Nitrates Control Opinions pls

[d5332]

What has been your proven yet trouble free way of controlling nitrates?

Refugium? what do u have in it and type of light?

sulfur reactor? how much fiddling/adjusting?

I am trying to set up a trouble free, self sufficient way of keeping nitrates but want to do 100% correctly and have it be minimal maintanance once setup.

Please share your success, I dont want to spend 18 months on trial and error.

Thank you

 

[d5332]

No comments?

We all know that messing around with a saltwater tank can sometimes become a huge burden. The nitrates, the testing, the tweaking this, changing that.

What has been working for you in regards to nitrates control?

I plan on buidling a reactor for nitrate media and a reactor for sulfur media. Will try one first and then the sulfur.

Thinking about a refugium but last time I had one stuff in it did not grow, for months and months...I suspect it was my light, not strong enough so I gave up on refugiums.

Would like to know what is working for you...

 

[prattreef]

How high are your nitrate levels and why are you so concerned about them?

 

[cowfish]

I've found regular water changes and vodka dosing to be the easiest and most reliable means for controlling nitrates.

 

[basiab]

Depends on how big your setup is. For my 24 gallon, water changes does it. Just remember that to get nitrates your first need ammonia, then it changes to nitrites and then that changes to nitrates. Skimming helps because it gets stuff out before it turns to ammonia so you have less nitrites to turn into nitrates. Same can be said for less fish, less feeding. They all reduce the amount of ammonia you will have so it all results in less nitrates. If you don't reduce production of nitrates then you have the nitrate eliminators as the last resort.

 

[d5332]

I dont have nitrates problems because my tank is not up. I gave up my 180 last year and now I am setting up a 65 gallon.

My question has been answered. Today I visited a guy in Parsippany to give him a serpent star fish and he does not run anything but a phos reactor, RO and a mega skimmer. No calc reactor, no sulfur reactor and no other pain in the ass equipment.

He has a super reef in my opinion and has corals that I have seen others that swear is needed.

The only major thing that I noticed is that for filtration his sump is significantly larger than his display tank.

 

[rbtwo4]

nitrates arent that much of a nuisance honestly regular water changes dont overfeed keep a low bioload and ur good. now u want something thats gonna be challenging then try controlling phosphates lol

 

[rkaragozler]

nitrates arent that much of a nuisance honestly regular water changes dont overfeed keep a low bioload and ur good. Now u want something thats gonna be challenging then try controlling phosphates lol

+1

 

[homegrowncichlid]

i use an aquipure denitrifier on my heavy fish load 85 gal reef . low maintainence, just inject 8mL of vodka a week and turn a valve.

 

[aznt1217]

You can control your nitrates with an Aquaripure, but the more important thing is how are you going to keep your phosphates in check? There has to be balance.

If you can run a Phosban Reactor and a Denitrator you should be okay.

I agree that keeping a low bioload and not overfeeding works... but... I want many fish and they are hungry =X

 

[mbg75]

A great skimmer, good flow in dt, and a fuge does wonders.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[Lostinthedark]

Fuge

I have mixed reef with a heavy bio load. I have 2 tanks both feeding thru a fuge with a DSB and macro algae. My wife likes to feed the fish a bit more then they need but the fuge keeps my nitrates and phosphate s pretty much undetectable.

 

[rkaragozler]

I have mixed reef with a heavy bio load. I have 2 tanks both feeding thru a fuge with a DSB and macro algae. My wife likes to feed the fish a bit more then they need but the fuge keeps my nitrates and phosphate s pretty much undetectable.

can you give a little more info. dt size, fuge size, type of macro???

 

[Mattl22]

Med/heavy feeding is awesome for coral !!! U just can't have high no3 po4 that goes with it that's why ppl carbon dose! In my opinion it's just not smart to not dose carbon in some way! It is an easy way to maintain low nutrients but still feed ur fish and coral every day so there colorful and happy ! Now ur gonna have all these guys saying you should Learn good husbandry first and I agree %100 but u can do that while dosing vinegar it's not rocket science !

 

[rkaragozler]

Med/heavy feeding is awesome for coral !!! U just can't have high no3 po4 that goes with it that's why ppl carbon dose! In my opinion it's just not smart to not dose carbon in some way! It is an easy way to maintain low nutrients but still feed ur fish and coral every day so there colorful and happy ! Now ur gonna have all these guys saying you should Learn good husbandry first and I agree %100 but u can do that while dosing vinegar it's not rocket science !

Matt i know what you are saying, but I have tried everything to date (vinegar, vodka, sugar, bio pellets) and the only thing that is working for me is Lanthanum chloride, I would like to stop using these chemicals and do it naturally, so this thread might help me in the right direction.

 

[Mattl22]

Hi Richie! I hear you nothing wrong with that at all I was always an easy way out kinda guy lol! Out of curiosity have u tried vinegar by itself over few months? It is really working well for me and few ppl I know!

 

[Lostinthedark]

I have a 120 and a 40 both running thru a 40 gal fuge with a 6 " sand bed all the cheato and a red macro algae that will fit. I have a slow flo of about 300 gal an hour under a pair of t5 s at 6700k. I also have two skimmers running. An aquamaxx hob and a reef octopus 2000. I don't really dose except for calcium And Aquavitro 8.4 with top off water. I Also do 10% water changes weekly. I feel the water changes are the biggest part of keeping everything happy.

 

[rkaragozler]

my tank is almost a year old, I have been fighting nitrates and phosphates since the first day we set it up, all the above mentioned items with the exception of Lanthanum chloride, was run for 2 months, with no affect on my tank. i will post results of Lanthanum chloride on my tank thread shortly, so far this is the only thing that is working for me. I will say this though this stuff is potent, recommended dosage is 1 oz. per 5000 gallons.

 

[rkaragozler]

I have a 120 and a 40 both running thru a 40 gal fuge with a 6 " sand bed all the cheato and a red macro algae that will fit. I have a slow flo of about 300 gal an hour under a pair of t5 s at 6700k. I also have two skimmers running. An aquamaxx hob and a reef octopus 2000. I don't really dose except for calcium And Aquavitro 8.4 with top off water. I Also do 10% water changes weekly. I feel the water changes are the biggest part of keeping everything happy.

is the fuge 40 gallons it self?? I also have 2 fuges running back to back 1 is 50 gallons the other is 30 gallons, and i keep a ton of macro algae,and a 4" sand bed in both, my dt has a 6" sand bed. my sump is separate from the fuge. maybe i need a bigger fuge????

 

[Mattl22]

The one year mark is when my tank finally settled!! I think my rock was leaching phosphates I think u will see big improvement in ur tank over next few months as it is established !