LOWERING NITRATES..Need advice.

[DirtMcGurt]

I see what you mean. After 2 years those rocks should be Purple. Coraline is obviously growing in there. It's just not covering your rocks completely.

 

[Zero1091]

Hmm... its kinda hard to say for sure what the source of the algae/high nitrates is. With a full refugium and feeding every other day, I would think they couldn't get too high. I did A LOT of reading on here when my N03 and P04 were out of balance. I tried all kinds of things. My problem was my P04 levels, like I mentioned before. Do you perform water changes?

10% water change using Tropic Marin every week.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

One thing I just thought of... You can try blowing off your rocks with a turkey baster, or something, regularly.

 

[Zero1091]

I see what you mean. After 2 years those rocks should be Purple. Coraline is obviously growing in there. It's just not covering your rocks completely.

Yeah exactly thats what trips me out.
Figured a small tune of 5-10 ppm in Nitrate reduction might make a difference. Its definitely growing but not covering it like I want it to.
The Aussie Gold loves it though, they like dirtier water lol.

 

[Zero1091]

One thing I just thought of... You can try blowing off your rocks with a turkey baster, or something, regularly.

Tried that too brotha, definitely blew out some detritus but not enough to make a change in numbers.

 

[Zero1091]

Appreciate all the info by the way guys thanks for giving your 2 cents.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

That's what we're all here for lol. Help.
Btw, if you cant get those N03 levels lower, consider the P04 dosing. That's only if your P04 stays that low. It really turned my tank around. I'm sure most ppl are scared by pouring phosphates into their tank ppl do it with success.

 

[ca1ore]

Frankly, 20-25 isn’t that bad .... my tank is at almost 40 . I don’t have a hair algae problem because I’ve an army of tangs that eat anything that dares to try to grow. Chaeto or an ATS is usually quite effective at keeping nitrate below 5 ... unless you’ve a very large and hungry fish population. I’m in the process of bringing a sulfur reactor online (similar in principle to the nitrate destroyer linked earlier), but there’s some complexity to that approach.

 

[Zero1091]

So after upping my dosage of microbacter7 from 5ml to 10ml a day
I noticed my test kits are now showing nitrates at 10-15ppm consistent between API and Salifert kits. When they used to read 20-25ppm
Pretty neat how that happened so quickly Im shocked lol.
Just recently switched back to 5ml a day to maintain as instructed by the microbacter7 instructions.
Just in case this info helps anyone else.

Im sure the chaeto and sea lettuce in my tank are doing most of the heavy work but I guess that was the little fine tuning I needed.
Thanks again all for your advice.