piranhaman00
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I live alone, and remember it’s a one time thing.
Nitrate issues in 300g fowlr tank
- Thread starter nldemo
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I live alone, and remember it’s a one time thing.
Cabinetman
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I have a 560 gallon full of big tangs I just set up a few months ago with dry rock and live rock from crappy systems. My nitrate was as dark as it gets on API test. I had bought a seapora sulfur denitrator that I ran on my tank a few years ago that still had water in it so I cleaned it out and set it up. Started with just a drip a second for a day or 2 and kept increasing the amount coming out as long as it rested 0 for nitrates and within a week or so the amount coming out would fill a beer bottle in 50 seconds. It was like doing 150 gallon water changes every day...My nitrates are now 0 only after a few weeks. If you want something that will destroy your nitrates get a sulphur denitrator they are the way. Nothing you do will come close to how effective they are
Alaeriel
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Mine is vaguely near a window and is growing great XD we're looking at setting up corals in December so we don't even have a light on the tank yetWorth checking outHow fancy of lighting does it need to grow ? My LEDs were only like 200$ each, since the aquarium is fish only they do the job great.
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nldemo
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Ah, sorry for the insensitive wording. I already did one 50% change, so it's not quite a one time thing.. but if I did more like a 90% change (and captured fish, reintroduced them), then I agree it would probably just be a one time thing. That's assuming that when I refill the tank with water nitrates don't just leech from the rocks and sand and make it just as bad.
Cabinetman
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My ph did go down a bit yes but with adding some calcium reactor media on top of the sulfur media it wasn’t horrible. My alk wasn’t affected much either. It really is that easy! But you do need to test the effluent quite frequently to make sure it’s 0 after any increase in flow after a few hours. I took mine offline now. Nitrates are still 0. Now my cheato can keep up.
piranhaman00
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LOL that was not insensitive, dont worry about it
Ya I was more leaning toward a one time 90%, NO3 does not attach to rocks. You could do the massive W/C and add a reactor with GFO.
Sorry I am just all for the large water change, I know it would be a huge hassle
Hope you can solve it another way!
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nldemo
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No no ... it's not that I'm against it. I know that in theory it should work. But like you mentioned , it is a huge hassle... and after the water change is done, I assume I'll have the same NO3 generation as prior to, so after a period of time I'll be in the same boat. That's why i'm looking for something a bit more sustainable.Sorry I am just all for the large water change, I know it would be a huge hassle
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nldemo
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Good to know, thanks. I'm worried the more nitrates I have, the more I'm going to have to be watching pH and Alk like a hawk. Don't want my fish to get melted by acid water (i know that's not how it works, but you get the idea).
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nldemo
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@Cabinetman also, which media are you using? I found this: https://thehydrosource.com/sulfur-prills-high-purity.html
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nldemo
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OK, just ordered my Aquamaxx TS-3, 4 bags of 4 lbs of the sulfur prills mentioned in my previous post, a gallon of coarse arm media, toms pump + prefilter and air tubing... am i missing anything to get up and running right away when it arrives? More rigid tubing? Ball valves (what size)?
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Alaeriel
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Awesome! They frag pretty well too if you ever want to expand where you have them :3 I hope you like it!Also purchased a baseball sized clump of codium. We'll see how it does in the tank
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nldemo
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Well, the Codium showed up but not sure if it was DOA or not. I temp acclimated it to the tank and put it in, tossed the water. Problem is it was left in my mailbox, and it's 102 degrees out today. Sooo not sure how long it can last like that. I'll keep an eye on it. A couple pics here, not 1 minute after one of my butterflies nipped at it to check it out and it floated to the other side of the tank. So I reef glued it to a shell, should help keep it in place.
I know that I am way behind on this thread, but when I ran a very messy and full FOWLR, I ran sugar to keep the N (and some P) low. I found that it worked better than vodka and was cheaper. I would do water changes since it seemed to provide some elements to keep some microfauna going to help process the N in the tank (anoxic bacteria) - some more reasonable ones might be OK.
