What can i do/clean to lower very high nitrates?

ReneReef

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Wait what?!!!

I had a montipora frag a while ago in the same nitrate conditions and all it did was just brown out & die...
My tank is a LPS & softies only tank so i don't run my lights full power, i have about 170 PAR where my torches are, the lights are 2x Ai Primes 16hd on the pennywise deadlights 81% schedule.

If I had to guess. That monti browned out due to lack of light (and flow).

I don't know what a "pennywise deadlights 81% schedule" entails. But if it is blue heavy then your are definitely way under-lighting. PAR is an indication, not the full story.

That toadstool leather is used to get up to 900 PAR or even more in the wild.
Leathers are not very deep living low light corals. Neither are torches.
That they can make due with a lot less light, does not mean that you need to give them very little.

The tank in my pictures was ~55 gallons, got 200 PAR at the bottom and 40-100 times the tank volume in flow.

You are telling me to remove the ecotech biospheres in my AIO sump? aren't those benificial to increase nitrification surface? i will rinse them while water changing.

i am slowly increasing the flow lately, although flow is always a struggle...

I have a tunze doc 9004dc skimmer, wich should even be oversized for the tank instead of undersized..

Yes. Nitrification is making nitrate out of ammonia and nitrite. So, increasing nitrification makes nitrate and increases your "problem". But I don't think the nitrate by itself is your problem, its a symptom…
Lowering nitrification prevents nitrate from being formed. Corals rather use ammonia directly in stead of nitrate. So, yes lowering nitrification in a REEF tank is desired.

That skimmer is rather small. I would rate it for tanks up to 100 Liters.
But with your current fish stocking it probably is enough.

Btw, how did you lower the nitrate to 40?
I was busy finding and buying a house at the time and tank maintenance suffered. When I discovered nitrate had gone up to 90 I cleaned my skimmer and started doing monthly/bimonthly 25% water changes again. Nothing more.

During a water change I always clean out a bit of the sand bed, just a standard practise of mine.

I don’t use carbon dosing.
 
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eggie

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Things you could do

-Weekly Water changes
-Siphon your sand when doing water changes
-Blow your rock scape with a turkey baster everyday
-Dose bacteria daily
-Dose carbon source daily
-Add GAC change monthly
-Skim wet
-Clean filters weekly
 
OP
OP
Reef_at_Sea

Reef_at_Sea

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If I had to guess. That monti browned out due to lack of light (and flow).

I don't know what a "pennywise deadlights 81% schedule" entails. But if it is blue heavy then your are definitely way under-lighting. PAR is an indication, not the full story.

That toadstool leather is used to get up to 900 PAR or even more in the wild.
Leathers are not very deep living low light corals. Neither are torches.
That they can make due with a lot less light, does not mean that you need to give them very little.

The tank in my pictures was ~55 gallons, got 200 PAR at the bottom and 40-100 times the tank volume in flow.



Yes. Nitrification is making nitrate out of ammonia and nitrite. So, increasing nitrification makes nitrate and increases your "problem". But I don't think the nitrate by itself is your problem, its a symptom…
Lowering nitrification prevents nitrate from being formed. Corals rather use ammonia directly in stead of nitrate. So, yes lowering nitrification in a REEF tank is desired.

That skimmer is rather small. I would rate it for tanks up to 100 Liters.
But with your current fish stocking it probably is enough.


I was busy finding and buying a house at the time and tank maintenance suffered. When I discovered nitrate had gone up to 90 I cleaned my skimmer and started doing monthly/bimonthly 25% water changes again. Nothing more.

During a water change I always clean out a bit of the sand bed, just a standard practise of mine.

I don’t use carbon dosing.
Funny how you tell me it probably died because of lighting while others kept that same montipora in 110 par or even lower & it still survived. Crazy how every tank is different…

so removing my biospheres should help? Sounds so counter productive lol.

@Randy Holmes-Farley could you confirm that removing biospheres to decrease nitrate is a thing? Just to double check
 

RoyvG

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Par is often used as measure for light intensity but it ignores differences within the 400 to 700 nm range. 110 par and 110 par with different spectra dan be vastly different for the photosynthesis of your coral.

I had high nitrate for a while until my leathers started growing properly, now it is trace amounts.
 

GARRIGA

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I'd dose carbon and nothing simpler than dosing NoPox based on their instruction but I'd start with half and evaluate reaction to ensure a bacterial bloom doesn't appear stripping O2 from the water then advance to 3/4 next day and continue evaluating until at full dose ready to go back to lower prior dose, if needed.

Best ensure some phosphates present as that's needed but I'd ignore the Redfield Ratio and just ensure some available.
 

Reef Puncher

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bacteria / carbon dosing, turf scrubbers, algae reactors, water changes. one tip is to blow all the rocks with a turkey baster right before a water change, then put calcium carbonate or coral snow in right after the water change. that grabs up all the tiny particles and puts em through the filter.
 

ReneReef

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Funny how you tell me it probably died because of lighting while others kept that same montipora in 110 par or even lower & it still survived. Crazy how every tank is different…

so removing my biospheres should help? Sounds so counter productive lol.
As Roy says, and I mentioned in different wording a PAR of 110 in one tank may not be comparable to a PAR of 110 in another tank.

Tanks are not that different, settings, measurements and human perception are.

Yes removing the biospheres should help. Especially if they are in a dark place with ample flow and oxygen. Which is likely the case in your AIO-sump compartment.
 

