Dropping nitrates

[Mz. Fix It]

Ok, so I have had freshwater aquariums for a few years and on those occasions where I get behind on my weekly WC's and my nitrates rise I always know that I can do 2 or 3 WC's over a 24 to 48 hour span to get my nitrates back down. However, I am heading into year 2 on my saltwater tank and have read that WC's won't bring down nitrates like it does in freshwater. My nitrates have hovered at 20 for the past few months and I have tried to bring them down by using RedSea NoPox stuff, still at 20 after daily doses for a few weeks. My LFS said the whole nitrates not being lowered by way of WC's is not true. So for the past week I have done daily WC's of 25 percent each day. Nitrates still testing at 20. At this point I'm stumped. I have barely fed my fish and corals this week (2 small feeds in 8 days) in the hope that it would help in bringing nitrates down while I have been doing my daily large WC's but that hasn't helped apparently. These daily WC's are laborious but I'm willing to keep up the good fight IF it will begin to bring my nitrates down at some point. One side note, I had 2 engineer gobys that were "tearing the house down" so to speak so I rehomed them yesterday. Perhaps their continual turning/sifting of the sand daily was keeping the nitrate level up? I will continue with these daily WC's for another week or so now that the bulldozers are out of the tank and maybe I will be successful at some point in bringing my nitrate level down. I have sent off 2 Triton tests over the past 4 months and both have come back stating my tank numbers are spot on except I need to lower the nitrates some more.

So, at this point I'm curious to know/find more information on the daily large water changes...are they in vain? Is it true that on a saltwater tank WC's do not help in lowering the nitrates? If it is true, why would it be so remarkably different than freshwater tanks? Things that make you go hmmmmm.

 

[Pistondog]

Ok, so I have had freshwater aquariums for a few years and on those occasions where I get behind on my weekly WC's and my nitrates rise I always know that I can do 2 or 3 WC's over a 24 to 48 hour span to get my nitrates back down. However, I am heading into year 2 on my saltwater tank and have read that WC's won't bring down nitrates like it does in freshwater. My nitrates have hovered at 20 for the past few months and I have tried to bring them down by using RedSea NoPox stuff, still at 20 after daily doses for a few weeks. My LFS said the whole nitrates not being lowered by way of WC's is not true. So for the past week I have done daily WC's of 25 percent each day. Nitrates still testing at 20. At this point I'm stumped. I have barely fed my fish and corals this week (2 small feeds in 8 days) in the hope that it would help in bringing nitrates down while I have been doing my daily large WC's but that hasn't helped apparently. These daily WC's are laborious but I'm willing to keep up the good fight IF it will begin to bring my nitrates down at some point. One side note, I had 2 engineer gobys that were "tearing the house down" so to speak so I rehomed them yesterday. Perhaps their continual turning/sifting of the sand daily was keeping the nitrate level up? I will continue with these daily WC's for another week or so now that the bulldozers are out of the tank and maybe I will be successful at some point in bringing my nitrate level down. I have sent off 2 Triton tests over the past 4 months and both have come back stating my tank numbers are spot on except I need to lower the nitrates some more.

So, at this point I'm curious to know/find more information on the daily large water changes...are they in vain? Is it true that on a saltwater tank WC's do not help in lowering the nitrates? If it is true, why would it be so remarkably different than freshwater tanks? Things that make you go hmmmmm.

Fresh and saltwater water changes are simple dilution and work the same for nitrate.
The amount of nitrate reduction is linear, if you replace 25% of your water, you dilute the nitrate to 75% of original.
For example, 20ppm before 25% wc = 15ppm after.
The fish food, fish crap, and filter leaching immediately start to add.

 

[Mz. Fix It]

Fresh and saltwater water changes are simple dilution and work the same for nitrate.
The amount of nitrate reduction is linear, if you replace 25% of your water, you dilute the nitrate to 75% of original.
For example, 20ppm before 25% wc = 15ppm after.
The fish food, fish crap, and filter leaching immediately start to add.

I have been watching videos and reading everything I can and have come upon biopellet reactors. I already use GFO & carbon reactors and my phos is really low & stays that way consistently around .01 to .02. However, I have read a lot of negatives on biopellet reactors causing more issues than they help. Upon researching that more I watched some of Melev's Reef videos and he said something that I had not read anywhere else....he said when using a biopellet reactor you MUST add some sort of bacteria every week to keep the pellets working per say. On the different seller sites they talk about initial use of bacteria to get the pellets seeded but I haven't read, other than Melev's Reef, that this is a weekly chore that goes along with biopellet use. He does say it keeps the nitrates really low....as long as you add that bacteria weekly and keep the reactor from plugging up. He talks about the reactor getting stagnant if not cleared out every day or two then you must dump those pellets and start over.

Any advice regarding pellet reactor?

At this point, at least for the foreseeable future, I plan to continue my daily WC's (sighhhh) and keep daily dosing Nopox....at least for now to see if I can gradually lower nitrates, keep phos low and see how things can improve.

One of the things that I also picked up on when watching Melev's videos is the clearer the tank gets from removing all of this sludge/nitrates/phos the more one should turn their lights down to keep from burning corals. That never occurred to me and I just assumed the elevated nitrates was the leading factor in my corals dying off slowly one at a time. I've lost nearly $2,000 in corals over the past 4 months and it has truly left me scratching my head especially since my water tests have been near perfect short of the 20ppm nitrates.

People used to tell me a saltwater aquarium is as easy as a freshwater, only more expensive. They lied! LOL

 

[Pistondog]

a lot of us run refugiums to use up nutrients and grow chaeto.
Chaeto rectors are also popular.
I use a refugium, and have dosed carbon with success.
For clear water, use gac or ozone or both. The ozone breaks down the yellowing compounds.

 

[Mz. Fix It]

I do have a well established refugium and I am constantly having to remove ever growing chaeto. I have not heard of gac or ozone so I'll research that as well. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Pistondog]

I do have a well established refugium and I am constantly having to remove ever growing chaeto. I have not heard of gac or ozone so I'll research that as well. Thanks for the advice!

Gac can be added in a bag, but works best in a reactor, which is a 1 quart tank pushing tank water through the activated carbon. Can sit in sump.
Ozone is trickier and more money.
Brs sells rox, which is a good gac.

 

[Mz. Fix It]

a lot of us run refugiums to use up nutrients and grow chaeto.
Chaeto rectors are also popular.
I use a refugium, and have dosed carbon with success.
For clear water, use gac or ozone or both. The ozone breaks down the yellowing compounds.

Ok. It appears I don't clearly know all the lingo cause I do run carbon in 1 of my reactors from BRS. So now let me see if I understand what this ozone is all about. I have so many gadgets and gizmos on this tank I may already be doing that one as well...LOL. I wouldn't be so perplexed at this point if my water tests lead me in one direction or the other but the last two test to Triton have consistently shown perfect parameters but just a bit higher on nitrates than they like to see. That's the main reason why I've been zeroing in on tackling the nitrates and getting them below 20. It's a daunting task but one day at a time.

 

[Mz. Fix It]

Gac can be added in a bag, but works best in a reactor, which is a 1 quart tank pushing tank water through the activated carbon. Can sit in sump.
Ozone is trickier and more money.
Brs sells rox, which is a good gac.

Yes, I have definitely relied on BRS products and use their rox exclusively.