it, and it's back to 2/3 of a section

 

[Copingwithpods]

What is the color of your cheato, light green, dark green? Any yellowing?

 

[the.introvertebrate]

What is the color of your cheato, light green, dark green? Any yellowing?

I think it's dark/medium green, no sign of yellowing from what I can tell? It's the first time ive dealt with chaeto so I have no real benchmark to go by but a quick google search, mine looks most like this:

but with fern-like branches coming through in some sections (couldn't find any photos for reference).

I also had to clean out the reactor when I took out half the chaeto because it had a bunch of brown-slime like algea growing in it and some red algea. This algea was was also in the DT before my first big WC where I cleaned most of it out with a siphon. Since then, two 10% WC's later and recently cleaned the reactor it looks a lot cleaner.

 

[DeniableArc]

Sounds like your p04 limited.

 

[Copingwithpods]

Red sounds like cyano bacteria and fern like sounds like bryopsis, cross reference those and see if they look familiar

 

[the.introvertebrate]

Red sounds like cyano bacteria and fern like sounds like bryopsis, cross reference those and see if they look familiar

Yep I think you're right on both accounts, what does this mean though? There wasn't a huge amount of either of the bryopsis or cyano but enough that I ended up manually removing it all. Is there something else that could be killing my corals with this new information in mind? I also worry my RO/DI system might be compromised having been out in the sun/rain for months. I will be testing a fresh batch of mixed salt-water before I do my next WC to check if nitrates are present in that... May need to replace the unit/canisters. Hopefully I can fix the problem before its too late for my corals

 

[the.introvertebrate]

Sounds like your p04 limited.

What does this mean?

 

[Neoalchemist]

I think he needs more cheato and better turn over. His no3 and po4 are only going to go up with a Naso and a Sailfin in a 130.
Really I think this is the problem. Im just trying to maximixe his nutrient processing so he can keep the Naso.
My opinion, more cheato and a series of lage water changes to get no3 back in check.

Ps please dont starve your fish.

 

[Neoalchemist]

As for your return, im not familiar with that pump. But I like to try to get 5 to 10 times the display volume per hour turn over. Closer to 10 times really. Try to give the cheato first dibs on the waste.

 

[the.introvertebrate]

As for your return, im not familiar with that pump. But I like to try to get 5 to 10 times the display volume per hour turn over. Closer to 10 times really. Try to give the cheato first dibs on the waste.

My reactor has a separate pump, I don't know if that matters or not?

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Get yourself an auto feeder... how big is the algae reactor? You might need a larger one... I would start with an auto feeder to get your feedings dialed in... then you can start with a solid foundation of what your no3 and po4 will do while feeding consistently... once you figure that out you can dial in your algae reactor... Figure out your photoperiod to run with your new feeding schedule set... you should see consistent no3 and po4 levels after that... sounds like your algae reactor might be too small... I only feed frozen once or twice a month... pellet food twice a day and nori sheets every other day...whats nice with the auto feeders is you can skip feedings if levels rise or vice versa then up your algae reactor photoperiod... I had the same issue as you... when I figured all this out, things startled to really settle in

 

[the.introvertebrate]

Get yourself an auto feeder... how big is the algae reactor? You might need a larger one... I would start with an auto feeder to get your feedings dialed in... then you can start with a solid foundation of what your no3 and po4 will do while feeding consistently... once you figure that out you can dial in your algae reactor... Figure out your photoperiod to run with your new feeding schedule set... you should see consistent no3 and po4 levels after that... sounds like your algae reactor might be too small... I only feed frozen once or twice a month... pellet food twice a day and nori sheets every other day...whats nice with the auto feeders is you can skip feedings if levels rise or vice versa then up your algae reactor photoperiod... I had the same issue as you... when I figured all this out, things startled to really settle in

I got the PacificSun Small Algea Reactor because A. the other sizes were out of stock at my LFS and B. I don't have much room left in the sump with the GW-10 Skimmer, Clarisea Roller and the separate pump for my reactor. Not to mention i've got a bag of activated carbon and media blocks in there as well.

Should I have my reactor light on all the time or should I unplug it at night or during the day so it can run at night when the main lights are off?

I may look into an auto feeder although with my tank's mesh lid I don't know if I can install it.

 

[Neoalchemist]

I was going to suggest a second reactor.

By turn over I mean, you need to get the amonia from the urea and fish waste out of the display and down into the sump quickly so your filtration and cheato get to most of it before the bacteria convert the rest to nitrate.

 

[the.introvertebrate]

I was going to suggest a second reactor.

By turn over I mean, you need to get the amonia from the urea and fish waste out of the display and down into the sump quickly so your filtration and cheato get to most of it before the bacteria convert the rest to nitrate.

I think once I get my nitrates down I shouldn't need two reactors + a clarisea roller and a skimmer that's surely overkill... I would expect that once my nitrates are under control 1 of the 3 pieces of equipment will become obsolete...

 

[PerplexyHexy]

I got the PacificSun Small Algea Reactor because A. the other sizes were out of stock at my LFS and B. I don't have much room left in the sump with the GW-10 Skimmer, Clarisea Roller and the separate pump for my reactor. Not to mention i've got a bag of activated carbon and media blocks in there as well.

Should I have my reactor light on all the time or should I unplug it at night or during the day so it can run at night when the main lights are off?

I may look into an auto feeder although with my tank's mesh lid I don't know if I can install it.

it says the reactor is rated up to 130 gallons, but thats all relevant to how much your feeding and exporting... I would find a solid schedule and stick with it... I run fuge opposite my light schedule for about 12hrs... everyone has mixed thoughts on fuge photoperiods... all in all, its whats works for your tank... I would keep your reactor photoperiod the way it is, but get your feeding schedule solid and test to see what no3 and po4 does... then start tinkering with reactor photoeriod to find that sweet spot... just giving some advice... I lost a few $k in corals because I was having gnarly swings with my no3 and po4 because of careless feeding habits

 

[the.introvertebrate]

it says the reactor is rated up to 130 gallons, but thats all relevant to how much your feeding and exporting... I would find a solid schedule and stick with it... I run fuge opposite my light schedule for about 12hrs... everyone has mixed thoughts on fuge photoperiods... all in all, its whats works for your tank... I would keep your reactor photoperiod the way it is, but get your feeding schedule solid and test to see what no3 and po4 does... then start tinkering with reactor photoeriod to find that sweet spot... just giving some advice... I lost a few $k in corals because I was having gnarly swings with my no3 and po4 because of careless feeding habits

great insight thanks mate, I will for sure try and get my feeding more consistent, right now it's probably way too inconsistent to expect stable test results. Some days I add an extra pinch of pellets, other days I skip feeding entirely because i'm worried about further spiking the nitrates.