Best way to export nitrate

[RH8198]

The protein skimmer removes "organic dissolved waste" but this does not include nitrate.

Can I check what is the best way to remove nitrate from the system, in addition to the water changes.

Am toying with a refugium with DSB, like the Berlin Method concurrent with my protein skimmer, but I am now having doubt on the efficiency of this system. Would a nitrate reactor be more efficient?

[Guest]

There are a few methods which I know can help to remove nitrate, bio pallets, carbon dosing ( volka ), nitrate reactor . The naturally means would be algae scrabber , DSB and refugium ect..

A good skimmer can helps to reduce nitrate by exporting the organic waste before it break down into nitrate.

[Guest]

Setting your skimmer to wet skimming does help reduce organic waste and nitrate in certain extent .

[hansolo]

What's wet skimming?

[Bryan Ng]

dry skimming is when your skimmer is producing an almost dry foam, it will take a while for the collection cup to fill up.

wet skimming is just that , your skimmer is turned up almost all the way and produces a liquid that is close to "tea" color. this will fill your collection cup up very very fast.

When you look at the bottom of the collection cup, there is a outlet where you can install a pipe or tube to a pail to collect the skimmate so that it won't overflow from the collection cup.

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[sherman]

Another great help is zeostone

[hansolo]

So usually, I would say people will mostly use wet skimming? Dry vs wet is just the case of adjusting the water level in the skimmer right?

[Bryan Ng]

Overall wet skimming is better than dry skimming but required more maintenance. You need a pail to collect skimmate which take up more space, cleaning the collection cup and pail, topping up of water unless you have a large reservoir fot auto top up.

Dry skim more for lazy people, wash the collection cup once a week or longer.

Another method some people used is wet skim before a water change. So you skim out the amount of water you wanna change and top it off with new salt mix/NSW. And adjust the skimmer back to dry skim.

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[JMW]

Hi, has anyone tried using cauperla to export? My concern is true effectiveness. Also, need to trim regularly to prevent them from going s*xual..

Anyone can share their experience?

[xiggie]

With refregerium and macro algae like cheato and caulerpa, you will need a very big quantity for them to be effective. Caulerpa might go sexsual and pollute the whole system , cheato is the best alternative.

[JMW]

Ok thanks, that was what I heard too, think the only way is to keep trimming them. Some pple even put them on a 24hr light regime to prevent it. Not so practical I guess

[RayL]

Apart from volka dosing. There are vinegar and sugar dosing which are also carbon actually. Im trying out sugar. Skimmer have been working hard but it is still early to see if it really works

[JMW]

Yup heard about it, some pple report sugar affects LPS(I can't be sure though, needs more corroboration).

This method of dosing carbon also need the skimmer to work well by removing the additional BB eh?

[RayL]

Yup heard about it, some pple report sugar affects LPS(I can't be sure though, needs more corroboration).

This method of dosing carbon also need the skimmer to work well by removing the additional BB eh?

So far it doesnt affect my hammers, bubble and cloves. But im adding just a tiny pinch of sugar every 2 days in my 38l tank.

Water is crystal clear. Skimmer is foaming a lot everytime i add sugar.

My 150g fowlr tank isnt the same story. Water isnt crystal clear. Nitrate is still very high. Maybe because im under dosing.

[dinGdinG]

Yup heard about it, some pple report sugar affects LPS(I can't be sure though, needs more corroboration).

This method of dosing carbon also need the skimmer to work well by removing the additional BB eh?

U can try out brightwell biofuel if you are looking for a reliable reefing brand with precise instructions on dosing to be safe.

I have been using it in combination with brightwell mb7 for the past 6 months and it works well enough for me to maintain my no3 at 5 to 10ppm. I also throw in a bag of biospheres to help out.

[hansolo]

You dose biofuel and mb7 together at once? Will this be ongoing or just to establish the tank?

[dinGdinG]

You dose biofuel and mb7 together at once? Will this be ongoing or just to establish the tank?

theres no hard and fast rule whether u can dose together anot, but i usually dose mb7 first and dose biofuel probably 5 mins later.

