In the quest to lower nitrates - how often can you perform water changes?

[jkobel]

I'm having a hard time lowering nitrates, and I'm curious if I had two batches of water made (25 gals each), can I do two 25 gal WCs back to back?

Or is it better to do one 50 gal WC?

For some reason, the 50 gal WC makes me nervous lol

the DT is about 135 gal

 

[Slocke]

50 gallon would be more effective but also more of a shock to your stock if the parameters of the water change are off from your tank parameters.

If my math is right and your tank actually did hold 135gallons of water (so not including displacement of sand and rocks). Two 25 gallon water changes would be equivalent to a single 41.5 gallon water change.

 

[twentyleagues]

You could probably do either honestly. But 2-25g changes would be less of a "shock" like @Slocke said. You could do daily 25g water changes if you want to. Just make sure the new water and old water are same sg and alk( or not to far off).

 

[landlubber]

if you think about it, its always going to be better to do one big one than 2 smaller changes as a fraction of your nsw is going to end up in the pail you're dumping.

 

[officialreefbros]

Following along. I've had high nitrates in my 25 basically from the start with doing water changes weekly. I lowered my feeding and carbon dosed w/ phosphate dosing. That finally brought then down. But due to a light change I lost room for the skimmer and stopped the carbon dosing and now they are high again. In short you can try carbon dosing!

 

[Garf]

I'm having a hard time lowering nitrates, and I'm curious if I had two batches of water made (25 gals each), can I do two 25 gal WCs back to back?

Or is it better to do one 50 gal WC?

For some reason, the 50 gal WC makes me nervous lol

the DT is about 135 gal

Following along. I've had high nitrates in my 25 basically from the start with doing water changes weekly. I lowered my feeding and carbon dosed w/ phosphate dosing. That finally brought then down. But due to a light change I lost room for the skimmer and stopped the carbon dosing and now they are high again. In short you can try carbon dosing!

Out of interest, what are you folk considering "High"?

 

[danlechem]

If you can sort the plumbing getting an auto water change (mines Kamoer) to change water throughout the day is a game changer. My nitrates consistently between 2 and 5 with heavily stocked and fed tank and I only need to mix water once every two months.

 

[bubbgee]

I use Nyos zeo, protein skimmer, filter socks and macro algae in the sump. My nitrates went as high as 40 when I decreased my refugium light schedule so I adjust that accordingly if it gets too high. GFO reactor is turned on when the phosphate is way too high.

Monitored daily with Trident NP.

As someone who battled Nitrates and Phosphates for years with water changes, this is the solution that actually worked for me.

 

[bubbgee]

Out of interest, what are you folk considering "High"?

You're going to get hundreds of answers for this one lol. And don't get me started with SPS nutrient ranges.

 

[officialreefbros]

Out of interest, what are you folk considering "High"?

Lol fair. 50 for that tank for me but I start calling it high past 20

 

[FUNGI]

In response to your title, you can perform constant (every second, every minute, every hour) wc's if you wanted.
but thats not practical.
IMO, smaller consistant WC's are better then one large one. If I had the time, I would go back to weekly WC's, but my schedule no longer affords this.

I have a 125G. Pre my current dosing (NoPox), I did 10% every week, then dropped it to every other week and now, I do 25% every 6/7 months. I do run a mixed reef, so my tank is a little dirty anyway.....
Running: 10~ 12ppm NO3 / 0.8~1.0 PO4

No algae issues. Corals are happy.

 

[Red_Beard]

Like said above, just make sure your temp matches, ALK/CAL is close and a 50 gallon WC will be fine.

Ooooor, DIY NoPox is a game changer for nitrates. Some cheap vodka, distilled white vinegar and a touch of RO. I was micro dosing that (4ml/day) from a kamoer dosing pump when i had high (75ppm) nitrates and over the course of a few months they bottomed out (no water changes during that time). I am still playing catch up with nitrates now. I also have many more nitrate exporters in form of corals and nems now though too, but i have to dose ammonia every day just to keep up. i am still only running at <1 ppm nitrate. And, now i am using that dosing pump for AFR, so win/win.

 

[FUNGI]

Like said above, just make sure your temp matches, ALK/CAL is close and a 50 gallon WC will be fine.

Ooooor, DIY NoPox is a game changer for nitrates. Some cheap vodka, distilled white vinegar and a touch of RO. I was micro dosing that (4ml/day) from a kamoer dosing pump when i had high (75ppm) nitrates and over the course of a few months they bottomed out (no water changes during that time). I am still playing catch up with nitrates now. I also have many more nitrate exporters in form of corals and nems now though too, but i have to dose ammonia every day just to keep up. i am still only running at <1 ppm nitrate. And, now i am using that dosing pump for AFR, so win/win.

Some cheap vodka, distilled white vinegar and a touch of RO.
Can you share recipe pls:

 

[Garf]

Some cheap vodka, distilled white vinegar and a touch of RO.
Can you share recipe pls:

This must be the diet version. The full fat version included sugar, lol.

 

[FUNGI]

This must be the diet version. The full fat version included sugar, lol.

Some many versions available.....with some including methanol...

 

[bakbay]

I've switched from vinegar to vodka, super easy!

NEW Vodka and Vinegar Dosing Charts

The reasons I'm updating the Vinegar and Vodka dosing charts are two-fold: 1. The ramp was unnecessarily slow. There was no perceived benefit to such a tedious ramp, and it led to reefers quitting because they thought carbon dosing didn't work. 2. The ramp did not scale up correctly...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[GARRIGA]

Carbon dosing is effective and less intrusive to parameter changes. Start at half recommended and adjust gradually until desired level obtained then dose appropriately daily from there. How I've managed nitrates once I discovered carbon was a remedy.

Used NoPox for simplicity but lots of info on line on using vodka or vinegar and even sugar. NoPox is cheap enough DIY may not be worth the added hassle.

The solution isn't always dilution. Nature figured it out long before we stuck life in a box.

 

[Red_Beard]

Some cheap vodka, distilled white vinegar and a touch of RO.
Can you share recipe pls:

Sure, had to write it on the jug so i didnt forget!

 

[FUNGI]

Nice.....Thank you. I will try
Almost was expecting something like this

• 1.5 oz Ketel One Vodka
• 5.0 oz Ginger Beer
• 0.3 oz Lime juice

 

[FUNGI]

whats the proof on teh Vodka and whats % on vinegar?