Nitrate Removal

Well, so far my nitrates seem to be hanging around 10-15. I don't really want to build a fuge for now.

Does anyone have experience with some of the nitrate pads / absorption products? Like Purigen for example? If so, have you had a good experience with them? I would really like to drop my nitrates down below 10 consistently. 0 would be nice. If I have to build a fuge, then I have to, but I don't exactly have room for one by the tank, without draining and moving it.

 

i use nitrate sponge on my 10 gallon. the nitrates where at 40 last week before adding it, now there at 20. i uses kent marine nitrate sponge media in a stocking stuck over a powerhead.

it would probably work better if it was in a reactor or canister filter

although this is hardly a acurate test for result as i keep chaeto in one side of the tank too. it looks like it finally started growing this week but not much.

 

I will look into adding some into a reactor. Anyone else running a nitrate removing product?

 

There are quite a few fellow reefers here that use denitrtors. I use chateo myself in my fuge and it keeps my no3 and po4 at zero. Maybe you can find a way to add chateo to your sump. You will need a light for the chateo to grow but it can be a simple clamp loght from home depot with a 6500k bulb.

 

I really have 0 room left in my sump. With the skimmer, reactors, return pump, etc, the 20 tall is competely full.

I have one of the clip on lights that I used to run on the 30 gallon I had with a 20 long sump.

I have a spare 2x24 watt 30" T5 that I may get a couple 6500k bulbs for and do a display refugium.

I really would prefer to just run some media for now though.

 

You dont need fuge to reduce nitrates. Im in the process of removing my fuge and converting it into a fresh water reserve.

You need to make sure that there are no "dead zones" in your tank where organic matter is decomposing because of insufficient flow.

I mainly rely on my skimmer and biological filtration to process and remove the nitrates. You can try dosing vodka aswell and see what kind of results you'll get. In your tank i would say 0.5ml of distilled vodka per day. This will cause a bacterial bloom which will increase the rate of consumption of organic matter. Skimmer is a must for vodka dosing.
Please read the article at reefkeeping before you attempt anything.

Finally you can try AZ-N03, this works very well but takes a couple of weeks.



There are other products that boost the biological filtration and process nitrates.
Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7


Seachem Stability


You can try removing mechanical filtration and simply rely on the skimmer. Sometimes particles get stuck in the mechanical filters and produce nitrates.

Be careful when your feeding and make sure the food does not enter the filters.

#1 thing is to increse flow, should be 50X times your water volume.

 

Hhmmm i've never tried ant of the media absorbing products. A fuge will also be beneficial for pods and such also! Sorry i'm no help with the absorbing pads or medias. Let us know if you are successful with whatever way you end up going. Happy reefing

 

I would be careful with chemical means of removing nitrates specially if it is going to be you permanent solution and means of exporting nitrates. I've never used any of these but may not be the best permanent solution...i like the natural ways as opposed to chemical means...anybody else have info on these no3 removing chemicals?

 

Currently I have around 3,400 gph of flow, which is around 45x tank volume.

I run 0 mechanical filtration. I just run the bullet, and skim heavily - I don't quite wet skim, but it's somewhere between dry / wet skimmate. I do keep some pantyhose on the outlet of the skimmer to help break micro bubbles and it traps any larger debris that doesn't get skimmed, which I rinse or change every few days. Doesn't really count much as mechcanical filtration. No bio balls, and also have live rock in sump.

I have hardly any algae at all in the tank, and don't scrape the glass anymore. Nothing to scrape (except some coralline, which is hard to remove). Corals are growing like weeds. I may not even need to worry...

Thank you for the product recommendations, I will research them and see if they fit my needs.

 

Looks like you're doing everything right. 45x is more than enough flow. 10-15 is actually not that bad. You can just try vodka and see what happens.

What do you feed your fish/coral?

AZ-NO3 will get your nitrates down to 0 . It did in my 120g