Who does NOT have zero nitrate?

[treesprite]

This is a subject that always disturbs me because I do NOT have zero nitrate when the majority of other people (on the internet) claim they do, hence I feel like people think I'm some sort of hobby criminal. Here are some questions that I have:

 

Who is not afraid to admit that they do not have zero nitrate in their tank?

 

What are you doing in effort to keep it down (would be good to see some feedback on expensive but not effective enough equipment)?

 

What are you planning to do in the future to help keep nitrate down?

__________________________________________________

 

I myself can not get my nitrate to zero. It has never been less than 10 and I struggle to not let it get up as high as 15 but it has it's moments to do so. This time last year it was off the color chart, so clearly I've done something right but apparently not enough to catch up with all the people who report zero who seem to be in the majority on the internet.

 

These are things I did/am doing to get it down:

I took the crushed coral out of the tank last spring.

I cut down feeding but apparently not enough.... I don't want to starve fish who always look and act hungry

I got a protien skimmer to replace the old airstone thing I had.

I set up a sump/refugium.

I did massive water changes every week for a couple of months.

I still am doing weekly water changes of 5-10% (system of about 95g).

 

My near-future plan is to set up a DSB. I can't afford equipment right now so other methods will have to wait. Even so, hearing that other people are using expensive equipment lets me know that something is up with the majority of people on hobby forums giving reports of zero.

[shawns]

there would be one other thing that you could use to help filter your system. you could add a fluidized media reactor. im sure that could help too. there arent many that can get to zero w/ out a lot of husbandry, work and experience.

[txaggies07]

I am sure I don't. I overfeed and I overstock. My corals are doing well though so all is right with the world.

[jason the filter freak]

Same here i have low nitrates, but not zero. I use tap water, cannister filter, and a sponge as a bubble trap on my skimmer. No issues here

[Highland Reefer]

I just took my weekly readings on my water parameters. My nitrate finally hit 10 ppm. It was up to 80 ppm. It took about 3 weeks to drop. I still have the crushed coral in my tank, but I thoroughly stir it every week. As a lot of people know, I have been dosing my kalk with vinegar which seems to be helping alot with the nitrates. I skim wet. I have plans to add a barrel with a dsb and I would like to add a separate refugium. I'm saving up for these items. I have talked to a lot of reefers and they say they are lucky to keep theirs below 10. I have read quite a bit about it and there are lot of sources who claim, that keeping the nitrates below 20 is pretty good. Everything is doing fine, so I am not to concerned at this point.

 

[jamal]

high nitrates have cost me plenty of corals. the highest it has been is 40ppm. at one point i had it down to 5ppm. but for some reason it went back up again. i have decided to try a denitrator. havent found out when i will gget it but ill let you guys know how it goes when i do.i have a sand bed in my tank and in my fuge and i grow macro algae and i dont have bioballs or crushed corals. i do believe that these fish often go hungry in our tanks in the pursuit of low nutrients for the purpose of keeping acros. good luck in bringing the trates down everyone.

[gmubeach]

My gf just over fed my tank:) high nitrates here I come!

[Freezerburn]

I had a deep sandbed and never ran into a nitrate problem. Try adding some live rock or a remote deep sand bed in a bucket

[treesprite]

has anyone here actually built a diy denitrator that is actively being used?

[jhn]

My 70 gal. has undetectable or close to zero nitrates w/ salifert test kit, at least the last time I checked a couple months back, it did. I run the skimmer wet, have a 20 gal fuge with chaeto that grow like a weed, the main tank has a 6" DSB, have some macros growing in the display tank as well, and the tank isn't stocked all that heavy. Also have about 50x tank volume in circulation.

 

Now my 30 gal. cube is a different story, haven't checked the nitrates, but the hair algae and cyano tell me the nitrates/phosphates aren't where they need to be. The difference in the tanks is this one has about a 3 or 4 gal. hob fuge, no skimmer, and no dsb. However, I did redo the tank about a month ago,(removed the sand bed, and redid the rockwork) so it may take abit for me to get it back where it needs to be again.

[lancer99]

Who is not afraid to admit that they do not have zero nitrate in their tank?

I really am a total believer in DSBs. All my tanks have them, along with fuges (or at least some chaeto growing in a HOB filter). I too have struggled with nitrates in the past, but with the DSBs, none of my tanks gets above 0.5 ppm, and they are usually < 0.25 (Salifert).

 

Not trying to start a DSB/BB debate...that's just what works for me.

 

-R

[tonkadawg]

Last time I checked (probably over a month ago), I had .02 using a Hanna meter. I think the reason I'm able to get them so low is due to a combination of low bio load, over-skimming and high flow - keeping particles suspended in the water column allowing the skimmer remove them before coming toxic.

[flowerseller]

I have no clue, but I assume 0.

[gastone]

I really am a total believer in DSBs. All my tanks have them, along with fuges (or at least some chaeto growing in a HOB filter). I too have struggled with nitrates in the past, but with the DSBs, none of my tanks gets above 0.5 ppm, and they are usually < 0.25 (Salifert).

 

Not trying to start a DSB/BB debate...that's just what works for me.

 

-R

 

 

Different strokes for different folks you say? I'm cool with that myself. I don't check for NO3 these days. Though I suppose I could. Even when I first started and my tanks were total disasters I found that using a refugium with macro and a DSB always kept my nitrates at 0. I can assure you I had (and have) a myriad of other problems, but the ammonia cycle has never been one of them.

 

This article is pretty good reading and offers a general overview of a number of ways to reduce NO3 in the closed system. Dr. Farley doesn't mention specifically using a RDSB (I don't believe they were in vogue in 03), but as far as bang for your buck, I think you could do much worse.

 

G.

[traveller7]

Who is not afraid to admit that they do not have zero nitrate in their tank?

Algae and anemones with brown color are telling me I have plenty of Nitrates.

 

 

What are you doing in effort to keep it down (would be good to see some feedback on expensive but not effective enough equipment)?

I am not managing, measuring, or monitoring Nitrates except when attempting to hatch/raise fry. I will step up to weekly waterchanges at that time.

 

What are you planning to do in the future to help keep nitrate down?

See above.

 

fwiw: My larger system utilized a remote deep sand bed which kept up with nitrate product for quite awhile, but even it was unable to keep pace with the bio load in eventually.