Cant get high nitrates down

[Darth.Daddy12]

Yea i know but im saying dont hold it up against the card it drasticly changes the color

That’s what you’re supposed to due lol. You can’t fault a test when you don’t follow the directions lol. I’ve been keeping fish for over 10 years and I use api testing for most things 90% of the time. I also own 2 other full testing kits and I’ve never once had any variation in testing results between any of them.

If you want to get detailed then Hanna po4, and get a digital salinity, ph and temperatures meter all in one. Outside that it’s all the same only different is how much time it takes to do the test and the cost of the test.

As far as time is concerned... Api beat the **** out of everyone else.. that’s why mid level people crap on api and expert reefers use api for several things still.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Snake oil to react to an issue instead of addressing it. I’ve spent years doing all of this. In fact last weekend broke down my denitrification reactor on my 125g freshwater growlit tank to turn it into turf scrubber reactor cause in freshwater there is nothing but hair algae as a remedy. In salt there are so many easier solutions. Like a good fuge.

Same issues apply to both. If you have corse sand bed you’ll always be fighting this battle. You’ll not find anyone with fine sand or bare bottom tanks over a year old dealing with nitrates after doing water changes still. You can buy enough extra equipment and maintain the issue but the issue is still there. I have a 10h nano I recently setup for my 2yo sons room. It runs an aq70 concerted to fuge with a $15 Chinese grow light and I’m too lazy to cut frozen cubes up so feed a full cube (enough for a 75g decently stocked) every day with 2” oolight sand and never go over 5ppm nitrates. This is a 10g with 6 fish snails hermits and a full gown adult blood shrimp! A scooter blenny, two clowns, two Green chromis, and a tang as I’m using it as a quarantine since it new.. there is no reason for anything else other then some crushed coral in the bottom of the filter so the pods have a place to grow.

Snake oil ****... You have no idea what youre talking about saying this. Ive used the same denitrate rocks for about 3 years... it never (exhausts) if you prefilter and occasionally stir or shake them to get the detrious out.

It lowered nitrates in my 55g and 135g. My 55g was only 2 months old i had to constantly do water changes every week to keep up with nitrates. Once i added this i never had to do water changes again. My nitrates were 40ppm when i started after i hooked it up in 2-3 weeks they dropped to 5 and stayed that way until i broke the tank down..

This is no different then people adding algae and plants to lower nitrates in a refugium. No different then a sump packed with rock. Its just a different WAY of doing it

Youre telling me a refugium is easier then a denitrate reactor lol since when.. I have 1 little 2 inch pump a few houses and a ghetto zip tie container.. Thats it. A refugium requires ALOT of work to setup. And if you have no predrilled tank like me youd have to setup alot of pvc tubing properly to setup a sump and convert it to a refugium

If your reactor didnt work you clearly didnt do it properly like having proper flow or enough denitrate. I found once flow got over 35gph it didnt work very well

Its been proven to work and its easy to do and ive used the same homemade canister.reactor for my discus fresh and salt water reef tanks.

Sorry to be rude but i really hated your snake oil comment.. tf you talkin about

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

Nitrates aren’t important all your want to know is if there is some and if it’s low or high.. nothing beats api for that.. period

Add edit.. looks great for a display tank with a plastic bottle sitting on top of the tank too.. I’m sure everyone’s decide isn’t complete wo one.. I understand your viewpoint cause it balances issues you are creating through time and money. I think your time is better server fixing the route problem instead of trying to fix it.

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

Snake oil ****... You have no idea what youre talking about saying this. Ive used the same denitrate rocks for about 3 years... it never (exhausts) if you prefilter and occasionally stir or shake them to get the detrious out.

It lowered nitrates in my 55g and 135g. My 55g was only 2 months old i had to constantly do water changes every week to keep up with nitrates. Once i added this i never had to do water changes again. My nitrates were 40ppm when i started after i hooked it up in 2-3 weeks they dropped to 5 and stayed that way until i broke the tank down..

This is no different then people adding algae and plants to lower nitrates in a refugium. No different then a sump packed with rock. Its just a different WAY of doing it

Youre telling me a refugium is easier then a denitrate reactor lol since when.. I have 1 little 2 inch pump a few houses and a ghetto zip tie container.. Thats it. A refugium requires ALOT of work to setup. And if you have no predrilled tank like me youd have to setup alot of pvc tubing properly to setup a sump and convert it to a refugium

If your reactor didnt work you clearly didnt do it properly like having proper flow or enough denitrate. I found once flow got over 35gph it didnt work very well

Its been proven to work and its easy to do and ive used the same homemade canister.reactor for my discus fresh and salt water reef tanks.

