Nitrates

[Johnrriddlesr]

I have changed my water 50 times and my nitrates are still 40 parts per million no matter what I do. Lfs tested and confirmed my test is accurate. 75 gal tank (actually holds 60 gals with rock in). Running purigen, charcoal & zeolite, and marine cubes( balls). Vaccum sand then water change, nitrates stY exactly the same. Tanks 7 months old, originally cycled using raw shrimp. I'm ready to pull my hair out. All corals and fish look great except for montiporas and acros, only things I cant keep alive. What do I do?

 

[Quietman]

Assuming tests are accurate. WC alone may not keep up with your bioload (if mid to heavy). You didn't say how much water you change. WC alone can work but unless it's a smaller tank it's going to get pricey and labor intensive. Might want to look into algae growth and removal (scrubber, fuge) to export or bacteria export (carbon dosing, biopellets).

I doubt your saltwater could be contaminated as you'd normally expect increasing nitrates over time in that case. Easy to check though.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I started my tank 6/15/19, about week ago mine at 25ppm, I do WC, 100 gallons total water volume. Today at 10ppm. Sulfur denitrator, homemade.

1 of 26 carnation corals, dendronephthya sp

 

[Johnrriddlesr]

Assuming tests are accurate. WC alone may not keep up with your bioload (if mid to heavy). You didn't say how much water you change. WC alone can work but unless it's a smaller tank it's going to get pricey and labor intensive. Might want to look into algae growth and removal (scrubber, fuge) to export or bacteria export (carbon dosing, biopellets).

I doubt your saltwater could be contaminated as you'd normally expect increasing nitrates over time in that case. Easy to check though.

Had lfs check water as well they confirmed nitrates are 40ppm. I started at 12 gallon water changes to hit around 20% of volume since the tank actually holds about 60 gal once rocks are in place. It's a non-drilled tank with a cascade 1000 canister filter. It has 2 three stripe damsels, 2 yellow tail damsels, valentini puffer, fire goby, tomato clown, diamond goby, and a snowflake eel. All fish are still small in size. I have pretty fair amount of corals. I'll attach a picture with this response

 

[Johnrriddlesr]

I started my tank 6/15/19, about week ago mine at 25ppm, I do WC, 100 gallons total water volume. Today at 10ppm. Sulfur denitrator, homemade.

1 of 26 carnation corals, dendronephthya sp

Homemade? Have a recipe?

 

[Quietman]

With no sump you're going to be limited in nitrate reduction options and still keep display free of equipment. The HOB skimmer will still allow you to carbon dose effectively. And you can run a successful tank with higher nitrates. Just might be limited what you can do with certain corals requiring low nutrients.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Homemade? Have a recipe?

Search on R2R, for diy sulfur denitrator and there's natural denitrators too. Sulfur denitrator quickes to bring down NO3

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Had lfs check water as well they confirmed nitrates are 40ppm. I started at 12 gallon water changes to hit around 20% of volume since the tank actually holds about 60 gal once rocks are in place. It's a non-drilled tank with a cascade 1000 canister filter. It has 2 three stripe damsels, 2 yellow tail damsels, valentini puffer, fire goby, tomato clown, diamond goby, and a snowflake eel. All fish are still small in size. I have pretty fair amount of corals. I'll attach a picture with this response

Your tank setup similar to mine. I to have a canister filter, mine homemade. Filters sump water. No skimmer on mine. Difference my tank and yours, I'm into NPS corals, heavy feeding for sure my tank.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Check your canister filter. I didn't see if you said you'd cleaned it or not, but they can get get bad very quickly and produce nitrates like crazy

 

[Auquanut]

How often do you clean the canister? Could be part of the problem. I run the Pen Plax Cascade 1000 on my FW 90 gallon with a Marineland canister. I'm a big fan of redundant filtration. I'm not real fond of the performance of the Pen Plax. The Marineland does a much better job. And welcome to R2R!

 

[Larry L]

@Johnrriddlesr Have you tested the nitrates in your water change water?

 

[Johnrriddlesr]

Hey all sorry I got sidetracked (death in the family out of state) I have since changed to a fluval fx4 and I did test the water for my water change and it is at zero nitrates. I have also added denitrate now and a second pack of puritan. It's been on going now for about 2 weeks. Nitrates still high. Looking Into DIY sulfer now. I'll keep you guys updated. Also I was cleaning my filter every other water change. Talked to a guy at LFS and he said my original filter wasn't turning the water over enough so I'm trying that with the fluval fx4