BEST WAY TO GET LOWER NITRATES IN A NANO

[NanoDJS]

Ive never used that vibrant stuff , so I have no clue what the heck it does or is lol . I have enjoyed the threads on it though. The corals and all look good ,right ? I suspect its way off but if its correct you could be in a very high nutes situation, np just keep lights crankin , high light with high nutes , and start your no pox , use half what they say to use , and you should pull back to normal range in no time. po4 might be someplace around 3.0 ppm ! Its all good and has happened to me before didnt even loose corals from it , crazy color though , once your nutes come back dont be surprised if you have to lower lights a bit. Good luck ! You can beat this , and having a tad oversized skimmer would help out , the eshopps nano i use in my 20l systems and its a beast . Its rated for 30gal it think. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/in-sump-nano-protein-skimmer-eshopps.html

 

[jeeperreefer]

Ive never used that vibrant stuff , so I have no clue what the heck it does or is lol . I have enjoyed the threads on it though. The corals and all look good ,right ? I suspect its way off but if its correct you could be in a very high nutes situation, np just keep lights crankin , high light with high nutes , and start your no pox , use half what they say to use , and you should pull back to normal range in no time. po4 might be someplace around 3.0 ppm ! Its all good and has happened to me before didnt even loose corals from it , crazy color though , once your nutes come back dont be surprised if you have to lower lights a bit. Good luck ! You can beat this , and having a tad oversized skimmer would help out , the eshopps nano i use in my 20l systems and its a beast . Its rated for 30gal it think. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/in-sump-nano-protein-skimmer-eshopps.html

thanks for all the help. time to start shopping. lol.

 

[jeeperreefer]

what if i cut out my middle shelf and put chaeto in there with a small light attached to the glass ?

vacuumed that detritus out of the bottom of the chamber. did not realize how much was in there. i am sure that will help.

 

[Birdbrains?]

I suggest that you try something like probiotic reef salt from aquaforest and a mame skimmer. The salt reduce nitrates and phosphates and the skimmer is just a lot better looking than the modern mechanical stuff imo.

 

[jeeperreefer]

i was able to get my nitrates down to 5ppm . i have been using the salifert test kit. i increased my water changes to 4 gallons, turkey bast my rocks, intake and return sections once a week. a also vacuum the front and rear of my sand bed every week alternating between the two. i realized that our tanks are just liquid litter boxes and need to be maintained more than i thought. thanks for every ones help !

 

[Mattman1977]

i realized that our tanks are just liquid litter boxes and need to be maintained more than i thought.

that’s awesome. liquid litter box

 

[shermoen]

Awesome that you got your nitrates down!! I was having the same issue with my 20 long and I ended up getting nitrates down with many water changes over a couple weeks but the nitrates would always creep up to about 60-80 and my phosphate level was up around the 2ppm, I kid you not. I now keep my nitrates between 10-20 and as that is where my corals like it, and phosphate fluctuates between 0.03 and 0.25. I feed fish once a day(3 of them) and dose benepets/reefroids 2 times a week along with fuel.
What I did that helped out loads was added a small internal protein skimmer and refugium. I dosed brightwell aquatics phosphat-e to get my phosphates down and will dose as needed. This is the box I used for the refugium . I painted the entire outside of the box black accept for the outside panel and taped a cheap led bar onto the unpainted side (great chaeto grower) I also use a small fountain pump to get the water into it. This is what I used for the protein skimmer , Iit had tons of microbubbles at first but they pretty much went away after a couple weeks of breaking in.
Good luck with keeping the nutrient levels down, I will post a picture of my setup later after it kicks on.

 

[jeeperreefer]

Awesome that you got your nitrates down!! I was having the same issue with my 20 long and I ended up getting nitrates down with many water changes over a couple weeks but the nitrates would always creep up to about 60-80 and my phosphate level was up around the 2ppm, I kid you not. I now keep my nitrates between 10-20 and as that is where my corals like it, and phosphate fluctuates between 0.03 and 0.25. I feed fish once a day(3 of them) and dose benepets/reefroids 2 times a week along with fuel.
What I did that helped out loads was added a small internal protein skimmer and refugium. I dosed brightwell aquatics phosphat-e to get my phosphates down and will dose as needed. This is the box I used for the refugium . I painted the entire outside of the box black accept for the outside panel and taped a cheap led bar onto the unpainted side (great chaeto grower) I also use a small fountain pump to get the water into it. This is what I used for the protein skimmer , Iit had tons of microbubbles at first but they pretty much went away after a couple weeks of breaking in.
Good luck with keeping the nutrient levels down, I will post a picture of my setup later after it kicks on.

thanks for the info, i have been looking at a internal skimmer and refugium but have not pulled the trigger yet. i am making this a zoa/paly tank .

 

[Aardvark1134]

A nano is small enough you could run it on just water changes and flow

 

[Carolina reefer 420]

no, i do not have a skimmer. i was trying the brs method of 20-30% water change every two weeks but breaking it up into weekly changes. i am going to cut back on feeding and use a baster on the rocks as well as some bigger water changes and see what happens.

I run a13 gallon fluval. I do 50 % water changes a week sometimes twice a week and I test all parameters of new water because no matter what salt you use there will be variations in the mix. I adjust the new water parameters to match my goal parameters. I like to feed heavy to keep all inhabitants as health and happy as possible but with that you really have to stay on top of nutrient export. It involves some work but that is my go to method on running a nano. I don't run a skimmer but i do rum multi density floss, chemipure blue, and i sometimes use seachem phosguard if i notice a rise in phos but this usually contains the spike in a day or two and i remove the media until i need it again. The only other thing i do is blow my rock work out every water change. Don't let detritus build up, It really does not take much to throw everything out of wack in a small tank. The second you get lazy and start putting off maintenance you are asking for problems. There is no additive or product out there that can produce the results of just doing frequent water changes with a high quality salt mix.