controlling nitrate in nano

[hammy]

nitrate has been a serious debatable issue to many reefer...even to the amount of acceptable range within the reef tank. recently just wanna upgrade my skimmer and some equipment so that my reef will improve , my main aim is to control my nitrate .i always wonder is it possible to do so . wow , some reefer states their nitrate level is zero , i am always aiming for that .

nitrates , IMO , is even more critical in nano tank since the water vol is small , the parameter can be unstable .

yes , 1) using macro algae , 2) powerful skimmer , 3) Berlin style , 4) az-no3 , 5) sugar ?? 6) water change, 7)DSB , all the above can control nitrate significantly but just to share that a reliable test kit too is important.

just bought a NO2/NO3 tropic marine test kit from petmart and my NO3 level is between the range of <1ppm to 5 ppm ... the colour range is too near... i was of course rejoicing over the result and just wanna share some of the stuff that i do to my nano to control my nitrates. i used to use tetra ...

a) reliable salt mix is impt . i change from redsea to corallife to marine environment ... expensive salt but great solubility and result .

prizm skimmer . just enough for 2 feet and below ., skim wet

c) use distill water .( since water vol is small , and i dun want to inverse in RO/DI unit )

d)biohome (1.5kg) in my eheim canister 2215

e) weekly water change of 20%

f) ya, i clean my canister weekly or fornightly.

g) i have rocks to the max to how much my main tank can hold .

my sandbed is just just a covering to make it look more natural, no sugar and no az no3 employ. yup no sump too due to cabinet design and constraint. but the reading is taken after months when my tank really settle .

tank mate :

2x cleaner shrimp

1x purple tang

1x flame angel

1x true perc

1x bicolour dottyback

ya the purple tang shouldnt really be in a 2 feet tank , but aquamarine 2 feet also has one , just couldnt resist the temptation , so bought one from there too . hee hee.

just some sharing .

enjoy reefing .

[elimmel]

good tips

here's how i control my no3 in my 24G.

1. 1.2kg of biohome

2. >20 lbs of LR

3. chaeto in my canister filter, hydor prime 30

4. weipro 2011

5. 4inch sandbed

6. weekly WC (20%), tropic marin

7. clean filter wool (weekly, change monthly) n clean coarse filter sponge monthly with IOS vacuuming

other chem filtration

1. rowa

2. seachem purigen

no3 <5ppm using salifert.

note i feed pretty heavy

4 shrimps (cleaner, blood, randall & peppermint)

2 true perc

1 royal gramma

1 orange spotted goby

1 yasha goby

1 blue tang (1.5 inch in size, moving to 6ft when bigger)

2 lyretail anthias (will move with blue tang)

looking to add 1 bartlett