I wish I knew the magic ingredient in my tank that's preventing any form of nutrient control.
I simply cannot lower my nitrates, I can't do it. People say "if the corals look great who cares" and my worry is that my nitrates are going up with no end in sight and I simply have no way to get rid of them. I have a 300G tank (350 volume) and decided these past few weeks to buy some 150G rubbermaid tanks. I filled 4 150G tanks with fresh mixed saltwater and test each batch (extremely slight pink almost clear which is expected with regular IO). I have a 6 stage RODI 150gpd unit with newer filters/membranes.
I just changed what I believe to be 600G of water over 7 days. My nitrates are the exact same and during that time my feeding has been so light that I feel guilty for my fish. I am giving my one anthia just enough frozen per day to survive and feeding the tank as a whole 1 time every other day and very small amounts. Nitrates are still dark pink on my test kits (nitrites are 0). Phosphates are sitting at 0.02.
I have tried carbon doing for the past year (as high as 220ml per day of vinegar) and I have 0.0 effect other than the most annoying problem of the foam blowing the lid off my skimmer and not going in the cup. The foam is so thick it blows the lid off the skimmer and if I tape the lid down it shoots air/water so violently through the hole in the lid it makes a mess. Literally 1 year of carbon doing and no effect.
I placed 4 no3 export bio bricks in my sump for surface area and nothing. I also have a sulfur denitrator (aquamaxx TS-2) with over 8 lbs of sulfur in it running for 8 months now and it's not even able to get to 15ml per min before going completely pink (these things are junk anyway so I don't look at this as a real solution, wasted my money on garbage).
My tank was started 5 years ago with live rock, since then added lots of dead rock to craft scapes but for the first 4 years I was always extremely low nutrient. I can only guess my tangs have grown in size over this time and my bio filter can't keep up but it feels no matter what I do I can't tackle this nitrate problem. I refuse to believe it's just in the water, SOMETHING is leeching nitrates, it has to. There is no other explanation.
I am debating tearing it all down and restarting with all new everything. I don't want to spend any $$ on livestock if I know the direction is headed right for a crash. My test kits are so pink I would assume I have 200+ no3 at this point as I just don't know.
I simply cannot lower my nitrates, I can't do it. People say "if the corals look great who cares" and my worry is that my nitrates are going up with no end in sight and I simply have no way to get rid of them. I have a 300G tank (350 volume) and decided these past few weeks to buy some 150G rubbermaid tanks. I filled 4 150G tanks with fresh mixed saltwater and test each batch (extremely slight pink almost clear which is expected with regular IO). I have a 6 stage RODI 150gpd unit with newer filters/membranes.
I just changed what I believe to be 600G of water over 7 days. My nitrates are the exact same and during that time my feeding has been so light that I feel guilty for my fish. I am giving my one anthia just enough frozen per day to survive and feeding the tank as a whole 1 time every other day and very small amounts. Nitrates are still dark pink on my test kits (nitrites are 0). Phosphates are sitting at 0.02.
I have tried carbon doing for the past year (as high as 220ml per day of vinegar) and I have 0.0 effect other than the most annoying problem of the foam blowing the lid off my skimmer and not going in the cup. The foam is so thick it blows the lid off the skimmer and if I tape the lid down it shoots air/water so violently through the hole in the lid it makes a mess. Literally 1 year of carbon doing and no effect.
I placed 4 no3 export bio bricks in my sump for surface area and nothing. I also have a sulfur denitrator (aquamaxx TS-2) with over 8 lbs of sulfur in it running for 8 months now and it's not even able to get to 15ml per min before going completely pink (these things are junk anyway so I don't look at this as a real solution, wasted my money on garbage).
My tank was started 5 years ago with live rock, since then added lots of dead rock to craft scapes but for the first 4 years I was always extremely low nutrient. I can only guess my tangs have grown in size over this time and my bio filter can't keep up but it feels no matter what I do I can't tackle this nitrate problem. I refuse to believe it's just in the water, SOMETHING is leeching nitrates, it has to. There is no other explanation.
I am debating tearing it all down and restarting with all new everything. I don't want to spend any $$ on livestock if I know the direction is headed right for a crash. My test kits are so pink I would assume I have 200+ no3 at this point as I just don't know.