Which product is best for nitrate reduction

Lfquintana91 · Aug 20, 2021

Hey everyone. I set up my innovative marine nuvo 40 back in may and just needed some advice on how to keep nitrates down and which tropic marine carbon dosing solution would be best.

The tank currently has a media basket that has plastic bio balls and those bio balls the porous ones.
Second chamber I run is the innovation marine ghost skimmer.

On the other side I run a sponge filter or put UV sterilizer just depends if the tank looks yellowish.

Second chamber I run caulerpa grape macro algae.

As for fish I have 2 clown fish. 1 naoko wrasse. Yellow corris wrasse and diamond goby and a cleaner shrimp. Along with snails and hermit crabs.

I’ve been testing last couple weeks and I seem to get the same results.

Alk 7.9-8.1 (Hanna )
Calcium 400-410 (Hanna )
Phosphate .01-.03 mainly .01 (hanna ULR)
Nitrate 20-25 ( Hanna HR)

I do about 10 gallons a week water change with tropic marine pro.

I currently don’t have any corals in there. Wanted to do mainly all sps so I wanted to make sure nitrate and phosphates are low before I add sps. If someone could give me advice on which tropic marine carbon dosing source would be best.

I appreciate everyone’s help

WheatToast · Aug 20, 2021

I don’t have much advice on carbon dosing, but you could try this out:
https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/macroalgae/clean-sea-lettuce/
In my experience, it attracts pods better than Chaetomorpha and I have heard it may grow faster. If you use it, make sure it does not run out of trace elements:

Lfquintana91 · Aug 20, 2021

WheatToast said:
I don’t have much advice on carbon dosing, but you could try this out:
https://www.algaebarn.com/shop/macroalgae/clean-sea-lettuce/
In my experience, it attracts pods better than Chaetomorpha and I have heard it may grow faster. If you use it, make sure it does not run out of trace elements:

I do use that now. The caulerpa is growing not a lot but grows.

galantra · Aug 20, 2021

What test kit are you using?
And what are you using for food? And how much?
How much live rock?
Usually with high nitrate tank could still be cycling , dead spots, over feeding, and not good bacteria

I would up your water changes to 50% to get your nitrates down.

Adding chemicals you gotta be careful cause you can kill the live rock if you dose too much. ( I actually restarted my live rock with using Quantum USA nitrate remover)

With tropic Marin products you would be using NP-BACTO-BALANCE since this works when nitrates are high and phosphate are low

Treefer32 · Aug 20, 2021

The biggest issue I see is an imbalance in nitrates, not necessarily high nitrates. SPS grow best with nitrates 10-20. 25 is well within a margin of error and not bad at all. Phosphates you want to be in balance and not be at zero. I don't know much about calupera. Different macro algae consume different things. It's possible the species you have grows with phosphates not nitrates, or more phosphates in a ratio of nitrates... What if you added phosphates to get the algae growing better? Which would then reduce nitrates more rapidly?

All of this is something to be careful with. I'd be tempted to just do water changes and let it stabilize itself over a month or two and if things haven't improved then maybe gently raise phosphates... .03 to .09 is good for SPS. I have a higher nutrient 350 gallon tank with 26 fish. My Acros are growing like crazy with phosphates over .1. I'm striving for them to be lower, but taking my time. I do a water change and they drop into where I need them to be at .04 to .06.

I have no issues in growing corals in higher nutrients. If Phosphates are over .2 (which should mean my nitrates are probably well over 30.) Then I start to worry and bring phosphates back down, which I usually bring nitrates down with the phosphates (water change, increasing skimming, changing out filter socks etc.)

Lfquintana91 · Aug 20, 2021

Lfquintana91 said:
I do use that now. The caulerpa is growing not a lot but grows.

Treefer32 said:
The biggest issue I see is an imbalance in nitrates, not necessarily high nitrates. SPS grow best with nitrates 10-20. 25 is well within a margin of error and not bad at all. Phosphates you want to be in balance and not be at zero. I don't know much about calupera. Different macro algae consume different things. It's possible the species you have grows with phosphates not nitrates, or more phosphates in a ratio of nitrates... What if you added phosphates to get the algae growing better? Which would then reduce nitrates more rapidly?

All of this is something to be careful with. I'd be tempted to just do water changes and let it stabilize itself over a month or two and if things haven't improved then maybe gently raise phosphates... .03 to .09 is good for SPS. I have a higher nutrient 350 gallon tank with 26 fish. My Acros are growing like crazy with phosphates over .1. I'm striving for them to be lower, but taking my time. I do a water change and they drop into where I need them to be at .04 to .06.

I have no issues in growing corals in higher nutrients. If Phosphates are over .2 (which should mean my nitrates are probably well over 30.) Then I start to worry and bring phosphates back down, which I usually bring nitrates down with the phosphates (water change, increasing skimming, changing out filter socks etc.)

Thanks for the info. I think I’ll try adding some phosphates. Researching this many people keep saying to add phosphates so bacteria can consume both.

I also will do bigger water changes and maybe add some microbacter 7 to help with more bacteria.

any advice if I go carbon doing which TM to go with

threebuoys · Aug 20, 2021

I think it is a little early to start chasing numbers on such a new tank with such a small population of fish and no corals.

If you continue water changes, your nitrates will probably be stable and where you are at isn't terrible.

Nitrates will change proportionately to the amount of food you are adding to the tank. If you add more fish and find you need to feed more, you may see a rise, but the water changes and the macro algae will continue to export the nitrates. If you find the nitrates continue to rise, then you could research some alternative export methods.

Also, should you add corals in the future, as they grow they will consume some of the excess nitrate.

Sean Clark · Aug 20, 2021

Best is a very strong word. For me, best is a sulfur biodinitrator. Once established you can pick and choose your nitrate level on demand. Oh, and without having to purchase additional consumables. However I do agree with the earlier post stating that it is too early to be chasing numbers. I would not dose fix it in a bottle cures and just wait for nature to find its balance.