Struggling with High nitrates for ages now.

[Reef_at_Sea]

Hello,

i would love more help of a few reef chemists in my battle against high nitrates.
My tank is a waterbox 50.3 AIO with 8 fish inside.

2x clownfish
1x dwarf angel
1x small pink streaked wrasse
1x sailfin blenny
1x midas blenny
1x Pseudochromis fridmani basslet
1x links goby
& a cleaner shrimp.
Also a lot of snails that clean everything for me :)

I run a Tunze doc 9004 skimmer and use filter socks, nothing else except the live rock & 1L of Seachem Matrix in the AIO sump.

My nitrates have always been high (50), even before the fish arrived, i struggled with ich the first week so my tank went fallow for a couple weeks to remove ich.
After that i slowly added corals & fish but my nitrates kept being high (around 50, always around50).

I got advice from some reefers to skim more wet, dosing phosphates daily to maintain 0,10, big water change & do carbon dosing.
Sadly no improvements.. I am doing this for about 1,5 months now & the lowest nitrates i ever got was 49, it even went up to 73 at one point..
For some funny reason my phosphates don't rise at all but rather drop to 0,00 before anything (that's why i dose phosphates).

I'm feeding the bare minimum for my fish & they eat almost everything + my tank looks VERY clean and healthy, no algea growth except some small macro that i don't know & all my corals are happy too, except my montipora digitata.

Could somoene help me out on the long run here? Ask me questions, i will answer them all.

I added a recent pic of my tank.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If phosphate is dropping to zero, then it is certainly worth dosing more for several reasons, including possibly increasing growth of organisms that take up N and P. New tanks often take up excessive phosphate as it binds to rock and sand.

I would not worry that much about the nitrate, but there are good ways to reduce it after getting phosphate under control. These including growing macroalgae or turf algae, and dosing organic carbon.

 

[Desmond]

Have you considered an algae reactor or refugium ? May help with your issues

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

If phosphate is dropping to zero, then it is certainly worth dosing more for several reasons, including possibly increasing growth of organisms that take up N and P. New tanks often take up excessive phosphate as it binds to rock and sand.

I would not worry that much about the nitrate, but there are good ways to reduce it after getting phosphate under control. These including growing macroalgae or turf algae, and dosing organic carbon.

I dose phosphates every day to make sure it stays 0,10.
I also dose vinegar every day, but i see no improvements.

I'm planning on adding 3 pieces of macro algea into my tank (dragons breath, etc...)

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Have you considered an algae reactor or refugium ? May help with your issues

If there are algea reactors for AIO tanks i would love to use one (i don't have alot of space).

 

[liam]

If you don't keep your phosphate up then carbon dosing won't lower the nitrates.As Randy mentioned the phosphate will keep dropping until the rock cannot bind anymore.
It you have sand it may be the source of your nitrates if not being cleaned regularly assuming it is not a deep sandbed
Also how much vinegar are you dosing and what's the system volume

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

If you don't keep your phosphate up then carbon dosing won't lower the nitrates.As Randy mentioned the phosphate will keep dropping until the rock cannot bind anymore.
It you have sand it may be the source of your nitrates if not being cleaned regularly assuming it is not a deep sandbed

I keep my phosphates up at 0,10 (i check it almost every day).
I don't have a deep sandbed but i do have alot of snails going trough them, i also have a links goby that cleans my sand a little.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dose phosphates every day to make sure it stays 0,10.

You also said:

"For some funny reason my phosphates don't rise at all but rather drop to 0,00 before anything (that's why i dose phosphates)."

So does it stay up or drop to zero?

If it drops to zero at any time, dose more.

 

[Desmond]

If you don't keep your phosphate up then carbon dosing won't lower the nitrates.As Randy mentioned the phosphate will keep dropping until the rock cannot bind anymore.
It you have sand it may be the source of your nitrates if not being cleaned regularly assuming it is not a deep sandbed
Also how much vinegar are you dosing and what's the system volume

There are some stand alone algae reactors that you could plumb outside of your tank , i had a skimz MBR127 but it was in the sump. Does your tank have a sump in the back or under ? I do know a guy who has a Octo LR-150 which is plummed outside the tank. But i am always cautious if there was a failure.

 

[liam]

I keep my phosphates up at 0,10 (i check it almost every day).
I don't have a deep sandbed but i do have alot of snails going trough them, i also have a links goby that cleans my sand a little.

Maybe try vacuuming the sandbed you will be surprised how much crap gets in there.
Also you said you do big water changes with no success.If you perform a big water change and test directly after the nitrate should drop in proportion to the size of the the water change.ie if you perform a 25 % water change then nitrates should drop by 25%. If there is no drop when testing shortly after the water change that would indicate you have nitrates in your new water

 

[Desmond]

If there are algea reactors for AIO tanks i would love to use one (i don't have alot of space).

check this one out should work on your tank.You could message them to see
https://www.santa-monica.cc/SLIP7-nano-chaeto-reactor-waterfall-scrubber-upflow-scrubber_p_104.html

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

You also said:

"For some funny reason my phosphates don't rise at all but rather drop to 0,00 before anything (that's why i dose phosphates)."

So does it stay up or drop to zero?

If it drops to zero at any time, dose more.

I prevent it to drop to zero wich is succeeding.

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Maybe try vacuuming the sandbed you will be surprised how much crap gets in there.
Also you said you do big water changes with no success.If you perform a big water change and test directly after the nitrate should drop in proportion to the size of the the water change.ie if you perform a 25 % water change then nitrates should drop by 25%. If there is no drop when testing shortly after the water change that would indicate you have nitrates in your new water

After the water change the nitrates did drop proportionally, but they rised back up sadly.

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

check this one out should work on your tank.You could message them to see
https://www.santa-monica.cc/SLIP7-nano-chaeto-reactor-waterfall-scrubber-upflow-scrubber_p_104.html

Sadly i'm from the EU..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I prevent it to drop to zero wich is succeeding.

So when you measure the next day after dosing (before dosing again) it is not zero?

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

So when you measure the next day after dosing (before dosing again) it is not zero?

No, usually it drops to almost zero in about 2-4 days atm. it used to drop way faster.
I test every other day & dose accordingly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No, usually it drops to almost zero in about 2-4 days atm. it used to drop way faster.
I test every other day & dose accordingly.

OK, than as long as you keep it above about 0.03 ppm all the time, I suggest beginning one of the other ways to reduce nitrate, that I mentioned (if you want nitrate lower).

This has more:

https://www.reefedition.com/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-vodka-and-vinegar-dosing-charts.1024056/

 

[PapaFishRocks]

Vodka dosing was the winner for my tank.
8ml/day in a 90g.

 

[Blennioidei]

Having similar issues, working on them atm. Following along :)

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

OK, than as long as you keep it above about 0.03 ppm all the time, I suggest beginning one of the other ways to reduce nitrate, that I mentioned (if you want nitrate lower).

This has more:

https://www.reefedition.com/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-vodka-and-vinegar-dosing-charts.1024056/

I have been dosing vodka for about a month. Nothing happend, now i’m dosing vinegar to test, still no particular improvement