At a loss at this point.

[CHIEF_OF_THE_REEF]

have you checked your water source?

 

[Wolters_88]

have you checked your water source?

Yep, 0 TDS and working as per usual.

 

[findingsimple]

I have almost same issue and numbers in my frag tank.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I have a 60 gallon frag tank that’s kicking my butt. For some reason or another my pO4 in this tank stays constant between .05 and .1 but my nitrates can go from 30 to 60 in one day without me feeding. I can’t carbon dose enough or my PO4 will be at zero (which it is right now). I’m thinking about getting a sulfur reactor at this point because I don’t know what else to do. I’m doing a daily 2 gallon water change too. Still does nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

The sulfur reactor would be a good option to resolve the current issue, or any other method that would target mainly nitrates.

 

[Razorbacks]

Yep, 0 TDS and working as per usual.

I would find another tds meter to double check it, particularly since you said you're doing daily water changes (an input). Alternatively stop the daily water changes for a week and see what happens. The nitrates have to be coming from somewhere unless your tester is wrong.

If that fails I would lean towards stopping doing things vs doing more. Try to eliminate various factors of your inputs/outputs from the equation.. It seems like you're already doing a lot so I'm trying to understand what your baseline is if you did nothing for at least a week: no feeding, no water changes, no carbon dosing, etc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hannah and I have calibrators that it matches up perfectly with.

There's no good way to ensure the Hanna is working right. The colored water cuvettes only test the electronics, nothing more.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

At this point I’m testing daily and the only way I can get it to get down to say 30 is with nopox. The issue is I bottom out my PO4 like stated above.

30 ppm nitrate is mot any big deal (some really great tanks have nitrate much higher).

But if you want nitrate lower, I'd dose phosphate (cheap and easy using food grade sodium phosphate) and continue carbon dosing before setting up a sulfur denitrator. They deplete alkalinity, for one thing.

 

[bubbgee]

Chaeto and some other stuff the guy gave me for free. No clue what it is. It’s got little balls on it.

I have a QD system doing two gallons a day.

Chaeto is finicky because it's so delicate. I bought a few golf ball sized colonies of red macro and they never melted on me (so far at least). I dose chaeto gro every now and then as well as iron to keep the macro from turning white.

 

[backbayreef]

My suggestion is to stop chasing these numbers and ask what's really the issue with your tank? Fish and corals are healthy and growing? I suspecting trying to get "perfect" numbers may do more harm than good. For perspective, my 4yo SPS-dominant tank: 75+ NO3 and 1.x PO4 - corals grow like weeds! At some point, I actually stop testing. My other tanks (93g & 450g) are doing well - corals growing, no algae either, with with high N & P.

If I'm bored, I use vinegar/vodka to reduce NO3 and PhosphateRx to reduce PO4 -- super easy. It is also less messy than dealing with refugiums, water changes, algae scrubber, etc...

Good luck!

 

[Wolters_88]

30 ppm nitrate is mot any big deal (some really great tanks have nitrate much higher).

But if you want nitrate lower, I'd dose phosphate (cheap and easy using food grade sodium phosphate) and continue carbon dosing before setting up a sulfur denitrator. They deplete alkalinity, for one thing.

I ordered the NYOS nitrate tester to double check it.

 

[Reef By Steele Verified Sponsor]

I have to concur with the statements about vinegar and vodka doing great with nitrates but not touching phosphates. I use to run a homemade carbon mix of the two with RODI using @Randy Holmes-Farley recipe but had to use Brightwell Phosphat-E lanthanum chloride to fight phosphates. My issue was if I wasn’t paying attention and the carbon doser ran dry I would have a huge spike and end up with bacterial blooms especially if I started back up without ramping up. Once I started culturing and using live phyto which gave me awesome results in both I quit carbon dosing and never looked back. However you can bottom one or both with this method. So testing and a product like now-phos from Brightwell which we carry can help you achieve your goals. I use it for culturing our macro algae’s.

 

[Wolters_88]

I have to concur with the statements about vinegar and vodka doing great with nitrates but not touching phosphates. I use to run a homemade carbon mix of the two with RODI using @Randy Holmes-Farley recipe but had to use Brightwell Phosphat-E lanthanum chloride to fight phosphates. My issue was if I wasn’t paying attention and the carbon doser ran dry I would have a huge spike and end up with bacterial blooms especially if I started back up without ramping up. Once I started culturing and using live phyto which gave me awesome results in both I quit carbon dosing and never looked back. However you can bottom one or both with this method. So testing and a product like now-phos from Brightwell which we carry can help you achieve your goals. I use it for culturing our macro algae’s.

I’m dosing 20ml of Nyos a day to keep it from being zero and the only thing I changed was adding the DIY NOPOX. My mushrooms are the only thing that seem to be an issue but they keep dying and I did an MS send in test and all my numbers are good except NO3.

 

[CHSUB]

Sulfur deNO3 are, imo, a great way to control no3. They do have a significant upfront cost and learning curve. I ran one for many years on a heavily stocked 300 g and it kept no3 near 0. Mine was controlled by an ORP controller and had a second chamber to buffer the effluent.

 

[BryanM]

I am no expert, but I tend towards watching the tank more than chasing numbers....

So the same question, what is the problem? Is something wrong in the tank, critters suffering, etc?

 

[Wolters_88]

I am no expert, but I tend towards watching the tank more than chasing numbers....

So the same question, what is the problem? Is something wrong in the tank, critters suffering, etc?

Yep, mushrooms continue to die and at hundreds of dollars a piece it’s annoying.

 

[Wolters_88]

Sulfur deNO3 are, imo, a great way to control no3. They do have a significant upfront cost and learning curve. I ran one for many years on a heavily stocked 300 g and it kept no3 near 0. Mine was controlled by an ORP controller and had a second chamber to buffer the effluent.

I have ozone, but how would an ORP control the NO3? Sorry, I’m ignorant to this.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have ozone, but how would an ORP control the NO3? Sorry, I’m ignorant to this.

ORP and nitrate are not connected. He is referring to the ORP inside a sulfur denitrator.

 

[CHSUB]

I have ozone, but how would an ORP control the NO3? Sorry, I’m ignorant to this.

It’s an easier way to tune it to work properly. I ran it at -100 orp, denitrification only occurs at negative orp. The controller would turn a pump on when orp was negative. Over time it stayed on constantly.

 

[CHSUB]

Note negative orp. It's not an easy undertaking and with only 60 gallons not sure it's worth the effort? Larger WC would be my recommendation.

 

[Wolters_88]

Note negative orp. It's not an easy undertaking and with only 60 gallons not sure it's worth the effort? Larger WC would be my recommendation.

I’m doing g two gallons a day and it’s doing nothing.