Nitrate??

Hi there ok to put it bluntly i cant get my nitrate down from 50 mg/l!!

I added seachems purigen to help reduce the nitrate levels 5 weeks ago, but it doesnt seem to be moving at all!!??

all other params are where they should be, my tank is the red sea max 130d, and i dont have a sump!! (please dont tell me to get a sump, i know it helps with things like getting nitrate down by keeping macro algae etc... but if i tell my wife i need to spend more money on a sump she will kill me!!!!!!! ha ha ha)

All my fish and corals look healthy enough.

any advice would be great!

 

cut back on feedings, large water changes ?

 

how much live rock do you have? how many fish?

 

Mine didn't go down until I got a sump and fuge. Built it myself so it only cost me about $30 to do.

 

I have 25 kg of live rock, 2 common clowns a bangaii cardinal and a small regal tang (when he gets too big i will remove him)

I only feed the fish every 3-4 days, the ammonia and nitrite levels read 0 mg/l.

I do a 20-25% water change every two weeks.

I also run rowaphos and rowa carbon as well as the ceramic bio-media.

 

its probably the ceramic biomedia.. how often are these rinsed?

 

You could try bumping it up to 20-25% change weekly until the nitrates go down. The stuff you added might nullify the nitrates, but they still read a false positive on a test kit. Have you ever cleaned out the ceramic media? How old is this setup?

~Will.

 

The set up is almost 7 months old, excuse my ignorance but i never knew you had to clean the ceramic media sack?

would this not cause the nitrogen cycle to spike?

How often should the ceramic media be cleaned?? and i guess you just clean it in old tank water when doing a water change?????

I really hope this is the problem!!!

I looked at the ceramic sack today and it looks really filthy!

Im due a water change this week so i could clean it then!!

please please reply!!!!!

 

Yes, clean it in old tank water after your water change. That should help.

 

are you running your media in a phosphate reactor, The water gets better contact time and they are also good for growing nitrate eating bacterias