What Cna I Use to Absorb Nitrates?

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Here is my journey its long but my nirtrates went from 160ppm+ to 0. Vodka and MB7 was the trick that worked for me but only after I got my Nitrates to less than 20ppm. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patients every tank is different and you have to find the solution that works for you. If you have any questions please dont hesitate to ask me or anybody on the forum about this I had a lot of help from people and they were all glad when my nitrates hit zero so they didnt have to see my thread anymore. LOL! I keeped it up so it would help other members.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/high-nitrate-question-help-121548.html
 
Buying other peoples tanks is always risky if you are keeping there water or sand.

Either way if your nitrates were 160 everything would be history. I am not sure why your fish died so quickly, but I would get a test kit asap. If your nitrates are indeed 160 for whatever reason I would strip everything and start over. Save yourself a lot of grief money and time
 
So, I ran out and got a salifert kit. The nitrates still read the highest on their scale, 100 PPM - (dark pink)

I can't think of what could be in the tank leeching nitrates.
 
So, I ran out and got a salifert kit. The nitrates still read the highest on their scale, 100 PPM - (dark pink)

I can't think of what could be in the tank leeching nitrates.

Few questions.

Do you have enough flow? What kinda of filtration do you have? where can uneaten food build up in the tank? He or she could have had the problem before you got the tank. Are you using RO/DI and are the filters new? Do you have a TDS meter to check the RO/DI water? What are you mixing your new saltwater in? Test your water before you add the salt, after you add the salt and after it has sat in the conatiner.
 
Oh and Beat UVA tonight! LOL! I am a Hokie fan so I pull for Tech and whoever is playing UVA! Should be an easy win
 
bavass said:
Few questions.

Do you have enough flow? What kinda of filtration do you have? where can uneaten food build up in the tank? He or she could have had the problem before you got the tank. Are you using RO/DI and are the filters new? Do you have a TDS meter to check the RO/DI water? What are you mixing your new saltwater in? Test your water before you add the salt, after you add the salt and after it has sat in the conatiner.

I have 3 powerheads and use a sump with ext skimmer. I am not sure if there ate deadspots. Two PH's are in front facing up to center and one is in back pointing down a bit to blow across the back surface.

I was using a brand new rodi setup and just started using tap per the recco of someone who is on the same water supply as I and has a much more established and expensive tank.

I did test the water after using prime. No phosphate or nitrate. I tested after the SW was mixed as well. But it never sat as I mixed overnight then used it.
 
To get my nitrates down i did a 50% water change every other day till they reached 20ppm. Stay ontop of it once you start hammer them down
 
Test a batch of SW after you make a batch. You dont want to use tap water. As someone that works for a water municipality you are probably adding nitrates your self when you do PWC`s and adding FW. If it was me I would consider going back to the RO/DI. Read these

Tap Water in the Saltwater Reef

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/chem.htm

I decided on the tap water because the guy at the LFS uses tap water for his own reef. I did test before and after mixing, and no nitrates at all. I have a chemi-pure type bag in the sump for phosphates and silicates.

I'm believing that the old system was nitrate high. The previous owner said they rarely did water changes because "the system kept them low." But I don't think that's the case. I think that when we kept some of their water, probably 100 gallons, it concentrated the nitrates and they've always been high. I'm going to do daily water changes and see where that gets me.

But I sent you a PM, I'd be interested to see your thoughts.
 
OMG! Still top of the Salifert scale! And I'm out of salt!

Back to give my least favorite LFS more money.

I'm getting close to losing it here.
 
yep it takes time, took me months doing big water changes every other day i was doing 50%. My nitrates we so high when I ran a test it looked more like I had giving blood. LOL!
 
My understanding is that media will only work for removing low levels of nitrates and it takes weeks to set up the bioload using that stuff. I have some in a phosban reactor cycled it like a seperate to build a bioload filled it with tank water added MB7 closed it off and waited till the nitrates in it hit 0 then started running it at about 1 drop per second. just gives you more surface area for microbacteria to grow
 
My understanding is that media will only work for removing low levels of nitrates and it takes weeks to set up the bioload using that stuff. I have some in a phosban reactor cycled it like a seperate to build a bioload filled it with tank water added MB7 closed it off and waited till the nitrates in it hit 0 then started running it at about 1 drop per second. just gives you more surface area for microbacteria to grow

Sounds like it works like my LR. I have a lot of LR in the tank and fuge.
 
I've heard of tanks being way over 200ppm nitrates. That would be my guess here. If the nitrates are at say 500, then even after a 50% water change they would still be off the chart.
 
So there u go good article just line up the test tubes cutting the water in half each solution till you get your reading then buy a bucket of salt and let the changing begin should take a week and u will have it recovered
 
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