Mandinga Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Looking for some tips in reducing Nitrates in the long run...and phosphate. I have done water changes with RO water, but my No3 remains at .10. Can I add a dual chamber reactor to reduce Nitrates and Phosphates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Water changes using RO/DI water Reduce Feeding Carbon Dosing Purigen Nitrate Reactor Reduce Bioload I've done all of the above except the nitrate reactor and reducing the bioload which is what I'm working on doing now. So far Purigen had the greatest impact. Just needs to be placed into a high flow area and then regenerated when it turns brown. (Soak in 1:1 mixture of bleach/water for a day and then soaked for a day with water treated to remove the chlorine) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadReefer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Macro algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byrd Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Water changes using RO/DI water Reduce Feeding Carbon Dosing Purigen Nitrate Reactor Reduce Bioload I've done all of the above except the nitrate reactor and reducing the bioload which is what I'm working on doing now. So far Purigen had the greatest impact. Just needs to be placed into a high flow area and then regenerated when it turns brown. (Soak in 1:1 mixture of bleach/water for a day and then soaked for a day with water treated to remove the chlorine) +1 for purigen to remove organics not reduce Nitrate and Phosban Reactor for Phospahte reduction!! I use both those methods- No3 @ less than .01 and PO4 at less than .02 good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralreefer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 My nitrates are now undetectable... 1) Increase flow 2) Change filters more often 3) Microbacter 7 4) Aquaripure denitrator 5) Decrease feeding 6) Vodka/Sugar/Vinegar dosing 7) Better skimmer 8) Zeolite 9) Better rock/coral placement DrMerle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I tried many many things. Like everything you can think of. Sugar was the easy anwser. One packet every few days, nitrate stays at zero. I did have to work up to that dose, but no looking back. I used to run a refugium, do 30% weekly water changes, have a skimmer, have a nitrate media reactor, etc. Sugar works better, and is so much easier IMO HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelhead77 Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Remove everything living and replace it all with colored glass pebbles and a plastic shipwreck and a treasure chest that opens closes with an air pump? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I tried many many things. Like everything you can think of. Sugar was the easy anwser. One packet every few days, nitrate stays at zero. I did have to work up to that dose, but no looking back. I used to run a refugium, do 30% weekly water changes, have a skimmer, have a nitrate media reactor, etc. Sugar works better, and is so much easier IMO HTH Out of curiousity, what is your water volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Nobody has mentioned increasing anaerobic areas where nitrates can be converted to N2 gas, such as more live rock, or a deep sand bed. Depending on your existing flow, more flow over your existing live rock may help, too. My DSB took a few months to start really working, but once it did, my nitrates dropped to zero (okay, undetectable) and have stayed there for over 2 years. (clap)(clap) But... those things won't help your phosphates much. I use large quantities of macro for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Nobody has mentioned increasing anaerobic areas where nitrates can be converted to N2 gas, such as more live rock, or a deep sand bed. Depending on your existing flow, more flow over your existing live rock may help, too. My DSB took a few months to start really working, but once it did, my nitrates dropped to zero (okay, undetectable) and have stayed there for over 2 years. (clap)(clap) But... those things won't help your phosphates much. I use large quantities of macro for that. How deep is your sand bed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwcoralfarm Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Remove everything living and replace it all with colored glass pebbles and a plastic shipwreck and a treasure chest that opens closes with an air pump? Perfect answer +1(icon) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byrd Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Remove everything living and replace it all with colored glass pebbles and a plastic shipwreck and a treasure chest that opens closes with an air pump? If the ship is painted with a lead based paint will that have ill effects on overall water quality?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kshack Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 I think that if your nitrates are 0.1, you are already there. If they were 10 I would be concerned, and if they were 20 I would be worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 How deep is your sand bed? It varies quite a bit, but 3-5" in most places. I have a mix of different sizes, but none as large as crushed coral - it is mostly a size or two up from sugar size. When I first bought the tank used, it had been a FOWLR and had really, really high nitrates. Unfortunately, I did not realize this (being a complete noob) until after I had moved it to my house, including most of the original water. It took me a number of water changes just to get it down into the 10-20 range (by my calculations, it must have been over 600 when it was at the guy's house - off the charts on my test kits). Then, it stayed down in the 10-20 range for a few months. One day I started to notice a lot of bubbles coming up from the sand bed. Not a steady stream, just a couple of small bubbles here and there, and a bunch if I reached in and stirred the sand a bit. Soon I was regularly testing 0 PPM, and I have never had it read over about 1 or 2 in over a year and a half since then. Now that there is minimal staying in the system, I only see bubbles coming up from the sand occasionally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 It varies quite a bit, but 3-5" in most places. I have a mix of different sizes, but none as large as crushed coral - it is mostly a size or two up from sugar size. When I first bought the tank used, it had been a FOWLR and had really, really high nitrates. Unfortunately, I did not realize this (being a complete noob) until after I had moved it to my house, including most of the original water. It took me a number of water changes just to get it down into the 10-20 range (by my calculations, it must have been over 600 when it was at the guy's house - off the charts on my test kits). Then, it stayed down in the 10-20 range for a few months. One day I started to notice a lot of bubbles coming up from the sand bed. Not a steady stream, just a couple of small bubbles here and there, and a bunch if I reached in and stirred the sand a bit. Soon I was regularly testing 0 PPM, and I have never had it read over about 1 or 2 in over a year and a half since then. Now that there is minimal staying in the system, I only see bubbles coming up from the sand occasionally. Thanks, I'm around 3 to 4 inches now. Might go ahead and add another inch. In my sump I have around 6 to 8 inches. Ideally I would like to have the DSB keeping nitrates down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 You may already have lots of life in yours, but one of the things I did was get scoops of live sand from a few different, established sources. My limited research on the subject indicated that some of the worms and other organisms in the wild sand substrate are largely responsible for constantly refreshing the interface between the water column, the thin aerobic sand layer, and the deeper anaerobic zones. So, getting a wide variety of critters in there may help things along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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