Sorry to be rude but i really hated your snake oil comment.. tf you talkin about

You missed the entire point.. only. Read 3 lines tbh.. but that way all I needed.. never said it doesn’t work just said it is additional costs not needed..

 

[Sailfinguy21]

That’s what you’re supposed to due lol. You can’t fault a test when you don’t follow the directions lol. I’ve been keeping fish for over 10 years and I use api testing for most things 90% of the time. I also own 2 other full testing kits and I’ve never once had any variation in testing results between any of them.

If you want to get detailed then Hanna po4, and get a digital salinity, ph and temperatures meter all in one. Outside that it’s all the same only different is how much time it takes to do the test and the cost of the test.

As far as time is concerned... Api beat the **** out of everyone else.. that’s why mid level people crap on api and expert reefers use api for several things still.

Here we go the ive been doing it 10 years or whatever years comment (rolleyes).

Doing it xx long doesnt make it right.. ive been doing fish keeping for 25 years whats the point on years? Show me some proof where api says you have to hold it right against the card.

Hold it away from the card. If you hold it against the card, the shadow from the tube influences your perception of the color. Youve been doing it wrong for years..

DROP MIC........ Lol ive said my peice take it or leave it. But youre doing it wrong. It has to be held away not against it

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

The main thing that would suck about changing or removing the sand is the fact I have so many baby nassarius snails it's insane. I dont want to kill them or have to dig them out and find them one by one. I'm wishing I went bare bottom but not sure if I can make that look good.
Is there an efficient way to remove sand anyway without causing a nutrience bomb to go off in the tank?

 

[Amboss72]

Cai

Cause water changes don’t solve the problem. It’s like licking up the glass after you dropped a plate. It’s reactive not proactive.

Well I agree to disagree. How can you suggest that a water change isn’t proactive? The word proactive alone suggests action. The method of water change I mentioned is absolutely proactive and absolutely will drop the nitrates in a tank. If you’ve got ongoing nitrate issues than that’s rather uncomplicated too. Look into what’s contributing to your nitrate problem. Look we can make this issue complicated or we can make it simple. If you need to drop your nitrates quickly, then get dirty water out and clean water in. It will drop nitrates particularly if you follow what I’ve suggested. If nitrates are an ongoing issue look into the many different ways to reduce them. Make this as complicated as you’d like. I’m open to many suggestions but to say water changes are not proactive is to not understand the word proactive. Shoot if water changes aren’t proactive then why are any of us going through the hassle of even doing them. No pun intended...

 

[Sailfinguy21]

You missed the entire point.. only. Read 3 lines tbh.. but that way all I needed.. never said it doesn’t work just said it is additional costs not needed..

What addiontal costs.. a 5$ zip tie container. Some 50 cent barbs.. 10$ tube of silicone 3 feet of 20 cent tubing.. and a 3 liter container of denitrate for what 20$.. Oh and the pump which was 25$

Vs a refugium.. how much is the light ? The light bulbs. The pcv piping. The pump. The tank. The algae or (media per say)

Its wayyy cheaper using this... and it can be moved from tank to tank easily..

Just saying..

No point in arguing anymore. You have your idea i have mine.. Cant convince two stubborn fools( you and me) to change their minds, its like politics

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

This has turned pretty heated :O

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

You missed the entire point.. only. Read 3 lines tbh.. but that way all I needed.. never said it doesn’t work just said it is additional costs not needed..

I’ll go one further into math.. denitrate by own recommendation from maker.. needs to be under 50gph flow to Belgian working. As someone who’s spoken to them they recomend 20-30gph flow. That’s easy on a small tank but when it’s laeger you’re filtering kit Lenny’s per dollar of input. Losing battle.

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

What addiontal costs.. a 5$ zip tie container. Some 50 cent barbs.. 10$ tube of silicone 3 feet of 20 cent tubing.. and a 3 liter container of denitrate for what 20$.. Oh and the pump which was 25$

Vs a refugium.. how much is the light ? The light bulbs. The pcv piping. The pump. The tank. The algae or (media per say)

Its wayyy cheaper using this... and it can be moved from tank to tank easily..

Just saying..

No point in arguing anymore. You have your idea i have mine.. Cant convince two stubborn fools( you and me) to change their minds, its like politics

Yup I want that in my living room?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

My point being is I’m not going to say all this with wo providing proof. Anyone can say they did this or that. But where’s the picture of the results. Wish this tank was more mature so it would look more appealing to most hit at a month with just enough rock algea for inverts to feed on corralline algae growing, no diatoms other then few minor spots on glass,and given the sticking is super high for size and feedings way over done.. I think it speaks for iteself. Nothing to hide here.. I’ll post more pics and testing results to back everything I believe in..

