Nitrate remover

ToeJam said:
How often do you feed? what do you feed? How much?
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Each night. I alternate between cucumber slices, a cube of bloodworm, pleco wafers and a cube of chopped muscle. As I say, there is very little wastage in the morning. And I have a few corydoras in there which continue to eat anything that is left throughout the day.
 
jpappy789 said:
Change more water %. You're barely scratching the minimum IMO if you only do weekly.
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:iagree: But I also don't have to adjust the water like you so getting past that.

Nitrate will not go down on its own you have to remove it by adding plants, chemicals/binders/filter media that you are looking for now, deep sand bed or doing water changes.

I would go with some plants such as java fern with whatever you find chemically to use to start with if plants would be ok in your setup.

I haven't found anywhere yet I can put java fern that it will not grow. I have one tank that has 65 watts of cfl light 7 feet away no heat just a air operated ugf and the java fern in there is doing nicely and sprouting new plants and added 2 days to WC schedule. Small tank but principle holds. Tie it to some wood or a rock and it’s good to go.

They are slower growing and so don't consume as much nitrate but a few larger java fern plants should slow down the accumulation of nitrate noticeably to ease the need for WC frequency. With enough plants you should be able to get at least a week or maybe even more between needing a WC because of nitrate and even more with the chemical method you are looking for.

I can't suggest any others as java fern is the only thing I haven't figured out how to make sickly yet so it has to be tough.

The more plants the longer it will take the nitrates to build to levels requiring a WC. The less cash spent on chemicals.

From what I can find your temp is at the upper range but should still be good.
 
ToeJam said:
WYco with the lights have you visited a Hydroponic Plant store yet? You can find some 6.7k bulbs there..they worked well on my Refugium ... Figure I toss you an idea to check out.
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No, I haven't I don't even know where such a store is- I don't think there is one near me.

I did however retrofit half my tank (to be 2.2 wpg with 6500 Kelvin CFLs this weekend- I'm doing the other half this weekend... so I've joined the realm of fairly decent lighting.) Cost less than $20 and the second side will cost less because I won't need to buy spray paint etc because I already have it on hand now!.





Back to the OP- you can have shade and still use higher-light and plants to absorb nitrates. Large amounts of floating plants will do this for you- you can even zone off certain areas for shade- by stretching air pipe across the surface. (it escapes during water change but easy to put back). Floating plants like Azolla, duckweed, water lettuce etc are great plants for sucking up nitrates... they don't absolutely need high powered lights either.
 
jpappy789 said:
Just be careful as a lot of floating plants tend to reproduce...quickly....
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Yes, but they're also easy to cut down quickly too... just a scoop through with a net... Voila! you have fewer floating plants.

All that reproducing is taking nitrate out the water.
 
IF you want to keep breeding and if you are conditioning the water (in this case lowereing the pH).. you may want to consider a larger storage tank for water changes.
this will help with the nitrate problem and also the breeding often requires pristine water. (which = water changes in most cases.)
 
Ahhhhhhh.... Sump tank... will give you more water volume so Nitrates diluted more- you can even fill the sump tank with nitrate removing plants and put powerfull lights above your sump.

A DSB in the sump too perhaps? Would that work?


You combine the low lights you want for your pleco- with a strong plant base in the sump for sucking out nitrates.
 
I'm liking the floating plants idea.

I bought a bigger container today for the water I prepare for water changes. It holds 60-70litres as opposed to 35litres. So it over 2/3 of the tanks volume. Should be easier to do water changes now.

On the main tank I have a condensation tray with some insulation tape taped onto it in lines so the light above only partially goes through it to the water below (so the tank is dimmer), but a load of floating plants would do the job better.

So which type is the most prolific, most nitrate consuming, and can handle warm temps of around 86f? And would they have it at my local Maidenhead aquatics or would I have to get it online?

Thanks again.
 
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