Do AIOs strip nitrate out of the water too much?

Ocean’s Piece

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So my LFS owner told me today that AIOs tend to strip nitrates out of the water to the point where it’s too much even. I have been having a nitrate issue since forever (been 9 months since day 1) and it has never gone above 0 except after the cycle. Im skeptical that it’s the AIO that gets rid of these nitrates too efficiently and more of a filtration thing but it makes sense. Do a lot of you AIO owners agree with this too?
 

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So my LFS owner told me today that AIOs tend to strip nitrates out of the water to the point where it’s too much even. I have been having a nitrate issue since forever (been 9 months since day 1) and it has never gone above 0 except after the cycle. Im skeptical that it’s the AIO that gets rid of these nitrates too efficiently and more of a filtration thing but it makes sense. Do a lot of you AIO owners agree with this too?
Odds are you are not feeding nearly enough food to your fish. With that being said I would be careful about listening to that store anymore because they Are wrong aio has nothing to do with nitrates being removed to much. It has to do with the filtration
 

jhuntstl

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Nothing to do with it being an AIO and all about your filtration. People often do run a lot of media in AIO filtration chambers. You've got 3 or 4 rows so you might as well run GFO, carbon, purigen, and a poly pad. That's an exaggeration(kind of), but maaaaaybe that's what the LFS owner meant.
 

saltybees

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Has nothing to do with the tank being an aio, it has to do with the filtration that’s being utilized ie; chemipure/skimmers/macro algae/etc..also if there’s an abundance of algae in the tank nitrates will be stripped by it.
 

jgirardnrg

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I have 2 tanks with drop in AIO kits on them (40 breeder and a 20 long). I use those for frag tanks right now and have to run a small skimmer to keep the NO3 under 10.

Tell us more about your setup and what you've got running for filtration.
 

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It’s what is added into the chambers of an AIO that helps strip nutrients. AIO is just compact filtration system built into the display and does nothing more that circulate water through different chambers in and out of display.
 
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Ocean’s Piece

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I would have said the opposite. Most AIO’s can’t fit a good working skimmer since they don’t have a sump and run higher nitrates. That’s just my experience with the biocube. Maybe others have different experiences.
I got a coralife protein skimmer in there and despite what people say, the v2 is an absolute tank.
Odds are you are not feeding nearly enough food to your fish. With that being said I would be careful about listening to that store anymore because they Are wrong aio has nothing to do with nitrates being removed to much. It has to do with the filtration
I feed too much. I just checked today and I have .26 phosphates. Now granted, that was right before a water change but still a little too much. 0 nitrate. Haven’t dosed anything because no problems have arisen from it and corals grow fine.
Nothing to do with it being an AIO and all about your filtration. People often do run a lot of media in AIO filtration chambers. You've got 3 or 4 rows so you might as well run GFO, carbon, purigen, and a poly pad. That's an exaggeration(kind of), but maaaaaybe that's what the LFS owner meant.
maybe so. I only have some polyfil, chemi pure blue, and some excess live rock.
 
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Ocean’s Piece

Ocean’s Piece

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I have 2 tanks with drop in AIO kits on them (40 breeder and a 20 long). I use those for frag tanks right now and have to run a small skimmer to keep the NO3 under 10.

Tell us more about your setup and what you've got running for filtration.
Coralife V2 Protein skimmer
Polyfil as mechanical filtration
Chemi pure blue
Extra Live rock
 

ahiggins

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Have you tried actually dosing nitrates? I have to dose NO3 from time to time in the frag tanks.
I have to do this every so often as well. I didn’t do a water change for about 6 months in the nem tank and I’m still under 5 ppm.
 

Brody’s Reef

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If your Phosphates are higher but nitrates are still zero it could have something to do with the food you're feeding. What are you feeding and are you adding any extra coral foods? May not be the case but I know reef roids and some other foods tend to raise phosphates a lot.

Also, I would second what others have said. It has nothing to do with it being an AIO it's just about the filtration vs. bio load
 
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Ocean’s Piece

Ocean’s Piece

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If your Phosphates are higher but nitrates are still zero it could have something to do with the food you're feeding. What are you feeding and are you adding any extra coral foods? May not be the case but I know reef roids and some other foods tend to raise phosphates a lot.

Also, I would second what others have said. It has nothing to do with it being an AIO it's just about the filtration vs. bio load
Ocean nutrition flakes. No coral food.
 

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