What pulls nitrates out of water?

hllb

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Is there something I can put in my media rack to pull out nitrates, like there is for phosphates? I've been doing water changes, but it hasn't been very effective (nitrates are 25, after doing reef flux treatment and not doing WCs for several weeks). I've done four 4 gallon water changes over the last 6 days, but nitrates are still at 25 on my 32g tank. I don't have a good setup to do a larger WC so wondered if there was something like phosguard, but for nitrates. I currently have carbon, purigen, and phosguard in my media tower. Prior to my reef flux treatment (which did not kill my GHA), my nitrates were 5.
 

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25 is not that high on nitrates.

Don't be afraid to do larger, more frequent water changes. If your new water is close to the same temp and parameters as your tank go for like 50% or so. I rarely do smaller changes.

Have you considered getting some macroalgae like chaetomorpha to put in your display temporarily? It'll use the nitrates and phosphates as it grows and you can simply toss portions of it as it grows. That and some snails should help your GHA problem.
 
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hllb

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25 is not that high on nitrates.

Don't be afraid to do larger, more frequent water changes. If your new water is close to the same temp and parameters as your tank go for like 50% or so. I rarely do smaller changes.

Have you considered getting some macroalgae like chaetomorpha to put in your display temporarily? It'll use the nitrates and phosphates as it grows and you can simply toss portions of it as it grows. That and some snails should help your GHA problem.
It's really around my setup for WCs. I run 5 gallon buckets. On a 32g tank (with around 26g water volume), 4-5 gallons is plenty each week. Once I can get around the initial lowering. I know that's not super high, but since I'm still battling GHA, it needs to come down. And I do have the stuff to set up a small fuge in my middle chamber, but haven't done so yet - probably in a week or so because I'll be out of town this weekend. What I don't know is how quickly that would use up the nitrates. I won't have room for a large amount of macro, but will have some room. I have an Intank fuge basket.
 

Lingwendil

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Well, honestly the best solution is larger water changes. That would be the best way to bring it down. Grab a couple more buckets, do 10-15 gallons at a time. You wont hurt anything unless you have some incredibly sensitive, uncommon livestock that you haven't mentioned.

You could try something like this, but I hear its mainly effective at phosphates-

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-nitrate-phosphate-reducer.html
 
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hllb

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Imo a 4 gallon water change will not take enough out to change nitrate! There's a great article written by Randy Holmes-farley http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php
I hope that link works and helps you out!
Bookmarked that so I can read it. Thanks. I knew doing smaller changes would take longer, but it's really not moving at all. Over 6 days, I swapped out 23ish gallons of a 26ish total water volume. Obviously that's diluted with each change, but I'm still surprised I've seen no noticable drop at all.
 
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hllb

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Well, honestly the best solution is larger water changes. That would be the best way to bring it down. Grab a couple more buckets, do 10-15 gallons at a time. You wont hurt anything unless you have some incredibly sensitive, uncommon livestock that you haven't mentioned.

You could try something like this, but I hear its mainly effective at phosphates-

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-nitrate-phosphate-reducer.html
No, The only borderline thing would be my sea hare.
 

Rob Biederman

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Is there something I can put in my media rack to pull out nitrates, like there is for phosphates? I've been doing water changes, but it hasn't been very effective (nitrates are 25, after doing reef flux treatment and not doing WCs for several weeks). I've done four 4 gallon water changes over the last 6 days, but nitrates are still at 25 on my 32g tank. I don't have a good setup to do a larger WC so wondered if there was something like phosguard, but for nitrates. I currently have carbon, purigen, and phosguard in my media tower. Prior to my reef flux treatment (which did not kill my GHA), my nitrates were 5.
Do you use ro/DI water ? I would suggest getting a couple more buckets if you don’t have room for a rubber maid. Maybe do like a 5 gallon every couple days to get them down. Be careful with removing phosphates and nitrates with media I can cause an imbalance and that is how I got dinos
 
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hllb

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Do you use ro/DI water ? I would suggest getting a couple more buckets if you don’t have room for a rubber maid. Maybe do like a 5 gallon every couple days to get them down. Be careful with removing phosphates and nitrates with media I can cause an imbalance and that is how I got dinos
Yes, RODI with 0 TDS. I did do 4g changes on consecutive days and still didn't see a change (used both Salifert and Nyos kits). But yes, sounds like I need to do a big WC. I
 

sfin52

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Cheato will do the same thing. It can bottom out the nutrients causing dino. That's what just happened to me.
Do you use ro/DI water ? I would suggest getting a couple more buckets if you don’t have room for a rubber maid. Maybe do like a 5 gallon every couple days to get them down. Be careful with removing phosphates and nitrates with media I can cause an imbalance and that is how I got dinos
 

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