High nitrates bare bottom tanks

[acarte9962]

Nitrates have been an issue from the start !! Did bare bottom since it was going to be frag tank only !!
ALK 9.4 dkh
MAG 1365
CAL 440
Nitrates 67
PHOS 0.06

I’ve removed filter socks replaced with filter floss I’ve tried dosing no pox water changes don’t even help maybe for a day.

I’m open for any suggestions please im exhausted dealing with this.

Heard maybe add a small box of sand to the sump.

Add more surface area such as bio blocks etc

Dose more microbactor7

HELP

 

[JTP424]

Do you have any biomedia in the tank at all?

 

[Science/G]

My bare bottom mixed reef at max in its early days was 30 ppm N03. Liverock or biomedia will help. A skimmer, algae scrubber, bio denitrification chamber and carbon dosing with bacterial additive are all legit practices to employ.

 

[acarte9962]

Do you have any biomedia in the tank at all?

Started with live, and dry rock only. Just last night I added a icecap media brick and some bio balls to my other system. Maybe just not enough surface area ?

 

[JTP424]

I think that depends on how much vs how large your system is. Sand will do minimal, not a lot of surface area.
What are you feeding/dosing? What test kits are you using?
As noted by @MrGisonni a skimmer might be useful as well.

 

[jackson6745]

I dropped a medium size ice cap algae scrubber in my sump and it made a big difference in a 300g system.

 

[acarte9962]

I think that depends on how much vs how large your system is. Sand will do minimal, not a lot of surface area.
What are you feeding/dosing? What test kits are you using?
As noted by @MrGisonni a skimmer might be useful as well.

All my systems have a protein skimmer the larger system also has a Chaeto reactor as well. I’ve never in over 14 years if reefer have had this issue but those systems all had sand only difference

 

[Dan_P]

Nitrates have been an issue from the start !! Did bare bottom since it was going to be frag tank only !!
ALK 9.4 dkh
MAG 1365
CAL 440
Nitrates 67
PHOS 0.06

I’ve removed filter socks replaced with filter floss I’ve tried dosing no pox water changes don’t even help maybe for a day.

I’m open for any suggestions please im exhausted dealing with this.

Heard maybe add a small box of sand to the sump.

Add more surface area such as bio blocks etc

Dose more microbactor7

HELP

You don’t need bottled bacteria or bio blocks. Your aquarium is doing what it is suppose to do, convert ammonia into nitrate. If this is a frag tank where is all the ammonia coming from? What are you dosing? Or are there fish in it?

 

[acarte9962]

You don’t need bottled bacteria or bio blocks. Your aquarium is doing what it is suppose to do, convert ammonia into nitrate. If this is a frag tank where is all the ammonia coming from? What are you dosing? Or are there fish in it?

It’s a 80 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump 2 tangs 3 clowns, 1 6 Line / only dosing alk mag and cal at the moment

 

[acarte9962]

Just watched a video I did use some rock from a prvs set up heard the nitrates can leach out the only other thing I can think of

 

[Merge_595]

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/nano...LfDnBtgZaMlcr6TijKXC0z8lQlUbJNhBoCnf0QAvD_BwE& the biggest skimmer that'll fit