Help Nitrates at 80ppm

[slipknotgrrl83]

Do 75-80% WC and make sure parameters are close......

I wouldn't do that excessive IMO. Are the fish or corals showing any stress or discoloration (browning)?

 

[psirex]

Very little beneficial bacteria lives in the water column if any at all. As longs as the bacteria on the rocks and in the sand don't die off all is well. Just pure nutrient export....

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

Very little beneficial bacteria lives in the water column if any at all. As longs as the bacteria on the rocks and in the sand don't die off all is well. Just pure nutrient export....

Yes I understand that but that excessive of a water change could stress fish and corals.. just my opinion, everyone is different :)

 

[Bob Escher]

I agree use Red Sea NO3: PO4-X
Fantastic stuff

 

[BluewaterLa]

Larger water changes are the best way to cut down on high nitrates
Think of dilution plain and simple
Say 100 gallons of water test 20 ppm nitrate and you do a 10% water chance, this will only lower the nitrate level a small amount of the total.
If you change 50 gallons the. It will drop the nitrates by half.

Just be sure parameters like salinity, temperature and alkalinity match your tank water.
And as the same as other things like filter media removal for phosphate and nitrate, be careful not to drop it too quickly to very low levels so you don't shock the corals

Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / Mike

 

[alex.mccann99]

Maybe your feeding your clowns and corals too much food? Or you could do what I did, start Vodka dosing. I bought a BRS doser, stuck it on my APEX to dose for 1 minute every day. Doses around 1.5 ML of Vodka every day. I put the Vodka in a container with a plastic top to keep it from evaporating. Been running this way for about 6 months now, always have near Zero nitrates, No algae anywhere. I feed fish and corals Daily.

 

[AcroNem]

Since it's a non photosynthetic reef I'd say please don't cut back on feeding, but I'd definitely say there's a need for more nutrient control/export. My opinion is always water changes not dosing this or that, just makes too many variables where things can go wrong. That's just me though (:

 

[drawman]

What skimmer do you have and how does the foam head look? You may have an issue there...

As others have said I would consider water changes over carbon dosing in a tank that young. You want to get other things figured out first as far as nutrient export is concerned. If you do go that route, use it for maintenance of nitrates not reducing (use the water changes to get your numbers down) and do you research good luck!

 

[beaslbob]

In a 2 month old tank nitrates can actually be a sign of a healthy tank.

If your tank has algae (like corralling on the rock, or macros in a refugium) what may be happening is that algae is consuming any ammonia missed by bacteria for nitrogen. With the result of increased nitrates. Once the bacteria consume more of the ammonia, the algae will reluctantly be forced to consume nitrates for nitrogen. this is actually the stabilizing effect of algae and very beneficial to the tank.

If things are doing fine especially the corals, I would hesitate to change anything.

Now at 6-8 months nitrates can be reduced through anaerobic/anoxic bacteria (in sand).

So you get happy and relieved, nitrates are finally low. tank looks great. ETc Etc Etc.

then you get red cyano all over the sand and rocks.. Like in a week or two.

(psst kill the lights to let the cyano die off)

best tank ever.

my .02