Need advice on lowering Nitrates

Anything you put in there to get nitrates out takes time to cure. They work, to the best of my limited knowledge, like a denitrator. You need anaerobic bacteria growth to battle the evil, vile, nasty NO3.

Talk to Tangster about a denitrator. You will drop $80 to $100 but it is worth it. He is a talented individual and has made many, many denitrators for those on the forums.

 

Did you ever get an answer to this? I've the same question.

 

Chaeto. I always had 20ppm of nitrates, then after I added some chaeto, BAM!, problem fixed.

 

I have done everything everyone here has suggested, and still run, and have run, 20-40ppm nitrates since I set my tank up 3 years ago. I used to stress over it, then realized my corals tend to grow about 3x faster than most people, especially chalices and sofites. I also have a simply amazing clam collection. I recently spoke to a guy who has been reefing for 20 years, he told me that he was so unconcerned about nitrates he hadn't tested for it for around 3 years, and not to worry about it. I have tried everything from dosing sugar and/or vodka, a skimmer 3x the size my tank needed, I have chaeto, removed every single sponge, I even stopped feeding my fish entirely until they were thin and turning on one another. It just didn't matter. My nitrates never fell below 20.
Recently another professional reefer suggested that it's possible that some tanks-- including mine-- simply run a high nitrate level naturally. He said he'd seen thousands of tanks around the country, and some of them simply ran that way, they would run with nitrates.

I wouldn't worry about 20ppm. My tank has been there for 2 years and I have a very nice reef. Good luck!

 

I personally had very high nitrates before converting my tank to reef.. I cleaned all my filters, the bottom of wet/dry, my bioballs, and added a bag of de-nitrate media at the bottom of my sump. Also did 2 big water changes.. has been at 0 for last 3 months..

also test your replacement water to see if your adding any more when you do water changes..