Suggestion to lower my nitrate

[antnida2]

I started using Triton other method on my Redsea Reefer 450 about 4 months ago but struggling to keep coral alive. My nitrate tested 50 with Salifert test kit. I converted the auto topoff tank to a mini fuge, running carbon and Rowa phos and uv. Any suggestion what I can do to lower the nitrate level? I am thinking of combining part 3 and 4 so that I have one extra dosing head to dose no3 : po4-x or getting a no3 reactor going. Thanks

 

[Jason mack]

Water changes will bring it down ....I also run other methods ...ran my tank at no3 50+ fod a couple of years no problem so long as you keep your po4 a little higher ..0.1...but I now run biopellets in a reactor ...and I dose EZ carbon from DSR ....did a couple of big WC s it now sits around 15-25 no3 ...I have rowaphos in a reactor for po4 ....I also combine 3a and 3b into one doser ...

 

[AB Corals]

I also just started a biopellet reactor. Takes 6 weeks roughly to start working, but once it works you can feed heavier as well. I also have a GFO reactor I run to keep my phosphates lower. I check both phosphates and nitrates once a week and take the GFO offline if it gets too low.

 

[tweeter]

No3po4x worked great for me. Mine was high like that, so it took a 2-3 months, but it reaaly brought it down. Be sure to test your water often....

 

[antnida2]

Thanks fellow reefers, I'll keep up with water change and dose continue dosing No3po4x for now until no3 go back down to where lps and sps can survive.

 

[NeverlosT]

water changes and nopox will bring it down. dont use a lot of rowaphos because you will end up with lots of nitrate, and no phosphate, which is an imbalance and may be the current cause of your coral death in my opinion.

Tanks can flourish with high nitrate, but there needs to be phosphate too, I dont have data to back that up, just experience. I am sure that we could find an article somewhere though.

Just so you arent freaked, I have run successful SPS systems with 40-50 ppm nitrate. Colors were awesome. Growth a bit slow though.

 

[antnida2]

My phosphate is around .11 with Hanna test kit. I normally don't worry about grow rate as long as the majority of the corals I introduce to the tank won't rtn. I'll continue to dose nopox to see a reduction of no3 to about 20-30 and reintroduce a couple of ez sps/lps frags and see if I can keep them alive and then fine tune the parameters from there.

 

[Julian@Triton]

My phosphate is around .11 with Hanna test kit. I normally don't worry about grow rate as long as the majority of the corals I introduce to the tank won't rtn. I'll continue to dose nopox to see a reduction of no3 to about 20-30 and reintroduce

Probably a good idea to monitor your carbon dosing with N-DOC lab tests to maintain a healthy N : C : P ratio. This is the only way that you can determine if you dose rate is safe over the long term.
Please read the article attached for more information about TRITON's latest research in this important and poorly understood aspect of reef husbandry.