DaveBr
New Member
Hello everyone. I want to post how I got my nitrates down RAPIDLY!! now I’m not saying I did this correctly, in fact I did this wrong because I bleached some corals (I’ll explain why) I’m also not saying that I invented this method, I learnt this from the experts online after doing my research but I don’t think it comes up enough for newbies to understand so I want to post my experiences so that maybe new reefers can tailor my method to achieve their goals in bringing nitrates and phosphates down. Note, don’t do it exactly my way.
So my tank, I have a 75g mixed reef that is about 5 years old, all parameters are in check, (auto doser) however my nitrates and phosphates were out of balance. I dosed lanthanum (spelling) weekly to keep phosphates low (I don’t recommend this but it does work) and my nitrates stayed at 25ppm constantly. It was one night a couple of weeks ago I was having a glass of wine and I could see the nitrate test kit on the table in front of me, there was a warning on the side saying “not for saltwater” I couldn’t believe it!! I’d been using this for months. So as you do, you head off to buy a compatible test kit (when you sober up). I bought the salifert nitrate kit which is actually pretty good but my nitrates were now reading 100pm. (Note: phosphates at 0.1ppm) I was gutted that I’d been keeping my pets in such filthy conditions. So I immediately did two 30% water changes over 2 days to bring the nitrates down to around 50ppm. But this is still way off where I want to be.
I have always carbon dosed, usually vinegar but my dose was really low because why wouldn’t it be, I thought my nitrates were 25ppm, so I kept the vinegar low to maintain that. Not now! I looked online for a NOPOX recipe and made my own with vodka, vinegar and RODI water, have a search online for the recipe if anyone wants to do the same, and I hooked it up to my dosing pump. Now, I knew this recipe contains more carbon than vinegar alone so it would be common sense to dose less, well…….. I didn’t!! (Idiot) please don’t do what I did. However I did also buy one of those marine pure block things to provide the denitrifying bacteria a place to live, this might not be essential but it’s what I did. So, I’ve hooked up my DIY NOPOX, dropped my marine pure block in the sump, turned off my UV and skimmer For 4 hours and dosed Microbacter7.
I tested for nitrates every day for 3 week and you wouldn’t believe it….. no change what so ever!!!! So I left it another week. Now, I work away Monday to Thursday every week so my wife feeds the fish, she calls me Thursday to tell me my corals look white, I was gutted, I instantly finished work and drove 250 miles home to see the most boring dead tank ever. Now I was really gutted, this is why you need to tailor my method. My first goal was to save these corals, even before I said hello to the wife. I could see that the corals weren’t completely bleached, there was a slight colour to them so I might be able to save them. I tested every parameter and all was fine. I then tested for nutrients, nitrates 25ppm and phosphates 0!!!! I’ve found the culprit, well actually I’m the culprit for not doing this correctly. Now this is the important part of this post, and this is the bit that can be implemented into your reef tanks, I said earlier that I didn’t invent this, this is pure chemistry that I’ve learnt over the years from expert reefers online, I just chose to ignore it. For the newbies out there, a certain bacteria can consume nitrates, we like this bacteria because it can reduce the number of water changes we need to do, in order for this bacteria to live in our tanks we need to provide it with the following things.
First it needs a home, this needs to be somewhere dark with low flow and no oxygen. Deep within the rock in your tank will work and/or one of those marine pure rocks.
