I have a 55 gallon reef tank. My Nitrates are at 60 and I cannot get them lower then 40. I have done numerous water changes and Istill cannot get them lower. I only have 4 fish and some inverts. All of my other water parameters are perfect. I do not have a protein skimmer. I know I need one and I am saving for one. I should be able to get me Nitrates lower then 40 without one though. Please let me know what else I can do to get them down. Thansk
High nitrates!!!
- Thread starter rightnow
- Start date
what size of tank? deep sand bed? how much live rock?? water Flow? all of these questions need to be answered before anyone can help you.
I am using a liquid test. I also use tap water that only had a low amount of nitrates. I do have a sand bed but it is not live sand and the bed is onlyone inch deep. Should it be deeper? For water flow I am using my canister filter and a water pump. I do have another pump, should I use it? I have about 50lbs. of live rock. I removed all of the biological substrate rocks from my filter because I heard they are nitrate factories. Since then my Ammonia Nitrite levels are fine. I know a refugium will help but I really do not have the space and money to get one. Do you think that 60 ppm of Nitrate is very bad for my inverts or soft corals? Thanks fr your help, let me know if you need any more info.
Yes, 60ppm of nitrates is bad for all of your tank's inhabitants. It stresses the fish, inverts and corals. What do you currently have in your tank and how long has it been running?
rightnow said:
There is nothing in our tanks than can remove nitrates. That's the purpose of refugium's and plants that consume them. Nitrate is the end product and the bacteria cycle. So water with any nitrates will build over time.
Feed less and do water changes with RO/DI water.
The above statement is false. Deep inside you LR is an oxygen free area that has anaerobic bacteria this converts nitrate into nitrogen gas which is released into the air at the surface. How old is your tank?? I would increase flow around your rocks/ add more rock, upp your water changes and back down on feeding. It is true that some soft corals will remove nutrients from your water colum. If you have decient lighting you could add some xenia which is great at this and will grow like a weed reduceing your nitrates.
Hello,
Please, tell us more about your tank like your stocking, substrate, amount of live rock and filtration/water movement. This will greatly assist us in assisting you other wise we're just guessing.
hth
Max
p.s. Jojo is right both live rock and live sand will denitrify but, they can only do so much. Also fuge critters and fast growing critters will help reduce avail nitratesas rebel said.
Please, tell us more about your tank like your stocking, substrate, amount of live rock and filtration/water movement. This will greatly assist us in assisting you other wise we're just guessing.
hth
Max
p.s. Jojo is right both live rock and live sand will denitrify but, they can only do so much. Also fuge critters and fast growing critters will help reduce avail nitratesas rebel said.
well aside from the anarobic bit the best thing to get rid of nitrates is to do more water changes. How many water changes and % changed each time through out the week?