My nitrates were consistently around 11-12ppm; they wouldn‘t come down!
I tried almost everything under the sun: vodka, vinegar, glucose, and a mixture of the 3. I would dose pretty high at times, but nitrates wouldn’t budge. Yes, I did try reducing my feedings.
In addition to carbon dosing, I also managed to change 15% of my water once a week religiously. I noticed a little-to-no difference in my nitrate levels after these water changes.
I predominantly use the Hannah HR Nitrate kit, but I also cross-checked with the Red Sea Nitrate Pro Kit, which was much above the 4ppm max reading of that kit.
Today I thought maybe I was having nitrites interfere with my test kits. I went to my LFS, which has this API SpinMaster kit, and I got this reading:
Nitrite at 0.1ppm.
I purchased a 32oz bottle of Fritz 9 (treats 80 gallons) and dumped the whole bottle in my 260-gallon tank.
I tested my nitrates a few hours later, and it was 4.1ppm!
It may be even lower tomorrow when the bacteria propagate to the ammonia and nitrite demand.
I don’t have a theory as to why my nitrites and ammonia are 0.1ppm, but I can now understand why some folks see a reduction in nitrates when dosing Microbacter 7: perhaps they may also have a little nitrite?
Edit 1/24/23 : it most likely wasn’t nitrites. I just had to feed less and dose more carbon.
I tried almost everything under the sun: vodka, vinegar, glucose, and a mixture of the 3. I would dose pretty high at times, but nitrates wouldn’t budge. Yes, I did try reducing my feedings.
In addition to carbon dosing, I also managed to change 15% of my water once a week religiously. I noticed a little-to-no difference in my nitrate levels after these water changes.
I predominantly use the Hannah HR Nitrate kit, but I also cross-checked with the Red Sea Nitrate Pro Kit, which was much above the 4ppm max reading of that kit.
Today I thought maybe I was having nitrites interfere with my test kits. I went to my LFS, which has this API SpinMaster kit, and I got this reading:
Nitrite at 0.1ppm.
I purchased a 32oz bottle of Fritz 9 (treats 80 gallons) and dumped the whole bottle in my 260-gallon tank.
I tested my nitrates a few hours later, and it was 4.1ppm!
It may be even lower tomorrow when the bacteria propagate to the ammonia and nitrite demand.
I don’t have a theory as to why my nitrites and ammonia are 0.1ppm, but I can now understand why some folks see a reduction in nitrates when dosing Microbacter 7: perhaps they may also have a little nitrite?
Edit 1/24/23 : it most likely wasn’t nitrites. I just had to feed less and dose more carbon.
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