Nitrates

[trble81]

All,

 

We have a 35 gallon hex-tank FOWLR and have a canister filter. Just recently did a water change (like a day or so ago) and while doing it, I took apart the canister and ran the filter pads under hot water to get them white again. I tested the chems and everything was fine, but the Nitrates were at 15. According to the Consciencious Marine Aqariust, under 25 is ok but closer to 0 is better. Everything in the tank is fine but we do want to add some peppermint shrimp to help with some apastia that has come up. I've noticed some Nitrate "sponges" that you can add to your canister filter trays for help but what I've seen they say for freshwater use only.

 

Are there some for marine or a technique to drop the levels. I don't over feed, so I've got that going for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I may quote books but I'm still reading them so I may have not gotten to that section yet )

 

Thanks in advance and I hope to see a bunch of you at the tank tours!

 

[dhoch]

Best way is to grow algae (preferablly macro so that you can prune it back)....

 

Dave

[trble81]

Best way is to grow algae (preferablly macro so that you can prune it back)....

 

Dave

 

I don't have a 'fuge so do I toss a bunch of Cheato in the tank or....?

[Buucca]

canister filters can be Nitrate factories unless they're cleaned often.

 

Bill

[lanman]

All,

 

We have a 35 gallon hex-tank FOWLR and have a canister filter. Just recently did a water change (like a day or so ago) and while doing it, I took apart the canister and ran the filter pads under hot water to get them white again. I tested the chems and everything was fine, but the Nitrates were at 15. According to the Consciencious Marine Aqariust, under 25 is ok but closer to 0 is better. Everything in the tank is fine but we do want to add some peppermint shrimp to help with some apastia that has come up. I've noticed some Nitrate "sponges" that you can add to your canister filter trays for help but what I've seen they say for freshwater use only.

 

Are there some for marine or a technique to drop the levels. I don't over feed, so I've got that going for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I may quote books but I'm still reading them so I may have not gotten to that section yet )

 

Thanks in advance and I hope to see a bunch of you at the tank tours!

 

 

Do you have a skimmer?? Skimmer cuts down on the organics that CAN turn into nitrates. How's your sand bed? Sand bed mostly breaks down nitrates wth anaerobic bacterial action (takes place a couple inches down). And of course - water changes replace nitrate-laden water with hopefully nitrate-free water. (but even a 10% water change will only lower it a couple points)

 

My 24-gallon has no skimmer and ONE small fish. My nitrates are pretty steady at 5%. The 45-gallon tank has a skimmer and two medium-sized fish. Nitrates are very steady at zero.

 

bob

[trble81]

I understand canister filters are nitrate factories. That's why I was cooking my skin to clean those filters.

 

As far as skimmers, I have an AquaC Remora running. My sand bed is ~2 inches and is call aragonite live sand.

 

Any other suggestions?

[ChrisS]

You could put cheato in something like a plastic soap dish and place it right in the tank. Anther option is to put in a modified power filter. Or you could find a pretty, non-invasive macro. Lots of nice reds and greens out there. These can safely be kept in the display without having to worry about them taking over.

 

You can get phosphate sponges for saltwater and something like PhosBan can work well. These are just bandaids though and won't fix the problem.

 

What are you using for your water source?

 

Also how old is the tank. Many young tanks have higher nitrates as it takes longer for the denitrifying bacteria to build up good colonies. My tank was 6 months old before it consitantly read 0 nitrates. Now I actually try to add nitrates (but that's to keep all my macro growing).

Edited March 20, 2007 by ChrisS

[trble81]

You could put cheato in something like a plastic soap dish and place it right in the tank. Anther option is to put in a modified power filter. Or you could find a pretty, non-invasive macro. Lots of nice reds and greens out there. These can safely be kept in the display without having to worry about them taking over.

 

You can get phosphate sponges for saltwater and something like PhosBan can work well. These are just bandaids though and won't fix the problem.

 

What are you using for your water source?

 

Also how old is the tank. Many young tanks have higher nitrates as it takes longer for the denitrifying bacteria to build up good colonies. My tank was 6 months old before it consitantly read 0 nitrates. Now I actually try to add nitrates (but that's to keep all my macro growing).

 

 

The tank was set up in January and is pushing 3 months now. The water source is tap conditioned with PRIME. I know we should use RO/DI but we live in Howard Co., MD (water is pretty good) and when we get to setting up the new 90 we're getting from Raf (later this year), I'll have saved up money for a RO/DI unit.

