Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
I nitrates are creeping up. I am looking for something to assist in temporary nitrate removal until my refugium is running. Has anyone used something you recommend? Anyone ever tried AZ-NO3 Nitrate Eliminator?
Nitrate removal recommendations?
- Thread starter Brenden
- Start date
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MT79
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think some good old fashioned PWC's would be your best bet. Good luck!
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have done 60 gallon water changes daily for the last 5 days (300gallons) without change. that is why I am looking into something else to help out.
seaham358
Aquarium Advice Addict
How high is it? My friends have used it when battling HA and it worked well. But they did loose a seahare to the chemicals. I would use it as a last resort. Any chance the top off water has nitrates?
PWC vacuuming the substate is the best method I know. I also started using a PURA filtration pad in my sump 2 weeks ago and everything perked up in the tank.
Not sure how it would impacy nitrates. Claims to remove: Solids, Organics, Ammonia, Phosphate, Medications, Lead, Copper and silicates. Others have spoke highly of them as well. You could also add some nitrate sponge in a nylon bag.
One thing to watch is the amount of bioload you are adding at a time. I know you have been doing a lot of stocking lately. You may need to hold back for a while and let your filtration catch up.
Good luck,
Not sure how it would impacy nitrates. Claims to remove: Solids, Organics, Ammonia, Phosphate, Medications, Lead, Copper and silicates. Others have spoke highly of them as well. You could also add some nitrate sponge in a nylon bag.
One thing to watch is the amount of bioload you are adding at a time. I know you have been doing a lot of stocking lately. You may need to hold back for a while and let your filtration catch up.
Good luck,
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
I just did a 30 gallon WC. I know it is small but that is all I had mixed. I normally run small pieces of pura under the overflow drains coming into the wet/dry. Right before the initial post I removed them and put a large 15X18 piece of PURA filter in. Redsea test says nitrate is 2.5 ppm and salifert test says it is 10+ ppm big difference. I am going tomorrow to get a 325 gallon mixing tank so I can do larger WC.
Both my white and green bubble corals did not look good today. That is what got me looking. I will work on vacuuming some of the substate tomorrow.
Both my white and green bubble corals did not look good today. That is what got me looking. I will work on vacuuming some of the substate tomorrow.
How often have you changed the PURA pads? The larger pad sounds like a good idea, maybe a couple of them. Extra pads would be a whole lot cheaper than all that water. It was recomended to me to change it out every 3-4 weeks.
Check into the nitrate sponge as well. It can make a difference over time. Suggest not adding any more to the bioload until you know where your at for sure.
Even with a large system like your you need to give it a little time to adjust to new additions and build up the extra nitrifying bacteria.
Good luck,
Check into the nitrate sponge as well. It can make a difference over time. Suggest not adding any more to the bioload until you know where your at for sure.
Even with a large system like your you need to give it a little time to adjust to new additions and build up the extra nitrifying bacteria.
Good luck,
vacuming the sand when doing water changes worked wonders for me. i was doing like 30% a week for months with very little change until i started vacuming.im sure you will notice a diference when you try this, just dont suck up all your sand 
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
The refuge just got stocked with some algae but will take a while to do some good. I change out the PURA pads before the 3 week mark. Lots of water go through mine so 2 weeks is about the max life for them. What caused the nitrate increase was I ordered 3 corals from liveaquaria. When they were shipped 1 of the corals base poked a hole in the bag and leaked out. It soaked the heat pack. The corals were really cold when I opened them. I acclimated them and they looked like they may make it. They did not. I watched the ammonia and nitrate levels constantly but they did not increase. The nitrate is not as easy to get rid of though.
I was under the impression the fuge was not up yet. Agree with melosu58 and get some grape clapura in the fuge. I started with a small bunch of clapura in my fuge and it now fills the fuge. I also light my fuge 24/7.
I would give this a try in addition to the other recomendations.
I would give this a try in addition to the other recomendations.
vsnsofadrgn
Aquarium Advice Addict
i dont know if this will work for your size tank, but this is what i did. http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/nitratecontrol/l/aa091901.htm if your worried about your livestock, just slowly syphon the fresh saltwater into the tank. i went from about 160 to 20. i just need to do one more water change to get to zero. heres another slightly different. http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html im also waiting for my fuge setup....my fish are happier and my inverts are actually coming out form hiding now 
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.....MadManMac
Aquarium Advice Freak
I have a 175 reef with a failry light bioload now. I also have a fuge with chaeto and 6 red mangroves growing (all very fast). But the best thing I have ever done for Nitrates was to build a denitrafier (speeling???) It was simple and cost about $10 to make. I took a plastic pickle jar I bought at Wal*Mart for $2 and filled it with bio-balls. I then took about 50 feet of 1/4" tubbing and wrapped it around and around all the way from bottom to top with about a 2 foot lead that woudl attach to a very small pump in my sump. At the top of the jar, I added two hose barbs. On the first barb I connected the tubing that was wrapped aroundthe jar. On the inside of the jatr was a small piece of PVC pipe that connected to a pressure fitting and reached the bottom of the jar. the other barb let water at the top exit the jar and flow back to my sump where it mixed with the water exiting my Protein Skimmer. Once everything was silicone sealed and water tight, I hooked up the pump and started the flow so that the exit tub dripped at a rate of about 1 drop per second. It took about 4 weeks for the unit to start working, but from then on I did nothing but check the flow and my nitrates have tested at 0 ever since. Before that they were around 20 constantly no matter what I did. I have not done a water change for over a year, and my water is perfectly clear, all levels are constant and on target and I only have to add some minerals and supplements to replace what my fish, critters and corals use to grow. I know it is not what everyone says to do here on this site, and most of them are never ever wrong, so I am not sayig that their way doesn't work, I am just saying that through my research and testing that this work well and makes maintenance easier and much much cheaper than hundreds of gallons of expensive water gowing down the drain.