Second, it needs food, first being nitrates (obviously)
It also needs carbon in order to eat the nitrates, hence the reason we add NOPOX or in my case DIY NOPOX
But there is something else it needs, in order to consume the nitrates it has to consume the carbon and PHOSPHATES !!! I had been so focused on nitrates and the high dose of carbon that I didn’t keep an eye on my phosphates. Now my phosphates are zero the bacteria are no longer consuming anything. Now I’m willing to admit that I did this wrong, and maybe be the next bit, but this part was fascinating. I’m no chemist but when I’m sat in from of my wife testing the water with drops and syringes and telling her I need to add phosphates, she thinks I have a PHD in chemistry. so off I go to the shop to buy phosphates and tell the LFS that I’m a complete idiot, I bought Neophos to be exact but I’m sure other brands would work. This is the good bit, I added phosphates to the tank to bring levels up to 0.1ppm, and it worked…… for about 3 hours, I tested every hour because don’t forget my goal is no longer to bring nitrates down, my goal is to save my corals. After 3 hours my phosphates were at zero. I dosed again, please don’t do what I did!!! But again after 3 hours I was back at zero, I dosed again, woke up in the morning and my levels where at zero, I dosed again and this time tested for nitrates, I couldn’t believe it…. Within 12 hours they had gone from 50ppm to 10ppm. I’m not out of the woods yet, it’s obvious that I had a healthy colony of denitrification bacteria that where being starved of phosphates, I gave them the Neophos and they consumed it within 3 hours along with the nitrates and DIY NOPOX, now my goal is to reduce the level of carbon and maintain phosphates before my nitrates hit zero, if that happens my next post will be about me having to add nitrates to bring down my phosphates. Anyway I think I’ve made my points clear, first, don’t rush anything like me, listen to the experts, when they say go slow they really mean it, and for good reason. Second, when trying to reduce nitrates or phosphates with carbon dosing you need to keep an eye on both levels, because eventually one will bottom out, it could be phosphates as in my case but it could be nitrates that bottom out, especially if your phosphates are really high. It’s at this point everything stops until you add whatever has bottomed out, don’t forget this is why we SLOWLY increase carbon, it’s because the carbon bottoms out. The point of this post is not to tell people how to do it but to make them aware of the process so that they can successfully achieve their goals, please don’t do it like me, because when you understand the process it’s so easy to rush it, that will cost you live stock. Bottom line for all that are struggling with high nitrates, carbon dosing works, it’s a game changer when done right. Remember, just like cycling a tank, it takes time to grow the bacteria, if you’ve not added carbon before this could take 6 weeks before levels start to drop, you can speed it it by adding the bacteria though live microbact7 but even then your looking at a couple of weeks. The most important part…. Keep an eye on both levels, not just the one you’re trying lower because when one bottoms out the whole process will halt. I do believe that everyone who carbon doses will at some point have to add either nitrates or phosphates to bring the other level into check. Remember… when you get your levels in check you need to lower the carbon to balance everything otherwise everything will hit zero, then you’ll be in trouble. Aim for phosphates 0.05-0.15ppm and nitrates somewhere around 5-10ppm. Please feel free to rip me to bits below, as I said I’m not an expert, I’m a reefer that rushes things and want to warn others not to make the same mistakes I have. That said I think I saved my corals, not fully there but they are coming back. Good luck everyone.
So my tank, I have a 75g mixed reef that is about 5 years old, all parameters are in check, (auto doser) however my nitrates and phosphates were out of balance. I dosed lanthanum (spelling) weekly to keep phosphates low (I don’t recommend this but it does work) and my nitrates stayed at 25ppm constantly. It was one night a couple of weeks ago I was having a glass of wine and I could see the nitrate test kit on the table in front of me, there was a warning on the side saying “not for saltwater” I couldn’t believe it!! I’d been using this for months. So as you do, you head off to buy a compatible test kit (when you sober up). I bought the salifert nitrate kit which is actually pretty good but my nitrates were now reading 100pm. (Note: phosphates at 0.1ppm) I was gutted that I’d been keeping my pets in such filthy conditions. So I immediately did two 30% water changes over 2 days to bring the nitrates down to around 50ppm. But this is still way off where I want to be.
I have always carbon dosed, usually vinegar but my dose was really low because why wouldn’t it be, I thought my nitrates were 25ppm, so I kept the vinegar low to maintain that. Not now! I looked online for a NOPOX recipe and made my own with vodka, vinegar and RODI water, have a search online for the recipe if anyone wants to do the same, and I hooked it up to my dosing pump. Now, I knew this recipe contains more carbon than vinegar alone so it would be common sense to dose less, well…….. I didn’t!! (Idiot) please don’t do what I did. However I did also buy one of those marine pure block things to provide the denitrifying bacteria a place to live, this might not be essential but it’s what I did. So, I’ve hooked up my DIY NOPOX, dropped my marine pure block in the sump, turned off my UV and skimmer For 4 hours and dosed Microbacter7.
