How to lower nitrates in 125 gallon heavy bioload tank

[Porcupine Reefer]

Hello everyone I am new here, and I was wondering how I could lower nitrates successfully in a 125 gallon tank with a porcupine puffer and snowflake eel. Been dealing with 50ppm in nitrates for awhile now and I was trying different things to get them down with no luck. Been dosing pns pro bio and so far everything is fine, including my corals but not depletions in nitrates. Any suggestions?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hello everyone I am new here, and I was wondering how I could lower nitrates successfully in a 125 gallon tank with a porcupine puffer and snowflake eel. Been dealing with 50ppm in nitrates for awhile now and I was trying different things to get them down with no luck. Been dosing pns pro bio and so far everything is fine, including my corals but not depletions in nitrates. Any suggestions?

There are lots of good ways to reduce nitrate. My preferences are growing macroalgae, dosing organic carbon, and regular water changes. I used all of those.

This describes most methods:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION

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 performed water changes with nitrate reduction as one of the primary...

www.reefedition.com

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

how often do you do water changes?

 

[Pistondog]

Some do 10% weekly changes. More would lower quicker, but change the water chemistry more.
If you run a skimmer, maybe try carbon dosing, it does take some time to see results.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

I hear about that, but im not sure about it, what do you dose and how much?

 

[Pistondog]

I hear about that, but im not sure about it, what do you dose and how much?

Read Randys article posted above, section 9.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

how often do you do water changes?

I did water changes many times per day, amounting to 1% daily.

But there are better ways to control nutrients than water changes alone.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

What are the better ways?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What are the better ways?

Nearly all of them are detailed in the article I posted above.

 

[Icky Nicky]

Hello everyone I am new here, and I was wondering how I could lower nitrates successfully in a 125 gallon tank with a porcupine puffer and snowflake eel. Been dealing with 50ppm in nitrates for awhile now and I was trying different things to get them down with no luck. Been dosing pns pro bio and so far everything is fine, including my corals but not depletions in nitrates. Any suggestions?

I have 3 blue ribbon eels in my 70 gallon, I have some gsp, xenia, and some chaeto, hardly any algae growth

 

[BurgerFish]

Macro can reduce it to zero.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I hear about that, but im not sure about it, what do you dose and how much?

Try the organic carbon route, its a simple cheap way to start slow, and possibly feed your corals at the same time.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

I am definetly considering carbon dosing after I looked into it more and how it makes since, but does it take a long time to see results or is it fast acting? I was thinking about brightwells biofuel or Elimi-NP by Tropic Marin, any experience with these two?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I am definetly considering carbon dosing after I looked into it more and how it makes since, but does it take a long time to see results or is it fast acting? I was thinking about brightwells biofuel or Elimi-NP by Tropic Marin, any experience with these two?

I do use tropic marins line of carbon products which one depending on nutrient level, I also don't dose it on a schedule just a few times a month with some bacteria dosing along with the carbon. It seems to work for me, or doesn't hurt immediately

P.s I dose 2ml to my 120g of elimi-np and the water will get cloudy 2hrs later, so take it very slow with their carbon source, I think vinegar is a better cheaper carbon source to experiment with, but everything is worth looking into

 

[Dbichler]

I use 300ml vodka to 600ml vinegar and 150ml rodi mixed at 20ml/day for my 210 gallon tank and dose phosphate to keep my nitrates in control. You slowly ramp up from around 5ml/day until you see a decline in nitrates and cut dose in half. Adjust as needed. Randy’s article explains all. This is just what works for my tank.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

my phosphate is 0.5

my nitrate is 50


would I carbon dose daily until my nitrate is down to desired level, and when I do what would I do to maintain it.

 

[legionofdoon]

If you are handy look up Donovan's nitrate destroyer. It's a modified version of carbon dosing. Takes about a month to seed and get going but it will drop your nitrates as long as you build it correctly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I am definetly considering carbon dosing after I looked into it more and how it makes since, but does it take a long time to see results or is it fast acting? I was thinking about brightwells biofuel or Elimi-NP by Tropic Marin, any experience with these two?

It can be fairly fast or quite slow, depending on how much you dose and other aspects of the aquarium, but you do not typically want fast.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

my phosphate is 0.5

my nitrate is 50


would I carbon dose daily until my nitrate is down to desired level, and when I do what would I do to maintain it.

Organic carbon dosing is usually a long term practice, not a one and done. Folks often reduce the dose as they approach their target until the reach a dose and a stable a nitrate level they like.

The phosphate likely won't come down this way and other methods are likely needed. Growing macroalgae, GFO, etc.