High Nitrate Issue

[JCOLE]

I do. I posted pics of the ones that look not so good a few posts ago above. I also have hammer, frogspawn, Kenya tree, red montipora, GSP, fuzzy toadstool, rainbow traciphylia, and zoas that look ok.

Got it. Didnt see them earlier. I might have missed it but how old is the tank and what lights do you run?

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium

Introduction Nitrate is an ion that has long dogged aquarists. It is typically formed in aquaria through the digestion of foods, and in many aquaria it builds up and can be difficult to keep at natural levels. In the past, many aquarists...

www.reef2reef.com

Most of what you need to know about nitrates as written by a reliable source.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Got it. Didnt see them earlier. I might have missed it but how old is the tank and what lights do you run?

The tank was setup in mid July 2020, so it's 9 months old now. I have x3 165w ViparSpectra units mounted in the canopy about 8" from the waterline but I only use the blue channel on them and set each to 30%. I don't use the white channel at all on them because it was too much white. Instead, I also have a Fluval Marine LED 3.0 strip across the middle of the tank and set blue, cyan, pink, and purple to 100% and the white to 70% but it ramps up and down. Vipar blue lights start ramping up at 8am and peak at 9am til 7pm then ramp down and shut off at 8pm. The fluval strip starts ramping up at 9am and peaks at noon til 4pm and ramps down and shuts off at 7pm. If you're curious what my PAR is, I have no idea and no ability to test that. I am personal friends with the owners of my LFS and they evaluated my lighting and said it looks fine.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Looks like this guy also had the same problem.

High Nitrate - Low Phosphate

Good afternoon, First off, I am only leaving this here as a place for new and intermediate reefers to find some information. I by no means claim to be an expert but am only providing this "trial, error and success" steps that I took to solve a major problem that I do not see discussed very...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Rmckoy]

If you have 40ppm nitrates.
change even 50% water at known 0ppm the end result has to be 20ppm

but if your phosphates are in fact 0 knowing it’s likely not to be accurate as you’re using API test kits .

but .... if it is 0 there is no way to reduce nitrates other than dosing phosphates up to balance and above 0

there could be chemical ways to reduce nitrates .
but most typically reduce both nitrates and phosphates .

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

If you have 40ppm nitrates.
change even 50% water at known 0ppm the end result has to be 20ppm

but if your phosphates are in fact 0 knowing it’s likely not to be accurate as you’re using API test kits .

but .... if it is 0 there is no way to reduce nitrates other than dosing phosphates up to balance and above 0

there could be chemical ways to reduce nitrates .
but most typically reduce both nitrates and phosphates .

The problem with doing large water changes for me, as I stated earlier, is that the nitrates just shoot right back up the following day. They are expensive to keep doing when they don't even solve the issue.

I've ordered the Hannah ULR test kit. We'll see what it actually is but I can already tell based on how my corals are acting.

Yes, I've tried those chemicals and it bleached out my alveopora. It tanked my phosphate.

 

[Rmckoy]

Being only 40ppm
Which isn’t that bad as mentioned above there are some thriving systems with nitrates a lot higher .
Don’t chase numbers and go for Balanced and stability
If that’s where your system is stable .
I fear trying to lower them or doing anything such as carbon dosing , or media will bottom out both. Nutrients at 0 and cause another world of problems .
Speaking of natural , why not let all colours of light in compared to the dark blue .

 

[Guy714]

This might sound crazy but have you considered dosing phosphate? Do a quick search and you’ll find on this forum that someone tried dosing trisodium phosphate to raise the PO4. Good luck!

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Being only 40ppm
Which isn’t that bad as mentioned above there are some thriving systems with nitrates a lot higher .
Don’t chase numbers and go for Balanced and stability
If that’s where your system is stable .
I fear trying to lower them or doing anything such as carbon dosing , or media will bottom out both. Nutrients at 0 and cause another world of problems .
Speaking of natural , why not let all colours of light in compared to the dark blue .

