Nitrates

[reefthereefer]

OK so I am very curious to see what others think about this. Ever since I set my tank up and cycle was done my nitrate never been below 16ppm. As time went on I decided to after research to start dosing with bridgewell biofuel. Has anyone else seen your number go up and not down? Or go down a little and in 24 hours jump back up? I have checked the tank many times I am not overly feeding I don't have anything dead in the tank my feeding is 2x times a day with pinches which fish eat all up. Remember I been dealing with this for 6 months on now.. my nitrate yesterday was 30ppm which has been quite stable I dosed biofuel and this morning they are 47ppm. It makes no sense to me.


Also has anyone heard of Reactor with biopellets in it from brs? Has anyone done this to control nitrate?

 

[DrinkinPepsi]

What tests are you using?
How old is this tank?
What is in this tank?

 

[Wave Whisperer]

Perhaps a little more info on your tank size, setup (do you run skimmer, fuge etc.) and most importantly your bioload. I believe with these information, we can roughly pinpoint where your elevated nitrates are coming from.

 

[TokenReefer]

Nitrates (not nitrite) will remain unless consumed or removed.

 

[reefthereefer]

Hanna tests I am using



A year old is the tank


I have lps and some sps. Some fish and cleanup crew rabbitfish at tests are you using?
How old is this tank?
What is in this tank?

I will try to answer all questions here i apologize

Hanna tests I am using

A year old is the tank

I have lps and some sps. Some fish and cleanup crew rabbitfish,sailfin, puffer (yes I know about puffer) chomis 6 of them. I had 2 clowns but they decided to jump the tank I don't have much of a biologist when it comes to fish. I do have some macro-algea in the tank. Have thought of doing a fuge but it won't really fil on back of my tank don't really want to hang from the side either.

I am not using a sump for when I set up and talked with BRS whom helped me get all I needed they said a canister would be better so I went with a fx6.


Yes, I am talking nitrate not nitrite. I do biweekly 10% water changes.. my tank size is 125 gal.


I am thinking going along the lines of a reactor with biopellets. Is this a wise approach? Has anyone else done this?


To refresh besides today's reading nitrate have been pretty stable between 20ppm-30ppm . With such high nitrates I don't want to bring my phosphate up past 1ppm. I want to keep it in the range of .06-.50. Which means my nitrate should be between 5ppm-16ppm.

Phosphate has been stable at .30 thank you for all your feedback

 

[reefthereefer]

Here are some pictures

 

[reefthereefer]

I have also noticed if I lower nitrates I have a dinoflagellates bloom which is annoying as most know

 

[Dburr1014]

OK so I am very curious to see what others think about this. Ever since I set my tank up and cycle was done my nitrate never been below 16ppm. As time went on I decided to after research to start dosing with bridgewell biofuel. Has anyone else seen your number go up and not down? Or go down a little and in 24 hours jump back up? I have checked the tank many times I am not overly feeding I don't have anything dead in the tank my feeding is 2x times a day with pinches which fish eat all up. Remember I been dealing with this for 6 months on now.. my nitrate yesterday was 30ppm which has been quite stable I dosed biofuel and this morning they are 47ppm. It makes no sense to me.


Also has anyone heard of Reactor with biopellets in it from brs? Has anyone done this to control nitrate?

What's wrong with 16ppm?
And if your po4 is up what's wrong with 30ppm?
Don't get hung up on a ratio.
If everything looks fine, it's fine.
If you want to lower the a water change is the easiest.

 

[ryanjohn1]

Have you considered vodka or carbon dosing

 

[vetteguy53081]

OK so I am very curious to see what others think about this. Ever since I set my tank up and cycle was done my nitrate never been below 16ppm. As time went on I decided to after research to start dosing with bridgewell biofuel. Has anyone else seen your number go up and not down? Or go down a little and in 24 hours jump back up? I have checked the tank many times I am not overly feeding I don't have anything dead in the tank my feeding is 2x times a day with pinches which fish eat all up. Remember I been dealing with this for 6 months on now.. my nitrate yesterday was 30ppm which has been quite stable I dosed biofuel and this morning they are 47ppm. It makes no sense to me.


Also has anyone heard of Reactor with biopellets in it from brs? Has anyone done this to control nitrate?

20 or below acceptable.

 

[reefthereefer]

Have you considered vodka or carbon dosing

Well that's why I posted cause I dosed bio fuel and today my nitrate went from 30ppm to 47ppm doesn't make sense

 

[reefthereefer]

20 or below acceptable.

That's the target I would like it at is between 5ppm-20ppm I'd be happy at 16ppm but never have I ever had it below 18ppm and that was months ago.

The reason why I posted is because after I added the biofuel my nitrates went from 30 PPM and shot up to 47 PPM does biofuel do that? I thought it was supposed to lower not raise

 

[ryanjohn1]

How sure of the 30ppm are you could it have been 47 already and had a bad reading

 

[vetteguy53081]

That's the target I would like it at is between 5ppm-20ppm I'd be happy at 16ppm but never have I ever had it below 18ppm and that was months ago.

The reason why I posted is because after I added the biofuel my nitrates went from 30 PPM and shot up to 47 PPM does biofuel do that? I thought it was supposed to lower not raise

Don’t use carbon or vodka dosing unless necessary. You get these mixed results
These fuels are often alternatives and not solutions

 

[reefthereefer]

Don’t use carbon or vodka dosing unless necessary. You get these mixed results
These fuels are often alternatives and not solutions

Are you saying then it's a faulty reading? After dosing the biofuel 24 hrs later it went up not down?

 

[kevgib67]

Increasing export will be your friend.

 

[Dburr1014]

That's the target I would like it at is between 5ppm-20ppm I'd be happy at 16ppm but never have I ever had it below 18ppm and that was months ago.

The reason why I posted is because after I added the biofuel my nitrates went from 30 PPM and shot up to 47 PPM does biofuel do that? I thought it was supposed to lower not raise

It's not going to work on one dose.
The idea is to feed bacteria to build up the numbers and then they will use the nitrate/phosphate. Over time when you build the bac numbers it will help you.

Are you sure of the test numbers? What kit was this?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Are you saying then it's a faulty reading? After dosing the biofuel 24 hrs later it went up not down?

May be. Check after anther 12 hrs and with no additional dose

 

[danimal1211]

Standardizing my testing methods has greatly improved the consistency of my results. For example I use a 10ml syringe to measure rather than the line on the cuvette. I prep everything step by step so that to the best of my abilities I’m conducting the test in the same manner every time.

 

[reefthereefer]

How sure of the 30ppm are you could it have been 47 already and had a bad reading

No because it's been stable at 30-35ppm for a week or so now . seems dosing biofuel its increasing not making it go down