Reef and Nitrates

I have had my tank setup now for about 3 or so months and thigs are still very good. I have upgraded my RO system toa RO/DI. I do a little over the 1lbs of live rock per gallon plus I have live rock in my sump.

I only have 5 very small fish and turbo snails. I feed every other day and feed slowly so all food is gone and not getting cought up in rock. I still can't seem no matter what I do how I change my water or how I feed get my nitrates down below 10. So I decided to by a phos recator and put some De-Nitrate in the system to see if this helps get me to 0. Has anyone tried this before? I only plan to run the recator when needed but am not sure if that is a good idea. I use no chemical filtration only biological. I would like to try and stay away from any chemical or mechanical filtration so using the recator was kind of something I did not want to do. I don't want to remove anything from the water that my coarl may be needing. Will the De-Nitrate remove trace elements from the water that is needed? I do weekly water changes will this keep the trace elements up?

 

Hi, The zero nitrate is a debatable issue. I am sure from time to time you could catch your tank at zero, maybe after a substantial water change, and if you are one that does weekly changes (of which I am not a fan) you may keep reading zero or next to zero. However, that does not mean there are no nitrates. Nitrates are a result of a healthy aquarium. It shows the natural process of waste being broken down. One contention I have about readings from test kits is, how accurate is that particular test kit. This in and of itself is a debatable subject for another time. From my own experience and seeing what is used in many lfs around my area I use the American Pharmaceuticals brand. Their nitrate shows nitrates when others don't. I am not promoting, just telling you my experience. Many corals (especially soft) actually use nitrates. A low level is beneficial to them. In my estimation many reef keepers become obsessed with the whole zero nitrate idea to the extent they are constantly doing water changes and disrupting the water chemistry in their tanks. Keeping nitrates low is optimal to the overall health of your tank but obsessing over it is needless worry. Far to many aqurists are more concerned with nitrates than overall water quality i.e. Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity, Iodine,SG and PH. Keeping these stable and not allowing big fluctuations is far more important for the health of the inhabitants of your tank. Too many times I have read on this and other forums where people state they don't even have test kits for some of the things I mentioned and worse yet are adding supplements blindly! And no, water changes don't necessarily put back all these things in the correct proportions and so that's all you need. Mag, calc and others can be used up quite fast in a biologically growing tank. The sea is very stable actually and the closer you can get to mimicking it's level and stability the better off your system will be.
I am not a proponent of weekly water changes. On tanks smaller than 25 gal. Every other is fine or every 3 weeks. Salt mixes do not always supply all the Calc, alk, iodine, Mag etc.

 

My tank has been running for a few months. At end of cycle, the nitrates got stuck at 20. For weeks and weeks. And then more weeks. Two weeks ago it dropped to 10 and this last test (Monday) they were at 5. Just takes time sometimes. I didn't do anything, it did that on its own.