Nitrates 100+ppm, Need help with Dosing Vodka

[Ashish Patel]

I have a 120 gallon that had nitrates in the 150 range, now down to 30 or so and coming back down slowly. I installed an awc that changes about 2% daily that was helping but it was slow. My issue was the phosphates kept hitting zero and I couldn't get macro algae to grow even after adding phospate. So I started chaetogrow. Started getting some hair algae to grow so I ordered some Caulerpa paspaloides, The chaetogrow seemed to be the missing piece. The macro exploded in my refugium and dropped nitrates to 100 in about 2 weeks.

Hi, I can't stop thinking about your post...I have a few questions since I don't want to get false hope.

1. In this 2 weeks time did you do any large water changes?
2. How many fish and how big?
3. Do you have a lot of large clean up crew like Top crowns, Turbo snails, and urchins?
4. Are you feeding heavy
5. How large did your Caulerpa plant start at and how long is your photoperiod on the fuge?

I started this battle 3 months ago and not sure what my numbers where but i estimate it was 250-300PPM. I am now around 100-150PPM. However, going through 4X200gallon boxes of salt and still not being below 100PPM is very frustrating. I ordered the Phosphate product and hoping once I start dosing that I can take my carbon dosing to the next level. However, ultimately i would like to minimize carbon dosing since I can no longer use Filter socks and my pumps need to be cleaned too frequently.

 

[Troylee]

Tested my PO and they are 9PPB.
My Nitrates diluted 50% with rodi and still feel I am between 50-100ppm. Which would make my best guess of NO3 at 150ppm

Dose some mb7 along side your vodka it will drop fast! More bacteria and more food! I have used this system for years to keep everything low and it works great! I’ve actually switched to bactobalance and mb7 with the same results.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Dose some mb7 along side your vodka it will drop fast! More bacteria and more food! I have used this system for years to keep everything low and it works great! I’ve actually switched to bactobalance and mb7 with the same results.

How much Mb7 would you dose for 500 gallon system? Do you dose this continuously or as needed to reduce Nitrates? I thought this product was for helping establish biological filter in a new system, not one that promotes bacteria to consume NO3 like carbon dosing.

 

[Troylee]

How much Mb7 would you dose for 500 gallon system? Do you dose this continuously or as needed to reduce Nitrates? I thought this product was for helping establish biological filter in a new system, not one that promotes bacteria to consume NO3 like carbon dosing.

My system is about 350 gallons wet and I use a cap full a day.. 5ml it says.. I’d dose like 25ml the first couple days and then come down to like 10ml “2 cap fulls” a day and watch your numbers. I’ve been using it since it came out as many others have and it works! I’d guess it’s been about 15 years now? It’s adding bacteria to a system wether it’s new or old and it helps in my experience and others like Sunny x who I believe came up with it way back then. My tank is heavily stocked and I feed very heavily!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Tested My NO3 yesterday W/O diluting it. I was hoping for a miracle but still 100+
Phosphates are 10ppb. Daily vodka is 15ml day.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Below test is from June 23, when I realized i have an issue. Thought my test from yesterday would be slightly lighter but can't tell

 

[Ashish Patel]

Got the phosphates. Any suggestions to start?

 

[Miami Reef]

Got the phosphates. Any suggestions to start?

I would add 0.1g. It will raise 500 gallons to about 0.04ppm PO4.

About the NO3:

I use the salifert nitrate kit. I brought my nitrates from 5ppm down to 1ppm in 8 days by dosing 200mL of vinegar to my 260 gallon tank daily.

To translate into your tank:

My dose was about 0.75mL/gallon of vinegar.

385mL vinegar in your 500 gallon tank per day

Or 45mL vodka for the same effect.


In my experience, 0.75mL/gallon (vinegar) gives a good nitrate reduction effect. I have a lot of fish and I fed them well.

 

[Celestion]

turn off the pumps , carefully Stir the substrate , do a water changes , do this every week , imho

 

[Ashish Patel]

turn off the pumps , carefully Stir the substrate , do a water changes , do this every week , imho

Waterchanges don't work, I've done multiple and the last one being 50%, which took a week for things to rebound. I don't think I'll ever do more than 25% at a time. I'm sure once I start dosing Phosphates I can ramp up the vodka, which up until this point just bottoms out my phosphates

 

[Celestion]

not noing the tank and talking to millions , in general, the mystery could be dirty sand. imo

 

[Ashish Patel]

not noing the tank and talking to millions , in general, the mystery could be dirty sand. imo

I just added 80lbs remote sand bed 3 months ago to add some biological filtration. I am pretty sure I was at 250PPM when I started so being now at 150ppm is still an improvement. It will for sure get under control but have to play the long game, no short fixes seem to exist for chronic Nitrate issues.

 

[DCR]

not noing the tank and talking to millions , in general, the mystery could be dirty sand. imo

The OP's tank is bare bottom tank and there was no sand in the system until he added a remote sand bed earlier in this thread.

 

[Marquarium]

NO3P4X got my nitrates from being 75+ to consistently around 20. That's with a **** ton of fish in a 300gal (shark, stingray, tangs). I am going to read through previous posts as I'm sure you've tried this.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Anytime I dose a new chemical I am always scared I am going to overdose.

I used the calculator that Miami reef suggested and hoping its good. I will mix 4 grams with 40ml of RODI and dose 2ml. According to this it will increase my PO4 by .04ppm.

This bottle could last me a lifetime!

 

[Celestion]

yup I didn't read the middle 10 pages ,my bad

 

[Ashish Patel]

Already caught one potential mistake, had the wrong Phosphate in the planted tank calculator - You can look back to my previous post. I would have dosed double of intended amount. I was going to dose only 1ML anyways but want to test, dose, then test again to confirm.

I went ahead and mixed 4g with 80ml of water. There are a lot of crystals in the solution so not sure if that dissolves but I do not feel comfortable dosing before bed so will do it tomorrow.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Already caught one potential mistake, had the wrong Phosphate in the planted tank calculator - You can look back to my previous post. I would have dosed double of intended amount. I was going to dose only 1ML anyways but want to test, dose, then test again to confirm.

I went ahead and mixed 4g with 80ml of water. There are a lot of crystals in the solution so not sure if that dissolves but I do not feel comfortable dosing before bed so will do it tomorrow.

Calculating a phosphate dose is only useful to prevent a huge overdose by math mistake. Measured values after dosing are likely to be much lower than calculated due to binding to rock and sand surfaces.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Calculating a phosphate dose is only useful to prevent a huge overdose by math mistake. Measured values after dosing are likely to be much lower than calculated due to binding to rock and sand surfaces.

what about this solution having crystals? Is this normal?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

what about this solution having crystals? Is this normal?

A sodium phosphate dosing solution should fully dissolve. If you made it with ro/di, dilute it more.