Can beneficial bacteria zero your Nitrates?

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So I cannot get my nitrates above 0.0ppm. Below is the setup:

90gal Tank
39gal Sump (I know it’s big)
10” Roller Fleece
Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT Skimmer
Refugium with Chaeto (that I removed today)
Massive CO2 Scrubber with recirculating skimmer lid and Reef Octopus waste container for when I’m out of town. I’m planning on only running the skimmer at night to keep the PH up.

I’ve only got 2 fish inhabitants - Blue Hippo and Tomnini Tangs. Both are small and healthy. I’ve got a big Female Japanese Swallowtail Angel and small Desjardini Sailfin Tang in QT, both 48 days out for serving time. I also have pre-QT lawnmower and Midas Blennies on the way in 2 weeks from Dr Reef. Lots of LPS’s (Big Leather Toadstool, flower pot, purple pipe organ, a few small gonipiras, 4 zoa rocks, a big elegance and 5 headed Duncan., and a few Montes, acros, and other unknown plating corals. Ohh yeah a beautiful Meteor Shower. The acros are on their way out and lost a Xenia believe it or not. I’m guessing because the nutrient levels are at nil.

The tank first saw water 111 days ago. I started with a large amount of Microbacter 7, and nitrogen cycle starter. The ugly stage began and I started running as fast as I could to beat everything. Added lots of trochus and turbo snails, different types of pods then the bacteria bandaid got ripped off. Microbacter Clean, and now Dr Tim’s Waste Away. Yesterday I started dumping large amounts of food and turned off the skimmer hoping to raise nutrients but haven’t seen any effect.

1. Does excess food raise Nitrates or is it just fish waste?
2. Is the ridiculous amount of bacteria that I’ve added keeping the tank too clean and boosting my ALK? If so, is there a way to lower the bacteria population?
3. Does Chaeto increase Alkalinity?

I’ve got the BRS 2-Part but I think I’m going to be switching to Kalkwasser since my calcium levels are so low. I can also bypass the CO2 Scrubber to lower PH to compensate for the Kalkwasser. I can also do some big water changes to lower the Alk.

I feel like I need to slow down, take a breath, and stop reacting by putting bandaids on hemorrhaging wounds.

PH 8.13-8.4
Alkalinity 11.0
Nitrates 0.0
Nitrites 0.0
Phosphates 0.7
Calcium 280 (slowly adding BRS Calcium Chloride to raise to 440ppm)

Any guidance is appreciated!

Billy
 

Lavey29

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Bacteria in the tank self regulate their population based on available source of nutrient food they require. So even if you way overdose bottle Bacteria only a certain amount will continue to thrive. Bacteria such as heterotrophic help break down organic waste before it becomes nitrates in your tank. Your main problem currently is that you have a large system but hardly any fish coupled with a bunch of corals that are absorbing any available nitrates in the tank. They are competing with the nuisance algae for nitrates and phosphate.
 

divewsharks

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You don't have much of a load in the tank. The fish waste will become nitrates eventually where there is enough of it (more than the tank an process). Do you have corals in the tank?
 

homer1475

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Bacteria in the tank self regulate their population based on available source of nutrient food they require. So even if you way overdose bottle Bacteria only a certain amount will continue to thrive. Bacteria such as heterotrophic help break down organic waste before it becomes nitrates in your tank. Your main problem currently is that you have a large system but hardly any fish coupled with a bunch of corals that are absorbing any available nitrates in the tank. They are competing with the nuisance algae for nitrates and phosphate.
This right here. ^^

Either up the bioload, or dose nitrates.

Your not producing enough waste for the there to be an excess you can measure.
 

taricha

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Is the ridiculous amount of bacteria that I’ve added keeping the tank too clean
Waste Away (and maybe other products also) contains a carbon source that gets consumed when added to the tank. It is very difficult to separate the effect of adding a lot of bacteria in bottles from adding a lot of organics in the bottles that can lead to bacterial growth.
So yes, NO3 drop would be expected from some bottle bac products.


So here's a demo of what WA (a carbon-rich media) does in terms of nutrient reduction and comparing that with a straight carbon source, vodka.

I started with a gallon of tank water, added Fritz F/2 media at half strength and half a salifert scoop of crushed fish flake then bubbled the result for a day or two to get the water nutrients semi-stable.

Starting nutrient level: 51ppm NO3, 2.61ppm PO4
I then split it into 3 bottles that I bubbled continuously in the dark. Control got nothing, 2nd got double recommended doses of Waste Away, and the 3rd bottle got vodka that was 1/6th of the WA (approximately carbon equivalent based on earlier O2 consumption measurements)

So here's what it looks like
Nutrients WasteAway.png

Stars indicate which days WA and Vodka were added.
The control became more Carbon Limited around day 5 and nutrient reduction slowed a lot.
The Waste Away and Vodka treatments behaved really similarly to each other
 

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