X-37B

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I use a sulfer reactor to manage no3. I only do a 10% WC every 2-3 months.
My system is 9 months old and after adding 150lbs of live rock no3 was close to 50. It takes about 5-6 weeks to bring no3 down to my range of <5.
Very simple to run with just a small Kanoer pump. It runs at 12mlm.
Current no3 is 4 and po4 < .1.
I'm not a fan of carbon dosing but it does work.
After 30+ in the hobby I have found this to be the easiest way to control no3.
Note: I feed heavy at 7 cubes a day in my 150 with 9 fish.
20250104_091111.jpg
 

Bruttall

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You say you do not feed a lot, but I've got to ask how much and how often do you feed and what are you feeding?

I have 30+ fish in a 300g.
I feed 2-3 (7 inch x 9 inch) sheets of Nori a day for the 7 tangs, rabbit and scat, and a Gram of flake every day for the clowns, gobys, wrasses, angels, butterfly's,
3 times a week fresh hatched brine shrimp (about 1/2 teaspoon eggs)
2 times a week about 3 cubes of frozen mysis.

I do run a fuge in my sump and my nitrates stay between 20 and 40 on the Api test.
 

Northern Flicker

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It might be worth asking Randy Holmes-Farley as something in the chemistry doesn't seem to add up here - I don't think that bioload should be causing nitrates to rise that high. You mentioned that if you don't do 30% waterchanges every 2 days, it creeps up to 200ppm?

It just seems like something is wonky - the testing, the dosing, or some other issue because I don't think that bioload should really accumulate 200ppm nitrates in such a short period of time.

I personally would consider cutting back everything - stop dosing, cut feeding down to only what the fish can eat, and continue with water changes. Test nitrates each day. See if you can isolate the impact of each factor.

EDIT: oops, Randy saw it already
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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I'd dose carbon and nothing simpler than dosing NoPox based on their instruction but I'd start with half and evaluate reaction to ensure a bacterial bloom doesn't appear stripping O2 from the water then advance to 3/4 next day and continue evaluating until at full dose ready to go back to lower prior dose, if needed.

Do you mean there is nothing simpler, or that one should not use something simpler (such as vodka)?
 

Northern Flicker

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By the sounds of it, your skimmer might be undersized or running sub-optimally.
Lots of great advice in this post, this one line was the only one I think I disagree with; I run a low-tech tank, no skimmer, and I don't ever have high nitrates. In fact, I have to dose DIY calcium nitrate to even get a reading. The more I dose, the happier the corals seems and the more pigmentation I see.

Feels like there is something else going wrong. It doesn't seem like the bioload + feeding would even be enough to generate the ppm nitrate OP is describing in such a short period of time.
 

bobnicaragua

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I run a 10 gal refugium on a 135 gal tank. Nitrates stay between 2-6. If I add a second tunze light, they bottom out.

IMG_1856.jpeg
 

bobnicaragua

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I use a sulfer reactor to manage no3. I only do a 10% WC every 2-3 months.
My system is 9 months old and after adding 150lbs of live rock no3 was close to 50. It takes about 5-6 weeks to bring no3 down to my range of <5.
Very simple to run with just a small Kanoer pump. It runs at 12mlm.
Current no3 is 4 and po4 < .1.
I'm not a fan of carbon dosing but it does work.
After 30+ in the hobby I have found this to be the easiest way to control no3.
Note: I feed heavy at 7 cubes a day in my 150 with 9 fish.
20250104_091111.jpg
That looks like calcium reactor media on top. What ‘s the stuff on bottom?
 

X-37B

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That looks like calcium reactor media on top. What ‘s the stuff on bottom?
It's a sulfer reactor and it's the sulfer media. The bones keep it in place and help with phosphates. I also drip into bones in a cylinder.
 

GARRIGA

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Do you mean there is nothing simpler, or that one should not use something simpler (such as vodka)?
Not knowing the OP’s background. Nothing simpler than following the directions on a retail bottle of NoPox. 3ml per 25g vs searching online whether to dose sugar, vinegar or vodka or going diy NoPox and possibly trying to follow a chart.

For me and can only speak as if for me. Nothing simpler than NoPox and I had done the research on all else I noted above. Keep it simple
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Not knowing the OP’s background. Nothing simpler than following the directions on a retail bottle of NoPox. 3ml per 25g vs searching online whether to dose sugar, vinegar or vodka or going diy NoPox and possibly trying to follow a chart.

For me and can only speak as if for me. Nothing simpler than NoPox and I had done the research on all else I noted above. Keep it simple

I’m not convinced NOPOX is simpler to use the vodka, but I understand now what you were saying, :)
 

ReneReef

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Feels like there is something else going wrong. It doesn't seem like the bioload + feeding would even be enough to generate the ppm nitrate OP is describing in such a short period of time.
Yes, exactly my thinking. The bioload is small. The carbon dose is large. Nitrate stays high.
Something(s) fundamental is(are) totally out of balance. In stead of the nutrient input being used for growth, it is accumulating.

Lots of great advice in this post, this one line was the only one I think I disagree with; I run a low-tech tank, no skimmer, and I don't ever have high nitrates. In fact, I have to dose DIY calcium nitrate to even get a reading. The more I dose, the happier the corals seems and the more pigmentation I see.
I said it SOUNDED like skimming MIGHT be an issue.
With the additional information provided by the OP since that remark, I don't think it is the problem.
So on that I agree.

However, dosing nitrate to get a reading. That part I wouldn't agree with, as corals much rather use ammonia as a nitrogen source.
Any excess ammonia dosed will be converted to nitrate. So, corals will be provided what they like and nitrate gets readable for one's peace of mind. Win win.

I run a medium tech tank with lots of fish. I can definitely not do without a skimmer.
Each situation is different.

From the picture of the OP's tank, I don't think the coral mass can compensate for the fish stocking.

P.S. found your build thread. You have a very nice tank!
 
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