Quick question about nitrate removal

[Jonathan Troutt]

Hey guys so things are turning around in my tank finally and nitrates are dropping very slowly.
I had a nitrate issue where they jumped to over 160ppm. They are right about 50 right now. Chaeto is back in the fuge and I got a new fuge light running.

I am currently running the fuge light 24 hours a day trying to get nitrates to drop as quick as I can. A gentleman that runs a reef shop up here told me to start dosing 3ml of vodka. He told me not to titrate it up to 3ml but to just start with 3ml and then increase everyday. I have a 40 breeder with a 29gal sump total volume right at 60gallons.

Would this work or is this bad advice? I am wanting to get my nitrates down under 5ppm ASAP. Should I go get some nopox or something similar? Recommendations are welcome!

 

[lion king]

Any carbon dosing should be ramped up slowly otherwise you are asking for trouble. Cyano outbreak is the most likely thing that will happen if you follow that advice. Nopox is another form of carbon dosing, so following their instructions is important, and will get you good results. Sounds like the macro is doing it's job, if you could, I would stick to that. Although I am running macro and nopox on one tank that I just can't get under control.

 

[PatW]

On a tank that size, it is feasible to get the nitrates down with a couple of massive water changes. You can get yourself a Brute trash can, fill it with RODI, then add salt mix with powerhead. Nothing works faster than good old brute force water changes.

With chaeto, if you have a strong light in your display, you need a really strong light in the refugium. For good chaeto growth, you need light, nitrates, phosphates and water flow ( it does not need to be real strong). As the chaeto grows, and absorbs the nitrates, it might deplete the phosphates. And lack of phosphates could stop the growth of the chaeto. You might want to measure the phosphates preferably with a Hanna ULR.

Carbon dosing works but it takes time. And it requires a skimmer that is over sized for the system.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'm with PatW on this one. If you want to reduce nitrates quickly, do a water change or two. It's not hard and it's safe.

I'm not sure about 24 hour light over macro algae being helpful to make it grow. I do know that the algae (zooxanthellae) inside coral only does photosynthesis for 5 to 8 hours and then shuts down even if there is still a strong light source. It's an assumption, but I'd assume macroalgae photosynthesis would work in a similar fashion. It's a million year old genetics issue.

Carbon dosing (vodka) does work. But what you are doing is feeding another species of bacteria that will consume carbon and nitrate. So you will need to be patient and wait for the bacteria population to grow (why you ramp up the carbon dosing slowly) and then keep dosing carbon to keep the bacteria fed. To much carbon can/will lead to an outbreak of cyanobacteria (reddish slime).

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Hey guys so things are turning around in my tank finally and nitrates are dropping very slowly.
I had a nitrate issue where they jumped to over 160ppm. They are right about 50 right now. Chaeto is back in the fuge and I got a new fuge light running.

I am currently running the fuge light 24 hours a day trying to get nitrates to drop as quick as I can. A gentleman that runs a reef shop up here told me to start dosing 3ml of vodka. He told me not to titrate it up to 3ml but to just start with 3ml and then increase everyday. I have a 40 breeder with a 29gal sump total volume right at 60gallons.

Would this work or is this bad advice? I am wanting to get my nitrates down under 5ppm ASAP. Should I go get some nopox or something similar? Recommendations are welcome!

I would do a W/C and let your Chaeto do the work that it’s already doing. Remember rushing to get a result in this hobby usually makes the original problem worse!

 

[cedwards04]

I agree with water changes as well. The tank is small enough that water changes will be easy and fairly cheap. Personally i would do 15g water changes (thats 25% for you). I'd make sure my ca, alk, mg, salinity, and water temp all matched really close before doing the waterchange. This way it will not shock the system and you can quickly export the nutrients.

What are you trying to get down to? 25% waterchange will lower nitrates by 25%. So you will go down from 50ppm to 37.5ppm, then to 28ppm and so on as you do water changes. I would skip a day or 2 between them.

 

[hbrochs]

I don’t think you should drop your nitrates so quickly. Let them drop slowly over time. As long as they keep moving in the right direction I wouldn’t mind if it took two or three months.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

Ok I will take your guys advice. I will continue to let the chaeto work and do a water change. Brute trash and do work great I have one love that thing!

I run a reef octo classic 110 on my tank. Which I’ve been told is oversized for my tank.

The refugium light is a 135w grow light