why is my NO3 always so high?

[yikai]

Hey reefers. why is my NO3 consistantly so ridiculously high? this has been going on for months liao with no adverse effects on my livestock.. even my corals. i know its bad. i nearly fainted when i saw a reading of 100ppm on my salifert test kit. the best i can maintain it at is 40ppm but it always seem to climb back so high rapidly. i have done alot of things to ensure my NO3 remain as low as possible but somehow it never falls below 40ppm.

i have reduced feedings to 2 times a day, i feed mostly pellets now.

i do regular water changes almost everyweek. except when im too busy, then its once every 2 weeks.

i always thaw frozen foods and never mix the juice with my water, except henry's food (which i seldom use nowadays becoz of my no3 problem)

tank was cycled properly.

i even got rid of my Moorish Idol partly due to the NO3 problem. as u know, big fish = more NO3

but i can assure that nothing looks dead or dying. everything is fine and growing. i know constantly high NO3 can be detrimental to livestock, but so many months and its like this still...

my tank is predominantly made up of LPS and softies, and another reefer told me that as long as livestock seem fine, i shouldnt be worried. beginning when i test my NO3 so high i was naturally quite worried. but after doing all this stuff i realised that the NO3 still somewhat the same after months but nothing die yet. so i just ignore it...

one reason perhaps is my not so high turnover rate? its not 10x as people reccomend. probably 6x only...becoz of the pump and the small piping, changing to another better pump is difficult...

will adding a denitrator help?

oh ya i also removed all bioball and rings from my sump.

[Thexder]

Can reconfirm the NO3 level with another test kit.

[RevellClownfish]

Maybe you can add in refugium??

[yikai]

my sump has no space for a refugium. and i tried once with ulva but went asexual. nearly killed my tank -.-

im going to get a denitrator la i think. saved some money from CNY and i think this would be a good investment. probably my test kit also something wrong. anyway nothing showing any signs of death so i won't worry for now.

[Morpheous]

I see some Reefers using biohome product. Maybe they can offer their opinion about the efficiency of the product cultivating nitrate eating bacteria. Regardless, denitrator or biohome, u need time to cultivate these nitrate eating bacteria. Algae and mangrooves can reduce nitrate. Thus refugium or scrubber are also another alternative.

[yikai]

I see some Reefers using biohome product. Maybe they can offer their opinion about the efficiency of the product cultivating nitrate eating bacteria. Regardless, denitrator or biohome, u need time to cultivate these nitrate eating bacteria. Algae and mangrooves can reduce nitrate. Thus refugium or scrubber are also another alternative.

yep! its ok can wait for the products to kick in.

[dragon1188]

Hi LemonLemon,

You should measure your phosphate too. Its probably off the scale too.

My nitrate was like yours. I manage to solve my nitrate problem with a plenum in my sump. Though I was happy until I measure my phosphate.. :-(

Thanks to SantaMonica post in the "Mega Phosphate Remover Post", i DIY a algae scrubber and now both my NO3 and PO4 is very low.

Before that i had tried denitrator, skimmer, phosphate reactor, deep sand bed.... all mixed or zero results .

Try the algae scrubber....it really solve 2 major problems (NO3 adn PO4) in one go.

Cheers.

[johntanjm]

swear by the algae scrubber.

I have 11 fish both big and small, feed 5 times a day, no skimmer, no water change, nitrate capped at 25ppm using tetra test kit.

[yikai]

my PO4 tested ok. its just NO3. probably thats why i don't hav much algae growing. hmm...algae scrubber. maybe will try that. but i wont be removing my skimmer for the scrubber. if i making scrubber probably hav to find somewhere to do it. sump no space

[[V]tEc]

My turnover rate is abt 15x, running a china made skimmer, a denitrator n i managed to keep my NO3 at 5-10. i have 5 tangs in my tank n total of abt 20 wrasses n goby. i feed 3 times pellets n evening 6 cubes of mysis n brine. Maybe u can try out a faster return rate for ur tank. with such a low turnover, even running a BK skimmer is wasted as the water cant be processed fast enuff.

[yikai]

the piipes im using are very small. so i cannot change the pump unless i redo the piping system. which is...very inconvinient.