I would let it sit there if it weren't for the fact that my corals constantly look awful. The fact is, phosphate is being consumed heavily by something, which is why the nitrate is so high and why carbon dosing and biopellets don't work for me. I have to figure out what is consuming it or else I'll just end up losing everything from deprivation of nutrients.

There are more colors than just blue being let in. The viparspectra units are only giving off blue, cyan, and some UV but the fluval marine led light strip is giving off blue, cyan, purple, pink, and white. Corals only need blues and some UV. Anything beyond that is really only for our eyes so the tank doesn't look like a bowling alley laser tag course.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

This might sound crazy but have you considered dosing phosphate? Do a quick search and you’ll find on this forum that someone tried dosing trisodium phosphate to raise the PO4. Good luck!

I have been for the past couple of weeks, per my posts earlier. I got Seachem Phosphorus and dosed the beginning recommended amount twice weekly. It made absolutely no difference, so I doubled it. Still nothing. So I started dosing twice the recommended amount daily. Still nothing so far. No detectable phosphate levels.

 

[Deep]

I have been for the past couple of weeks, per my posts earlier. I got Seachem Phosphorus and dosed the beginning recommended amount twice weekly. It made absolutely no difference, so I doubled it. Still nothing. So I started dosing twice the recommended amount daily. Still nothing so far. No detectable phosphate levels.

Your rocks and substrate are binding the phosphates, so you need to keep at the dosing till you get detectable levels in the water. And zero phosphates is why your nitrates are so high. So you need to first solve the phosphates problem.

 

[Rmckoy]

This might sound crazy but have you considered dosing phosphate? Do a quick search and you’ll find on this forum that someone tried dosing trisodium phosphate to raise the PO4. Good luck!

If phosphates are limited as many have commented above .
it has to be above 0 to lower nitrates .
If there is no phosphate reducing media being used. The only thing that makes sense is limited , faulty tests .or being suspended within something growing such as gha , macro etc .

 

[Rmckoy]

I have been for the past couple of weeks, per my posts earlier. I got Seachem Phosphorus and dosed the beginning recommended amount twice weekly. It made absolutely no difference, so I doubled it. Still nothing. So I started dosing twice the recommended amount daily. Still nothing so far. No detectable phosphate levels.

It won’t be noticeable right away .....
dose consistently the same time for a 5-7 days .
Test daily .

Using API test kits are not accurate enough to test this low ....

Phosphorus ULR Hanna works amazing .
convert from ppb to ppm using Hanna conversation chart

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Your rocks and substrate are binding the phosphates, so you need to keep at the dosing till you get detectable levels in the water. And zero phosphates is why your nitrates are so high. So you need to first solve the phosphates problem.

Completely agree. I got the Hannah ULR test kit coming, so I'll be able to monitor it. Then I'll dial in the proper dosage. What's about a good range nowadays for po4?

 

[Deep]

Completely agree. I got the Hannah ULR test kit coming, so I'll be able to monitor it. Then I'll dial in the proper dosage. What's about a good range nowadays for po4?

Aim for 0.1 and you should be good.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Aim for 0.1 and you should be good.

You got it. I'll try it out the next couple to few weeks and see what happens and then update if anything changes.

 

[Not an IT guy]

Also how much rock do you have?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Also how much rock do you have?

I'm not sure the exact weight but it's stacked 2/3 the way up the tank and has a lot of depth to it. It's definitely at least 150-200lbs. It's a combo of man made and limestone rock.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Hey all. I just got my Hannah ULR Phosphate Checker and the test is showing my po4 is at .73ppm. I guess it's not low po4 causing high no3. But then why are my biopellets not activated after 6 weeks and making a single dent in no3?

 

[Deep]

Hey all. I just got my Hannah ULR Phosphate Checker and the test is showing my po4 is at .73ppm. I guess it's not low po4 causing high no3. But then why are my biopellets not activated after 6 weeks and making a single dent in no3?

How is your skimmer doing ?Are you wet skimming when running pellets ?