Nitrates are going to drive me insane.

[MetaDev]

Hello everyone, I have had to restart my tank due to unforeseen personal issues. I have now been able to get it back up and running. It is a 26 Gallon Red Sea Nano Peninsula. I am now about 6 months into it with currently only rock and fish, I introduced new fish over the course of the 6 months, (2 clowns, 1 Banggai Cardinal and a yellow goby). I feed 1/4 of a Mysis shrimp cube daily and sometimes a bit less depending how I cut it and do about a 5 gallon water change every weekend. I clean the sponges once a week and replace filter floss during the time as well. It seems that no matter what I do, I cannot get it under 40 and controlled. What do you think I should be doing?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Have you considered a refugium or an algae scrubber?

They have hang on the back refugiums since you don’t have a sump.

 

[Dom]

I dose 1 cap full of distilled white vinegar to 5 gallons of RODI in my ATO. My nitrates are 12.7 (down from 36) in a 125 gallon display.

 

[civber]

Ok, something new for me, good to now.

I dose 1 cap full of distilled white vinegar to 5 gallons of RODI in my ATO. My nitrates are 12.7 (down from 36) in a 125 gallon display.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I dose 1 cap full of distilled white vinegar to 5 gallons of RODI in my ATO. My nitrates are 12.7 (down from 36) in a 125 gallon display.

Does it reduce anything else in your tank or just the nitrates?

 

[Sawacoral]

Sponges and floss once a week? Try twice weekly. That's what I do for my ATO, any less and those things would be putrid. 1/4 seems like a small amount of food so I won't tell you to feed less. Any inverts/cuc in there?

 

[14 foot reef]

What test kit are you using ?

 

[Dom]

Ok, something new for me, good to now.

I believe it is called Carbon Dosing. You can use things like vodka too.

 

[Dom]

Does it reduce anything else in your tank or just the nitrates?

Funny thing... I began dosing it to address a phosphate problem. Then I learned that it could zero out nitrates before it ever put a dent in phosphates.

I did not see an impact on my phosphates. I didn't see anything else in my numbers affected by dosing it.

 

[Miami Reef]

I would leave the nitrate and phosphate alone in this case. The corals we keep can thrive with higher nutrients.

 

[MetaDev]

What test kit are you using ?

I am using the Hanna kits High Range Nitrate checker

 

[MetaDev]

Sponges and floss once a week? Try twice weekly. That's what I do for my ATO, any less and those things would be putrid. 1/4 seems like a small amount of food so I won't tell you to feed less. Any inverts/cuc in there?

Ill try twice a week, I have no inverts/cucs, just the fish and rock currently, I blow out the rock during my water changes to make sure nothing is stuck anywhere.

 

[MetaDev]

Have you considered a refugium or an algae scrubber?

They have hang on the back refugiums since you don’t have a sump.

I actually thought about this, Could I also buy some Dragons Breath Macro Algae and just put it in the tank inside the rocks? Do you think this would help?

 

[MetaDev]

Thanks everyone for the help and replies! This has just been something that has been killing me trying to control

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I actually thought about this, Could I also buy some Dragons Breath Macro Algae and just put it in the tank inside the rocks? Do you think this would help?

Yes you can put it in the tank. You will need light that is conducive to photosynthesis. Also I’m not sure if dragon breath is the kind that floats around everywhere. Most people use chato.