Need advice

rockhead

rockhead

Well-known member
Ok so my buddy is fighting very high nitrates in his tank and he has been treating it under guidance from Mario @ aquatica and it's been a weeks and still his test are blood red and he is end with the tank, now I never had to treat anything like this so I'm looking for some help ,

Thanks


Tom
 
cet98

cet98

Active member
need more info Tom....what's his setup contain?...what and how often does he feed?....how old is his system?.....fish load high or small?....corals?.....

in general, the first thing I would suggest is 40-50% WCs....and FWIW, I had a battle with HA and nitrates back in 2013 and I started running a very small amount of BioPlastics in a mini reactor and that did the trick for me within a month or two....
 
rockhead

rockhead

Well-known member
Ok 90 gal 5-6 fish lps feeding 2x a day , wet dry sump , 4 years old , everything was doing great until work just non stop for him and the tank took the hit now trying to bring big it back


Tom
 
The reefer

The reefer

Active member
U can try bio pellets. They do help bring down nitrates but it takes a bit for them to start working. How about dosing vinegar? Do a big water change , change out the media and feed every other day for a week or 2. That could help I think
 
rockhead

rockhead

Well-known member
He has been doing some big water changes witch makes me think maybe he has bad water ???


Tom
 
cet98

cet98

Active member
a wet/dry sump?.....what type of media is he using in there?.....

when I started in this hobby (more than a couple of years ago...lol) we used wet/dry sumps with bio balls (or the like) only to find out that they would eventually become the most efficient "nitrate factories" money could buy.... :banghead:
 
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
I battled blood red nitrates a while back, because I started my tank with sand and rock from an established FOLWR.

50% water changes weekly for a month, then 25% weekly for a month (with some sand stirring before each change...like 10% of it) , then regular maintenance water changes.
Plus Seachem Prime in the new water to address any ammonia that may come from the sand stirring.
Plus, bacteria dosing with each week with the water changes (I used Seachem Stability) to feed the cycle.
Plus, fresh bio-media that can support the anerobic part of the nitrogen cycle (I used Seachem Pond Matrix in my sump..cheaper than regular matrix and can buy a bucket that supports big bio load for ~$40).

I got my N03 down from ~180 to 0.025 doing this. Probably took between 4 & 6 months...lost track once under 10ppm...haven't seen anything about 2ppm in a long time.
View attachment 11166View attachment 11167

Good luck!
 
S

strike2867

Member
ultimatemj said:
I battled blood red nitrates a while back, because I started my tank with sand and rock from an established FOLWR.

50% water changes weekly for a month, then 25% weekly for a month (with some sand stirring before each change...like 10% of it) , then regular maintenance water changes.
Plus Seachem Prime in the new water to address any ammonia that may come from the sand stirring.
Plus, bacteria dosing with each week with the water changes (I used Seachem Stability) to feed the cycle.
Plus, fresh bio-media that can support the anerobic part of the nitrogen cycle (I used Seachem Pond Matrix in my sump..cheaper than regular matrix and can buy a bucket that supports big bio load for ~$40).

I got my N03 down from ~180 to 0.025 doing this. Probably took between 4 & 6 months...lost track once under 10ppm...haven't seen anything about 2ppm in a long time.
View attachment 11166View attachment 11167

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Wow that's a lot of work. If there is a chance he could be away for work or didn't have a protein skimmer then I'd stay away from the carbon, like biopellets. Ditch the wet dry filter. Put in some macroalgae with an appropriate light. It will suck the nitrates right out and actually be beneficial. All these other methods really scare me, not to mention how expensive most of them are.
 
rockhead

rockhead

Well-known member
Ok so it's not a wet dry sump , is running a skimmer, gfo, carbon in reactors and he is going with the heavy water changing plan , he is on his 3 week of treating the tank and is going to give it another month and go from there.
Thanks everyone for the input


Tom
 
rockhead

rockhead

Well-known member
Well his efforts are paying off and is test around 40-80 ppm I'll post back with more info


Tom
 
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