My attempts to reduce NO3 to less than 10ppm is proving impossible. For those who do not know my system, the tank in question is solely live rock and a mixtures of soft and hard corals, turbo snails, hermit crabs and one BCS, no fish. The water is pure RO 2 x 150 MH's and 1 actinic, all CA, I MG levels correct by natural standards as are other parameters. The RO water produced has no trace of NO3 or PO4 yet despite 50% water changes to this tank weekly, no external feeding, my nitrates hover around 20 -25 ppm. The tank has a 10g sump with a deep sand bed and a little caulerpa. :?: Now, why am I still getting getting cyano and hair algae, albeit not a lot but still a concern given the attention to detail in trying for this elusive target. If there was no algae I wouldn't concern myself with the levels, its just that its presence concerns me given the water changes and lack of fish and therefore pollutants. The tank and 200lbs of live rock is very mature, protein skimmed and has 5 large pumps on a surge machine, for a 55 gallon tank its sufficient. The other fish tanks which are quite heavily stocked are algae free???
NNR - Help or is this the Holy Grail?
- Thread starter Tony Quinn
- Start date
I'm gonna suggest you actually slow down on the water changes. Perform smaller ones or perform them less often. I've discovered with my own tanks that they reach a level of stability only when I leave things alone for the most part in the early stages. Once the tank is stable, large water changes shouldn't be a problem.
Have you been performing 50% changes since the tank was setup?
Have you been performing 50% changes since the tank was setup?
How much gunk is your skimmer removing on a weekely basis?
I recently tried a product called AZ-NO3 (Absolute Zero Nitrates) that has seemed to help me reduce my nitrates. It works by bonding to the disolved organics so your skimmer can more easily remove them.
Also, have you checked the accuracy of your test kit? you could be getting a false high reading.
-todd
I recently tried a product called AZ-NO3 (Absolute Zero Nitrates) that has seemed to help me reduce my nitrates. It works by bonding to the disolved organics so your skimmer can more easily remove them.
Also, have you checked the accuracy of your test kit? you could be getting a false high reading.
-todd
Tony-
nnr does work,it's why so many set up a dsb (deep sand bed),using very fine (oolitic)grain sand at a depth of about 3-6".
denitrifying bacteria colonize the anoxic zones of the bed,where they break down nirates to nitrogen and oxygen gas.
it's important to also provide the fauna necessary to slowly turn over, and channel through, the dsb(bristelworms, nassarius snails/conchs, etc.)
the dsb usually starts to function well a coupla months after set up.
the principal is extremely similiar to a plenum, but involves less work to set up, and adds more biodiversity to the tank-there is also virtually no maintenance involved in its care
hth
nnr does work,it's why so many set up a dsb (deep sand bed),using very fine (oolitic)grain sand at a depth of about 3-6".
denitrifying bacteria colonize the anoxic zones of the bed,where they break down nirates to nitrogen and oxygen gas.
it's important to also provide the fauna necessary to slowly turn over, and channel through, the dsb(bristelworms, nassarius snails/conchs, etc.)
the dsb usually starts to function well a coupla months after set up.
the principal is extremely similiar to a plenum, but involves less work to set up, and adds more biodiversity to the tank-there is also virtually no maintenance involved in its care
hth
How old is the liverock? You could very well be suffering from OTS (old tank syndrome) Basically, it's when your liverock is saturated with nutrients and has lost the ability to process them. Once it hits this point, it starts leaching the nutrients back into the water. This would explain why you still have high readings after doing massive water changes... I recently went through this with liverock that was around 5 years old...
Good luck,
Ryan
Good luck,
Ryan
rbaker":iicgop4u said:
sorry-but ots is a myth-plain and simple-and live rock does not get 'saturated w/nutrients.and it never loses 'its' ability-what processes the nutrients are the fauna living in and on the rock-as long as food is available-the fauna will be present.
there are many many people out there with tanks far older than 5 yrs who do not have thie problem you speak of.-in high load systems, too :wink:
i would really like to know if you have a link to any published reports or data(other than dr.ron's anecdotal opinion :wink: ) backing up this statement.
nutrients get used by something-always-it's how nature works :wink:
while it is possible (likely, even)that elements like heavy metals get 'bound' up by rock-there is absolutely NO evidence to substantiate the theory that it gets re released back into the tanks.
i'm really interested to know how you arrived at the conclusion that your problems were definitely caused by 'nutrients leaching out of your rock'
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