High nitrates, prime, and chaeto?

[Supra]

I'm battling high nitrates. I've been doing water changes and dosing with prime to help. I just purchased chaeto for my sump. My question is will the prime bind the nitrates so the chaeto cannot absorb them?
Supra

 

[bskerrichard27]

I would stop dosing ..... Keep up pwcs check skimmer make sureitsdoing what its supposed to

 

[bavass]

When I had high nitrates the key was to pound them down! I did 50% water changes every 2-3 days until they got to 20 then adjusted feeding, etc... Ars you using RO/DI water?

 

[Supra]

Yes Rodi, and I'm doing water change as I type

 

[bavass]

Have you tested the nitrates coming out of the ro/di? What filters do u have on tank?

 

[Supra]

Didn't check Rodi, didn't think I had to. I'm pretty sure my tap doesn't have nitrates because I have a freshwater tank also. Skimmer and live rock only. I just added cheato but I'm noticing I don't have alot of movement in my fuge. How concerned should I be with that? I don't feel like buying another power head
Supra

 

[mfdrookie516]

Prime does not make nitrate unavailable for consumption. I've used prime since getting in to the hobby... and nitrate is an important part of a planted tank, which is what I mainly kept up until recently. Never caused any issues. I'd agree that water changes and watching your feeding would be the best route for keeping nitrate under control. I wouldn't bet on the prime doing much for it.

 

[Supra]

After doing research, I found out you can dose prime in an emergency like you can with nitrites the way it is stated on the bottle. I did this and I definitely saw my goby acting better. Just did a 50% change I'll test in an hour.

 

[Supra]

Ok I'm down somewhere between 20 and 40. I know it's high but you should have seen it before. I'll do another wc tommorow.
Do you think I should add prime? I didn't.
Supra