Too much media?

[Coug92]

I have an established reef tank running for over 3 years now. It is a 90 gallon with a 29 gallon sump. It is doing well but I find that I need to dose nitrates to keep them above zero. My phosphates tend to run high but are controlled well with macro algae and occasional phosban. I have a lot of ceramic media which I used to get the tank cycled. There are about 40 ceramic balls and 4 ceramic blocks. They all seem to be in in good condition. My questions is this. If I were to remove all or most of the ceramic media would it help me elevate nitrates without having to dose them? And would it cause my phosphates to rise as well? My theory is that the media is better at lowering nitrates than phosphates. What do you think?

 

[Dan_P]

I have an established reef tank running for over 3 years now. It is a 90 gallon with a 29 gallon sump. It is doing well but I find that I need to dose nitrates to keep them above zero. My phosphates tend to run high but are controlled well with macro algae and occasional phosban. I have a lot of ceramic media which I used to get the tank cycled. There are about 40 ceramic balls and 4 ceramic blocks. They all seem to be in in good condition. My questions is this. If I were to remove all or most of the ceramic media would it help me elevate nitrates without having to dose them? And would it cause my phosphates to rise as well? My theory is that the media is better at lowering nitrates than phosphates. What do you think?

Nitrate and phosphate management tend to be two different jobs. Controlling phosphate with macro algae is usually not optimum and I think you are finding out why, nitrate depletion.

Slowly reduce the size of the nitrate removal system you have built up. Use GFO to tweak the phosphate level.

 

[QuickrdenU]

I was wondering the same thing. I have a deskmate 3.8 tank that is 3 months old and packed with media in the back compartment. Nitrates 0 and and phosphates .15. I might start slowly removing a little media. From the sounds of it, the low flow and anaerobic bacteria might be to efficient with taking down nitrates. And then bring phosphates down with water changes.