Nitrate

vucious

vucious

Member
When I first bought my biocube from cl, the nitrate was at a horrendous 150ppm. After a lot of water changes, upgraded to intank media (filter floss, purigen, and chemi-pure), and skimmer, I was able to get it down to about 40ppm. I have been trying vodka dosing for a week or so.

Is there a faster way to get nitrate levels down to 0? I think once I get to 0, I would be able to keep it there.

Thanks,
Vucious
 
Did you keep the former owner's sand? Is it actual sand or gravel? Is it full of detritus? Deep sand bed? Have you vaccumed the sand/gravel? Are you skimming? What is your bioload? What are you feeding and how much?

Tell us more about the possible sources of the nitrate.
 
I want to add that I have had the tank for about 1 month.

Did you keep the former owner's sand?
<vucious> Yes, I kept the former owner's sand. The setup came with sand, rocks, and fish.

Is it actual sand or gravel? Is it full of detritus? Have you vaccumed the sand/gravel?
<vucious> It's actual sand. It probably was full of detritus and I tried to vacuum, but it's more difficult with sand since it tends to get sucked out of the tank.

Are you skimming?
<vucious> Yes.

What is your bioload?
2 clowns
1 six-line wrasse
1 yellowtail damsel
1 goby firefish
1 blenny scooter
emerald crab, shrimp, snails

What are you feeding and how much?
I feed about 1 frozen brine shrimp or equivalent mysis a day
 
I'm assuming you mean you're feeding a cube of brine or mysis everyday? If so, that's WAY too much. I have a similar bioload in my 40 and I feed a third or quarter of what you are. Cut that back.

I basically feed what my fish can consume in about a minute every morning and virtually no food ever hits my sand bed. I also have a decent skimmer and I'm running carbon, purigen and phos. removal media.

If you're not going to replace the sand, continue to vaccum in sections as you do water changes (often).

Good luck!
 
Man, I thought I was already cutting back with 1 cube per day. I usually do 1/2 cube in morning and 1/2 cube at night. They always finish within 2 minutes. The blenny picks up whatever hits the sand.

imranh said:
I'm assuming you mean you're feeding a cube of brine or mysis everyday? If so, that's WAY too much. I have a similar bioload in my 40 and I feed a third or quarter of what you are. Cut that back.

I basically feed what my fish can consume in about a minute every morning and virtually no food ever hits my sand bed. I also have a decent skimmer and I'm running carbon, purigen and phos. removal media.

If you're not going to replace the sand, continue to vaccum in sections as you do water changes (often).

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
No sir. I have almost the exact same fish stock as you. Feed once a day and a third of what you do now. Keep the diet varied though. I rotate amongst the following:

Mysis
Reef Frenzy
Cyclops
Pellets
Flakes

Your fish will ALWAYS look hungry. haha. Start dialing that back.

vucious said:
Man, I thought I was already cutting back with 1 cube per day. I usually do 1/2 cube in morning and 1/2 cube at night. They always finish within 2 minutes. The blenny picks up whatever hits the sand.
Click to expand...
 
ALWAYS defrost any cubed foods strain through a brine shrimp net. Brine shrimp has no nutrition--you'd be better off feeding pellets.
How deep is the sand bed?
Thoroughly stir the sand before your WC. Let the detritus settle & skim it off the surface.
 
Ok, good advice. I haven't been doing that.

Pufferpunk said:
ALWAYS defrost any cubed foods strain through a brine shrimp net. Brine shrimp has no nutrition--you'd be better off feeding pellets.
How deep is the sand bed?
Thoroughly stir the sand before your WC. Let the detritus settle & skim it off the surface.
Click to expand...
 
After 1 month of dosing vodka, adding a refugium with chaeto, and feeding less, my nitrate is finally below 5ppm. Woot!
 
vucious said:
After 1 month of dosing vodka, adding a refugium with chaeto, and feeding less, my nitrate is finally below 5ppm. Woot!
Click to expand...

Nice! Once you get your nitrates to zero consider cutting the dose of vodka back to a maintenance dose. 1/2 or 2/3 of current. Read up on this.
 
vucious said:
Yes, I plan to do that once I know it's at a solid 0.0ppm.
Click to expand...

You don't really want it all the way down to 0. you will end up with a nitrate/phosphate imbalance which is a big cause for cyanobacteria outbreak. The bacteria that feed on phosphate need nitrates, otherwise your phosphate will never go down, then cyano comes in. there are a few good info on this on the national forums.
cut carbon dosing in half before nitrates go to 0.
 
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