Struggling with High nitrates for ages now.

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

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

Maybe dose more?

 

[PapaFishRocks]

Maybe dose more?

Agreed. For my tank, it took a good 6 weeks for the downward trend to really get going.

Fun way I knew the dosing was feeding the bacteria…. While I was setting up the schedule for my doser, and was dumping and dumping multiple daily doses.

Needless to say, the forecast for foggy water was correct. :confounded-face:

 

[Desmond]

Sadly i'm from the EU..

I am sure there is something in Europe send me your exact tank I will ask my mate who owns a saltwater store

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

I am sure there is something in Europe send me your exact tank I will ask my mate who owns a saltwater store

Waterbox 50.3 AIO

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Maybe dose more?

I am following the chart, i'm on week 3 of vinegar atm, before that i tried vodka for 4 weeks and nothing happend.
I now read it took 6 weeks for papafish so i guess i gotta keep going.

The chart only goes on for 3 weeks tho...

 

[geologeek]

I am following the chart, i'm on week 3 of vinegar atm, before that i tried vodka for 4 weeks and nothing happend.
I now read it took 6 weeks for papafish so i guess i gotta keep going.

The chart only goes on for 3 weeks tho...

Just maintain that dose until you start to see a reduction then you can adjust your dosing accordingly to find a maintenance dose.

 

[Desmond]

Waterbox 50.3 AIO

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/37164578...EtqJCBSdBJTWMfWOrhufzNxS5FCPn8dxoCsKYQAvD_BwE Maybe this could work

 

[Desmond]

Out of interest did you ask would they ship slip 7 230 v was stated on the product so they may have a euro version. Would be much cleaner

 

[Desmond]

https://www.itcreefculture.com/alr1.htmlThe ALR works outside the sump and I know some who have used and are in Europe. You could running pump from the back sump to your cabinet under put in a plastic container in case of a leak. But I know these are well built but not cheap.

 

[PapaFishRocks]

I am following the chart, i'm on week 3 of vinegar atm, before that i tried vodka for 4 weeks and nothing happend.
I now read it took 6 weeks for papafish so i guess i gotta keep going.

The chart only goes on for 3 weeks tho...

Here is what happened for me.
60-40ppm was due to a huge water change.
Then stuck around 40ppm for 6 weeks, before the dosing started showing real downward trends

My Phosphates are bottomed out now. So I may cut back on the dosing amount

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Here is what happened for me.
60-40ppm was due to a huge water change.
Then stuck around 40ppm for 6 weeks, before the dosing started showing real downward trends

My Phosphates are bottomed out now. So I may cut back on the dosing amount

Did you follow the dosing chart or how did you ramp up the dosage?

 

[ElementReefer]

How is your skimmate in the 9004? I have both the Tunze 9004 and 9012 DC. For me, the 9004 doesn’t do much of anything. It skims super wet and just makes slightly green water. The 9012 is a beast, and I have used it with great success.

Carbon dosing itself is not nutrient export, it just turns N and P into bacteria and then you skim out the bacteria. I know carbon dosing works on the 9012 because the skimmate smells DISGUSTING. When I carbon dose the tank with the 9004, nutrients don’t go down much.

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

How is your skimmate in the 9004? I have both the Tunze 9004 and 9012 DC. For me, the 9004 doesn’t do much of anything. It skims super wet and just makes slightly green water. The 9012 is a beast, and I have used it with great success.

Carbon dosing itself is not nutrient export, it just turns N and P into bacteria and then you skim out the bacteria. I know carbon dosing works on the 9012 because the skimmate smells DISGUSTING. When I carbon dose the tank with the 9004, nutrients don’t go down much.

It’s dark green but very wet yeah.
Hmm i have been looking towards the 9012

 

[Dan_P]

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.

I suppose that you confirmed that nitrite concentration is zero?

If you started with 50 ppm and it hasn’t changed, you don’t have a nitrate problem. Start feeding your poor fish. Maybe just perform a large water change.

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

I suppose that you confirmed that nitrite concentration is zero?

If you started with 50 ppm and it hasn’t changed, you don’t have a nitrate problem. Start feeding your poor fish. Maybe just perform a large water change.

I will be performing another large water change because my nitrate has gone up to 75 now… no i do not have any nitrites.

 

[PapaFishRocks]

Did you follow the dosing chart or how did you ramp up the dosage?

I followed a dosage chart.
For 90g,
Week 1: 1.5 ml/day
Week 2: 2.5 ml/day
Week 3: 5 ml/day
Week 4: 6.5 ml/day
Week 5: 8 ml/day

Maintaining 8 ml/day

 

[rishma]

How is your skimmate in the 9004? I have both the Tunze 9004 and 9012 DC. For me, the 9004 doesn’t do much of anything. It skims super wet and just makes slightly green water. The 9012 is a beast, and I have used it with great success.

Carbon dosing itself is not nutrient export, it just turns N and P into bacteria and then you skim out the bacteria. I know carbon dosing works on the 9012 because the skimmate smells DISGUSTING. When I carbon dose the tank with the 9004, nutrients don’t go down much.

I had a 9004 on one tank and then a 9004DC on another for years. My favorite skimmer ever.

I have a 9001Dc now.

All skim kinda wet, but never bothered me. Seems to be effective. I’ve had higher end skimmers that were more capable of tuning wet vs dry, etc. but I like the set and forget of the Tunze doc line.

One learning for sure is how far I turned down the dc pump to get optimum performance. Very low power was often best skimmate.

 

[ElementReefer]

I had a 9004 on one tank and then a 9004DC on another for years. My favorite skimmer ever.

I have a 9001Dc now.

All skim kinda wet, but never bothered me. Seems to be effective. I’ve had higher end skimmers that were more capable of tuning wet vs dry, etc. but I like the set and forget of the Tunze doc line.

One learning for sure is how far I turned down the dc pump to get optimum performance. Very low power was often best skimmate.

Agreed. I have never run my Tunze over about 40% power, sometimes I run them all the way down! And it can be helpful to place them slightly higher in the tank than the instructions suggest.

 

[rishma]

Agreed. I have never run my Tunze over about 40% power, sometimes I run them all the way down! And it can be helpful to place them slightly higher in the tank than the instructions suggest.

Exactly! Me too