This is a on-going routine for me for quite a while. I personally have a liking for brightwell products as they give specific instructions on dosage in both high and low nutirent environment, but i'll still dose only 75% of the recommended dosage weekly.

In any situation that notice i have a spike in nutrients due to overfeeding, i will just increase the dosing frequency to maybe twice a week but still sticking to the same dosage. Thats for my old 2ft set up.

I am still closely monitoring how this combi works for my new 3ft set up and I have been feeding like crazy since i added 4 blue eye anthias. Have been getting undetectable readings on no3 and po4 still so far..

Just adding on to that, I still have quite alot filtration media, biospheres, rowaphos and activated carbon in my system which i believe plays a part in keeping my nutrients low.

[JMW]

So far it doesnt affect my hammers, bubble and cloves. But im adding just a tiny pinch of sugar every 2 days in my 38l tank.

Water is crystal clear. Skimmer is foaming a lot everytime i add sugar.

My 150g fowlr tank isnt the same story. Water isnt crystal clear. Nitrate is still very high. Maybe because im under dosing.

I am really tempted to add a small pinch of sugar too! No one will notice it! 

U can try out brightwell biofuel if you are looking for a reliable reefing brand with precise instructions on dosing to be safe.

 

I have been using it in combination with brightwell mb7 for the past 6 months and it works well enough for me to maintain my no3 at 5 to 10ppm. I also throw in a bag of biospheres to help out.

yup.... heard about this thing. Will consider this to bring down the trates & phos, long term more sustainable than frequent wc

[Martin Foo]

Hi u can try adding Seachem Purigin & activated carbon to your sump and bacteria wise may help also.I am using Prodobio Biodigest & Bioptim.

[Rainmakersg]

NoPox from Red Sea is a very effective and scientific way to dose carbon in my opinion.  It is backed up by science and quantity can be controlled by a dosing pump vs just a reactor for nitrate or phosphate.

Good thing it removes both nitrate and phosphate and these can drop very quickly with consistent nopox dosing.

[foo_pat]

Cheato helps a lot on NO3..

for my tank , my NO3 and PO4 are undetectable

running a refrugium with Cheato, a bio pallet reactor ATS in my sump... 

Fast way of dealing it , dose AZNO3

 

[daveyy]

Anyone know does biopellet replace nitrate reactor (sulphur)?

All discussion pertaining to sulphur reactor stop around 2010 and was wondering why is it so. It totally eliminates the needs of changing water (or rather, very very low frequency of water changes).

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks. 

[Harlequinmania]

The main reason why I feel bio pallet has replaced sulphur Base denitarator is because biopallet is more simple to use and safer.

When using sulphur reactor, there is a danger of overdosing and might cause all the fishes to wipe out. Also a bio pallet reactor is generally much cheaper compare to a sulphur reactor.

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[daveyy]

The main reason why I feel bio pallet has replaced sulphur Base denitarator is because biopallet is more simple to use and safer.

 

When using sulphur reactor, there is a danger of overdosing and might cause all the fishes to wipe out. Also a bio pallet reactor is generally much cheaper compare to a sulphur reactor.

 

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ah, i see. thanks! will scrap the idea. hah

[tuajia]

My chaeto amount is about 3 fistfuls worth for a 20g / 80 litre tank. Furthermore, my tank has 2 cleaners, 2 coral banded shrimp, 1 hermit and 1 chocolate chip star. With all these clean up crew i don't expect to be much leftover food lying around. I also run my cheapo airstone-powered skimmer to do wet skimming (i get this strange green liquid), cup fills up every 3-4 days. Despite doing all this, my nitrate levels are still damn high (15-20 ppm). Have to keep changing water weekly (10%) or else the nitrates will hit the roof. Not sure what's the "high amount" needed to be more effective. I do also notice my chaeto seems to be depleting recently, perhaps eaten by the amphipods? I have an explosion of amphipods living in my chaeto as well as in the sponge section of my filter. Not sure what I'm doing wrong

Edited October 11, 2015 by tuajia