I tested for nitrates every day for 3 week and you wouldn’t believe it….. no change what so ever!!!! So I left it another week. Now, I work away Monday to Thursday every week so my wife feeds the fish, she calls me Thursday to tell me my corals look white, I was gutted, I instantly finished work and drove 250 miles home to see the most boring dead tank ever. Now I was really gutted, this is why you need to tailor my method. My first goal was to save these corals, even before I said hello to the wife. I could see that the corals weren’t completely bleached, there was a slight colour to them so I might be able to save them. I tested every parameter and all was fine. I then tested for nutrients, nitrates 25ppm and phosphates 0!!!! I’ve found the culprit, well actually I’m the culprit for not doing this correctly. Now this is the important part of this post, and this is the bit that can be implemented into your reef tanks, I said earlier that I didn’t invent this, this is pure chemistry that I’ve learnt over the years from expert reefers online, I just chose to ignore it. For the newbies out there, a certain bacteria can consume nitrates, we like this bacteria because it can reduce the number of water changes we need to do, in order for this bacteria to live in our tanks we need to provide it with the following things.
First it needs a home, this needs to be somewhere dark with low flow and no oxygen. Deep within the rock in your tank will work and/or one of those marine pure rocks.
Second, it needs food, first being nitrates (obviously)
It also needs carbon in order to eat the nitrates, hence the reason we add NOPOX or in my case DIY NOPOX
But there is something else it needs, in order to consume the nitrates it has to consume the carbon and PHOSPHATES !!! I had been so focused on nitrates and the high dose of carbon that I didn’t keep an eye on my phosphates. Now my phosphates are zero the bacteria are no longer consuming anything. Now I’m willing to admit that I did this wrong, and maybe be the next bit, but this part was fascinating. I’m no chemist but when I’m sat in from of my wife testing the water with drops and syringes and telling her I need to add phosphates, she thinks I have a PHD in chemistry. so off I go to the shop to buy phosphates and tell the LFS that I’m a complete idiot, I bought Neophos to be exact but I’m sure other brands would work. This is the good bit, I added phosphates to the tank to bring levels up to 0.1ppm, and it worked…… for about 3 hours, I tested every hour because don’t forget my goal is no longer to bring nitrates down, my goal is to save my corals. After 3 hours my phosphates were at zero. I dosed again, please don’t do what I did!!! But again after 3 hours I was back at zero, I dosed again, woke up in the morning and my levels where at zero, I dosed again and this time tested for nitrates, I couldn’t believe it…. Within 12 hours they had gone from 50ppm to 10ppm. I’m not out of the woods yet, it’s obvious that I had a healthy colony of denitrification bacteria that where being starved of phosphates, I gave them the Neophos and they consumed it within 3 hours along with the nitrates and DIY NOPOX, now my goal is to reduce the level of carbon and maintain phosphates before my nitrates hit zero, if that happens my next post will be about me having to add nitrates to bring down my phosphates. Anyway I think I’ve made my points clear, first, don’t rush anything like me, listen to the experts, when they say go slow they really mean it, and for good reason. Second, when trying to reduce nitrates or phosphates with carbon dosing you need to keep an eye on both levels, because eventually one will bottom out, it could be phosphates as in my case but it could be nitrates that bottom out, especially if your phosphates are really high. It’s at this point everything stops until you add whatever has bottomed out, don’t forget this is why we SLOWLY increase carbon, it’s because the carbon bottoms out. The point of this post is not to tell people how to do it but to make them aware of the process so that they can successfully achieve their goals, please don’t do it like me, because when you understand the process it’s so easy to rush it, that will cost you live stock. Bottom line for all that are struggling with high nitrates, carbon dosing works, it’s a game changer when done right. Remember, just like cycling a tank, it takes time to grow the bacteria, if you’ve not added carbon before this could take 6 weeks before levels start to drop, you can speed it it by adding the bacteria though live microbact7 but even then your looking at a couple of weeks. The most important part…. Keep an eye on both levels, not just the one you’re trying lower because when one bottoms out the whole process will halt. I do believe that everyone who carbon doses will at some point have to add either nitrates or phosphates to bring the other level into check. Remember… when you get your levels in check you need to lower the carbon to balance everything otherwise everything will hit zero, then you’ll be in trouble. Aim for phosphates 0.05-0.15ppm and nitrates somewhere around 5-10ppm. Please feel free to rip me to bits below, as I said I’m not an expert, I’m a reefer that rushes things and want to warn others not to make the same mistakes I have. That said I think I saved my corals, not fully there but they are coming back. Good luck everyone.