If you choose to gow the water change way, small partial water changes will do very very little. You will have to several large (90%) changes to truly get rid of the nitrates, since small changes will only take very small amounts out of the water. Good Luck!!
If you choose to gow the water change way, small partial water changes will do very very little. You will have to several large (90%) changes to truly get rid of the nitrates, since small changes will only take very small amounts out of the water. Good Luck!!
seaham358
Aquarium Advice Addict
Why the W/D when you have that much natural filtration? I would toss any BB and run a barebottom W/D. Even LR rubble will trap waste. Do you still have BB??
That is a big difference in test results... Anyone near you that can test it with their kit to see what they get..
That is a big difference in test results... Anyone near you that can test it with their kit to see what they get..
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have vacuumed the sand bed and have been doing water changes every other day. The level has not moved so I took a water sample to the LFS and they tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. All came up as non detectable? One test kit I had showed around 2ppm when I first posted this. The salifert showed around 10ppm.
Any ideas? I purchased a bottle of seachem Prime while there. Any experience with this?
Any ideas? I purchased a bottle of seachem Prime while there. Any experience with this?
seaham358
Aquarium Advice Addict
Salifert kits are usually very good, you have a head scratcher here, 3 kits all different.
I would have to go with the Salifert here....... How old is the kit.
With such a light fish load and so much LR it seems odd that you have any???
On the caluerpa IMO I would skip the Grape.... I went sexual in my 125 3 times before I learned my lesson and took it out. Cheato(sp) is a good macro. Also fern, blade is some good caluerpa to go with.
Have you tested the new top off water and fresh made salt? Any chance you got a bad batch of salt
I would have to go with the Salifert here....... How old is the kit.
With such a light fish load and so much LR it seems odd that you have any???
On the caluerpa IMO I would skip the Grape.... I went sexual in my 125 3 times before I learned my lesson and took it out. Cheato(sp) is a good macro. Also fern, blade is some good caluerpa to go with.
Have you tested the new top off water and fresh made salt? Any chance you got a bad batch of salt
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
OK seaham: After I read your post I went downstairs and used the red sea nitrate test. I have 2 of them so I tested the newly mixed water and water from the tank. You are suppose to let it sit 5 minutes then shake before comparing to the color chart. The tank water had a thin 1/16" line of pink water at the bottom (nitrate) when I shook it you could not tell the two apart. First color change on red sea test is 2.5ppm so test showed a result of zero. (I could only see the difference in the bottom before I shook it.) I next tested the new mixed water with the salifert test. showed between 2.5-5 ppm (closer to 2.5) I then tested the tank water with same test. results where between 10-25 ppm. I then got out the seachem test and tested tank water. Results were .1ppm I have a red sea, seachem, and LFS showing .1 to 0ppm on nitrate. The salifert is showing between 10-25 ppm for nitrate. I feel better but I may have just went through 300 gallons of salt mix for nothing. Now back to the original problem My two bubble corals (white and green) are not doing well No other corals show signs of stress. Any input on nitrate or corals Anyone
FYI
I have chaeto in my refugium. Just a start of a few hand fulls. I put a 1/2 gallon bag crammed full of blade caluerpa in earlier today.
Now back to the original problem My two bubble corals (white and green) are not doing well No other corals show signs of stress. Any input on nitrate or corals Anyone FYI
I have chaeto in my refugium. Just a start of a few hand fulls. I put a 1/2 gallon bag crammed full of blade caluerpa in earlier today.
My LPS react to changes in alk first and foremost, even before nitrates. Even when my trates ran as high as 5-10 I didn't see any change in the LPS (quite frankly I think they, unlike SPS, don't mind a little extra yuck in the water).
What do your other parameters look like?
If you were to do a spreadsheet on what the net effect on your system of 30g water changes are I think you'd probably never do another one. After 6 30g water changes you still have 73% "Old" water in your system. So that would bring your trates down from 10 to about 7+. 3 100g water changes gives you 57% old water in your system or just about cutting your nitrates in half.
Hope that helps some.
What do your other parameters look like?
If you were to do a spreadsheet on what the net effect on your system of 30g water changes are I think you'd probably never do another one. After 6 30g water changes you still have 73% "Old" water in your system. So that would bring your trates down from 10 to about 7+. 3 100g water changes gives you 57% old water in your system or just about cutting your nitrates in half.
Hope that helps some.
Brenden
Aquarium Advice Addict
Phyl I am getting ready to wake Brenden and go get Melissa from the hospital. I will check all the parameters and post later today. I can not imagine the Alk being off though. I constantly monitor the PH and use super buffer to keep it in check.
I know 30 gallon wc will not do much. I was do 60 gal wc earlier.
I guess it is just an opinion but the 30gal WC may have done more because I "wet skimmed" 30 gal out and then added the new water instead of just emptying the water.
I know 30 gallon wc will not do much. I was do 60 gal wc earlier.
I guess it is just an opinion but the 30gal WC may have done more because I "wet skimmed" 30 gal out and then added the new water instead of just emptying the water.
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