 

I can look into non-invasive macro and trim when necessary but if it's a tank age thing, everything in there is doing fine and I'm willing to wait.

[lanman]

The tank was set up in January and is pushing 3 months now. The water source is tap conditioned with PRIME. I know we should use RO/DI but we live in Howard Co., MD (water is pretty good) and when we get to setting up the new 90 we're getting from Raf (later this year), I'll have saved up money for a RO/DI unit.

 

I can look into non-invasive macro and trim when necessary but if it's a tank age thing, everything in there is doing fine and I'm willing to wait.

 

Sounds like you're doing all the right things. 15 nitrates probably won't kill anything - just need to keep an eye on it, because a spike from there could do some damage. I wouldn't recommend any clams or acropora - but hey, it's FO!

 

bob

[jamesbuf]

Having just 15 nitrates in a fish only is actually pretty good. If you don't have any corals recycling the fish poop, 15ppm isn't really that bad. I might add another inch or so to your sand bed, it would probably help with what you're trying to accomplish.

[hbh]

HI! I have added Cheato directly to my 55 and have not had any problems with it getting stuck or causing problems. I, too, have had to change to tap w/ treated prime and am not having any issues. If you want some Cheato , let me know. I live in Gaithersburg. You could contain it w/ an in-tank tiny refugium but I didn't. It just sits there. Hope this helps.

['Ric]

... I wouldn't recommend any clams or acropora - but hey, it's FO!

 

bob

 

Why no clams? I'm curious because I have had high nitrates and just got a "cleaner clam" to help. I put it in the tank and it was gone the next day. I assume it buried itself. I also assume it's still alive, unless there's a reason i shouldn't??

 

I also *had* a bunch of macro algae in my tank along the back, but it's been disappearing over the past couple weeks. I though my light level might be too low, so I added a 50/50 fl. light. Now I have some green algae patches showing up, and my macro still isn't coming back.

 

'Ric

Edited March 24, 2007 by 'Ric

[lanman]

Why no clams? I'm curious because I have had high nitrates and just got a "cleaner clam" to help. I put it in the tank and it was gone the next day. I assume it buried itself. I also assume it's still alive, unless there's a reason i shouldn't??

 

I mean the fancy clams - the $100 clams they sell at BRK. I was told that my tank should be stable with excellent parameters for at least 6 months before I try one of those.

 

bob

['Ric]

My algae are still dying back or something, and my Nitrates are up to 40! I built a DIY Anaerobic Nitrate Coil Reactor and fired it up a couple weeks ago, but it will be a long time before it is "cured" and working. Is there anything that will quickly reduce Nitrates short of another 20% water change? Does fresh carbon help?

 

'Ric

[ReeferMan]

ONLY WATER CHANGES AND MACRO WILL BRING DOWN NITRATES. I HEARD THOSE REACTORS DONT WORK RIGHT.

Edited March 27, 2007 by phisigs79

[kngfisher]

do you have enough room behind the tank for a HOB fuge? I had a nitrate issue on my sumpless 55 and used a HOB fuge (36x12x4) to lower them....worked like a champ and have now built one for my 90.....HOB fuge only needs ~4" clearance behind the tank and that is all I had. very easy and relitivly inexpensite to build or you can buy a kit off ebay that mimic the CPR units and less then 1/2 the cost.

['Ric]

do you have enough room behind the tank for a HOB fuge? I had a nitrate issue on my sumpless 55 and used a HOB fuge (36x12x4) to lower them....worked like a champ and have now built one for my 90.....HOB fuge only needs ~4" clearance behind the tank and that is all I had. very easy and relitivly inexpensite to build or you can buy a kit off ebay that mimic the CPR units and less then 1/2 the cost.

 

Thanks, but nope - my tank is only 20" wide and I have used more than every inch of it along the back. I modified my AquaC Remora skimmer so the input hose wraps over the side of the tank with only the outlet handing over the back. I'm thinking about revisiting my original macro algae in-tank-refugium-screen-along-the-back-of-the-tank idea. Maybe if I put a light behind the tank under my HOB filter to provide the algae a direct light source it will work. That's of course assuming that my big algae die-back was a result of too little light. I wonder if a 18" LED bar would provide enough light? Thoughts?

 

'Ric

 

PS If anyone can find out more about whether Nitrate Coil Reactors work or don't work, please forward me the links. I understand that the process is supposed to be anaerobic just like a traditional septic tank drain field. What are the pitfalls?