[onizukaa]

maybe you can keep some chaeto in your main tank hanging over with a basket .. lol

[reeftask]

Hey reefers. why is my NO3 consistantly so ridiculously high? this has been going on for months liao with no adverse effects on my livestock.. even my corals. i know its bad. i nearly fainted when i saw a reading of 100ppm on my salifert test kit. the best i can maintain it at is 40ppm but it always seem to climb back so high rapidly. i have done alot of things to ensure my NO3 remain as low as possible but somehow it never falls below 40ppm.

i have reduced feedings to 2 times a day, i feed mostly pellets now.

i do regular water changes almost everyweek. except when im too busy, then its once every 2 weeks.

i always thaw frozen foods and never mix the juice with my water, except henry's food (which i seldom use nowadays becoz of my no3 problem)

tank was cycled properly.

i even got rid of my Moorish Idol partly due to the NO3 problem. as u know, big fish = more NO3

but i can assure that nothing looks dead or dying. everything is fine and growing. i know constantly high NO3 can be detrimental to livestock, but so many months and its like this still...

my tank is predominantly made up of LPS and softies, and another reefer told me that as long as livestock seem fine, i shouldnt be worried. beginning when i test my NO3 so high i was naturally quite worried. but after doing all this stuff i realised that the NO3 still somewhat the same after months but nothing die yet. so i just ignore it...

one reason perhaps is my not so high turnover rate? its not 10x as people reccomend. probably 6x only...becoz of the pump and the small piping, changing to another better pump is difficult...

will adding a denitrator help?

oh ya i also removed all bioball and rings from my sump.

First of all, are you overstock of fishes or less liverock, refugium?

Secondly, reduce feeding to maximum once a day. I have fedup feeding so I only feed frozen mysis once in 3 days since 1.5 years ago. The fishes still remain healthy and never change water, even a bit since 4-5 years ago.

Thirdly water turnover rate is too low to flow through everywhere. So lots of dead spots. Just add seio pump or whatever high flow pump.

Fishes can tolerate high nitrate but not nitrite and ammonia. Corals can only tolerate nitrate up to certain level, depends on types of corals too.

[mkt]

sugar

[johntanjm]

sugar or vodka is worth trying butttttttttttt i must caution to practice it using repeated 'small dose and observe' method. in any case you will not want to err on the overdose side.

[johntanjm]

sugar or vodka is worth trying butttttttttttt i must caution to practice it using repeated 'small dose and observe' method. in any case you will not want to err on the overdose side.

[johntanjm]

sugar or vodka is worth trying butttttttttttt i must caution to practice it using repeated 'small dose and observe' method. in any case you will not want to err on the overdose side.

[johntanjm]

sugar or vodka is worth trying butttttttttttt i must caution to practice it using repeated 'small dose and observe' method. in any case you will not want to err on the overdose side.

[johntanjm]

sugar or vodka is worth trying butttttttttttt i must caution to practice it using repeated 'small dose and observe' method. in any case you will not want to err on the overdose side.

[TayHongSiang]

Try biohome....place them in your sump. You can put the biohome in a small basket / filter bag then place them in yr sump.

I m using that right now. Every week just take out and rinse lightly with yr old water will do.

[dragon1188]

maybe you can keep some chaeto in your main tank hanging over with a basket .. lol

Had tried Chateo but they are good in reducing NO3 only and zero phosphate. They can also crashed and need lots of lights

[chercm]

do u have a sand bed ?

[yellowtanker]

Bro,

Algae scrubber, scrubber, scrubber! Swear by it!

I have close to 40 fishes and more than 20 tangs, a lot of them fairly large. Amongst these, there are 6 blue tangs (3 of which are 4 inches long) that just poops massively all the time. I also feed really heavily as the 6 blue tangs eats so much and so fast that I need to overfeed to ensure my other fishes get their fair share. Haven't changed water for more than 2 months; top-up using tap water.

Phosphate is negligible and NO3 is quite constant at about 25ppm - a result I am happy with considering the amount of feeding i do.

Give a serious thought about the scrubber.

Goodluck.

[reeftask]

Bro lemon, forgotten to mention: denitrator will lessen nitrate level only. The nightmare is, you have to adjust it very often to get the drip correct. The drip is so less, it will always choke up the valve throat. Then you have to release a bit for the vlave throat to release off the debris and then to close it back to the correct drip level. Many bros here had tried and gave up due to the frequent adjustment on the valve.

[dnsfpl]

my no3 is 40ppm for months

still finding ways to reduce it