To those using diy neditrators and thinking water changes are a bore am way to fix everything.. stay tuned.. and FYI.. water changes are to replace nutrients used up in the ta k not to remove the ones building up in it..

Water changes do both actually. But keeping nitrates under control will lessen the problem this guy is having.

This is why i can stock the crap outa my 8 tanks and feed buckets of food and never have a nitrate issue. But hey i mean keep up what youre doing its working.. but so is my way.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I’ll go one further into math.. denitrate by own recommendation from maker.. needs to be under 50gph flow to Belgian working. As someone who’s spoken to them they recomend 20-30gph flow. That’s easy on a small tank but when it’s laeger you’re filtering kit Lenny’s per dollar of input. Losing battle.

True.. and youre right. Smaller tanks it works easier on but 20-30 gph .mine is at 26gph and i mentioned i nkticed over 30 or 35 it doesnt work. but if you have multiple units on a larger tank youre increasing the capacity and water flowing through.


So if 1 3 liter container kept my 55g in check.. it probly wont work for say my 135g tank.. but if you have TWO SEPERATE 3 liter containers running seperetly from eachother with two seperate pumps at say 26gph like i do. Then you are adding double to the denitrifying ability. It wont work if you add a 2nd container to the single pump you need two pumps.

think about it. One can handle 55g. Two can handle 110g theoreticly. Make sense ?

When i moved it to my 135g i noticed nitrates CREPT UP SLOWER but still crept up.. once i added the 2nd unit the nitrates went down and hold stable at 10

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

Water changes do both actually. But keeping nitrates under control will lessen the problem this guy is having.

This is why i can stock the crap outa my 8 tanks and feed buckets of food and never have a nitrate issue. But hey i mean keep up what youre doing its working.. but so is my way.

Maybe.. except I don’t have to change my water to maintain higher levels nore am I advising him to go spend more money on other equipment. Show me one precessional or reputable person using this on tanks? No one is. They run fine sand or bare bottom high flow and a fuge.

Outside that they may be old school and running zeovit. You took a YouTube fad for a week and made it work.. I’m glad however that doesn’t make it a steady cost sktant solution for others. Especially those not wanting to have used plastic bottles sitting on top of Thier tanks.. oh thays a nice tank but what’s with that old water bottle on top? Lol

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

True.. and youre right. Smaller tanks it works easier on but 20-30 gph .mine is at 26gph and i mentioned i nkticed over 30 or 35 it doesnt work. but if you have multiple units on a larger tank youre increasing the capacity and water flowing through.


So if 1 3 liter container kept my 55g in check.. it probly wont work for zay my 135g tank.. but if you have TWO 3 liter containers running seperetly from eachother with two seperate pumps at say 26gph like i do.

Then think about. One can handle 55g. Two csn handle 110g theoreticly. Make sense ?

When i moved it to my 135g i noticed nitrates CREPT UP SLOWER but still crept up.. once i added the 2nd unit the nitrates went down and hold stable at 10

So now you’re advice is to setup multiple systems? Take a step back and listen to your own advice..

Setup one fuge or... 3 plastic bottle filters that require me to buy additional pumps and media? I’m done having this discussion as it’s starting the thread way off topic. If you like start one ablut denitators and lets continue elsewhere as I’m sure others like myself have got that T-shirt already. I won’t respond any further to this as this is not about this.

 

[Amboss72]

Again, I like the various approaches people are taking to accomplish the means of lowering nitrates. Why argue with anyone who has found a satisfactory way for them to lower nitrates. Isn’t a forum a place for us to share our ideas? I’ll maintain that I know I don’t know. This leaves me open to everyone’s experiences and from there I’ll decipher if I’ve tried that method and it’s worked for me or not. I’m not here to criticize anyone. I simply appreciate everyone’s input and view it as a contribution for all of us. As best I can tell Mother Nature is still what we’re all chasing. Observation is paramount!

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Yup I want that in my living room?

Put it under the tank ? I only have mine on top of the glass because im too lazy and i want easier access to clean it.. My 135g ank is in my bedroom btw. I could careless if i have a little container on the corner of my tank.

Next ?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

So now you’re advice is to setup multiple systems? Take a step back and listen to your own advice..

Took a step back... nope not seeing youre point.

From the beggining i said i had two.

Go ahead quote my post.. mark in bold where i said THERE ARE 2 IN THIS PIC one was just behind the other.

Next...

 

[Amboss72]

I’m very interested in the notion that water changes aren’t for the purpose of removing nutrients from the tank but only for the purpose of adding nutrients to the tank. Expand please...

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

I’ll pm you on the morning when I can put light on setup showing how the filter works as well as testing results. This thread has been slightly high jacked and partly my fault. My apologies.