I used a LOT of sugar and I would empty the skimmer below every two days when it looked like this - up the dose until you really see the skimmer react, but go slow. I never found macro algae to grow all that well when the N was that high... under 50 and it did better. Using a LOT of organic carbon will require a lot of oxygen, so add a few more flow pumps and make sure that you do not have any time where you are not running a lot of pumps.
Once you get your N down, look to some Lanthum Chloride if you don't want to run algae - there is likely a massive amount in your rocks and sand if you have a water level of 2.0+.
I used a LOT of sugar and I would empty the skimmer below every two days when it looked like this - up the dose until you really see the skimmer react, but go slow. I never found macro algae to grow all that well when the N was that high... under 50 and it did better. Using a LOT of organic carbon will require a lot of oxygen, so add a few more flow pumps and make sure that you do not have any time where you are not running a lot of pumps.
Once you get your N down, look to some Lanthum Chloride if you don't want to run algae - there is likely a massive amount in your rocks and sand if you have a water level of 2.0+.
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nldemo
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Welcome to the thread! No worries, I appreciate the advice. Vodka/sugar/vinegar may work, but I would definitely have to keep upping the dose and worrying about someone else doing it while i'm on vacation. I'm hoping the sulfur denitrator works as well for me as it has for some others.
I don't know what you meant by Lanthum Chloride though. Do you dose that in your tank?
Tired
2500 Club Member
Codium is pretty slow-growing and won't do much to remove nitrates. It's pretty, but that's about it. You need something a bit speedier to get rid of nitrates. With the tangs, I suppose your options are a bit limited- maybe halimeda? Don't think anything likes to eat halimeda. It's not too fast-growing either, but a big clump of it would do something.
Also, what are you feeding, and how much, to what fish? Maybe there's a tweak to be made.
Also, what are you feeding, and how much, to what fish? Maybe there's a tweak to be made.
If you got a sulfur denitrator, then you are all set... they work well with some time.
Lanthanum Chloride removes phosphate...or more correctly, binds with phosphates to form a crystal called a flocculant that you can skim out or capture in a filter sock. It is cheaper than GFO. You are certain to have quite a reservoir of P in the rocks and sand and it might take a lot of either substance to get the P down. Lan Chloride was not a thing when I had a big FOWLR, but I have helped people with larger tank and P problems and it works well... I also use it in my live rock tubs to get the P out of used live rock and get it ready for reef life again.
Once you get N and P down to a reasonable level, then I find that macro can do a pretty good job of keeping up if you have enough of it (meaning like a 40 breeder size, not some cheato reactor for a nano), but the stuff gets slowed down with higher N and P levels.
Lanthanum Chloride removes phosphate...or more correctly, binds with phosphates to form a crystal called a flocculant that you can skim out or capture in a filter sock. It is cheaper than GFO. You are certain to have quite a reservoir of P in the rocks and sand and it might take a lot of either substance to get the P down. Lan Chloride was not a thing when I had a big FOWLR, but I have helped people with larger tank and P problems and it works well... I also use it in my live rock tubs to get the P out of used live rock and get it ready for reef life again.
Once you get N and P down to a reasonable level, then I find that macro can do a pretty good job of keeping up if you have enough of it (meaning like a 40 breeder size, not some cheato reactor for a nano), but the stuff gets slowed down with higher N and P levels.
Alaeriel
Well-Known Member
They're pretty resilient from what I've seen, as long as its not overtly squishy, it should be fine. Basically any macro that isn't immediately devoured will do something to help until you get your sulfur denitrator ready to go XDWell, the Codium showed up but not sure if it was DOA or not. I temp acclimated it to the tank and put it in, tossed the water. Problem is it was left in my mailbox, and it's 102 degrees out today. Sooo not sure how long it can last like that. I'll keep an eye on it. A couple pics here, not 1 minute after one of my butterflies nipped at it to check it out and it floated to the other side of the tank. So I reef glued it to a shell, should help keep it in place.
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