Nitrate issue

reefes pieces

Premium Member
Supporter
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
4,831
Likes
84
Points
48
Location
Placentia
#41
were you getting any bacterial blooms when you dosed nopox? Just like [MENTION=6904]Zoarder[/MENTION] the amount of rock or lack thereof seems to be the elephant in the room. denitrifying bacteria primarily exist in anaerobic areas typically deep within porous rock, deep sand beds, or blocks. Even adding in nopox the bacteria might not have enough surface area to survive and other bacteria will feed off the carbon which leads to blooms and cloudy water. If you don't want to add rock then try adding more blocks in lower flow areas of the sump. some other hobbiests have pretty good setup designs with egg crate and siporax.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2010
Messages
753
Likes
1
Points
18
Location
Huntington Beach
#42
were you getting any bacterial blooms when you dosed nopox? Just like [MENTION=6904]Zoarder[/MENTION] the amount of rock or lack thereof seems to be the elephant in the room. denitrifying bacteria primarily exist in anaerobic areas typically deep within porous rock, deep sand beds, or blocks. Even adding in nopox the bacteria might not have enough surface area to survive and other bacteria will feed off the carbon which leads to blooms and cloudy water. If you don't want to add rock then try adding more blocks in lower flow areas of the sump. some other hobbiests have pretty good setup designs with egg crate and siporax.
No blooms. It's a frag tank so I can't add more rock. I have two of the 8x8x4 bio blocks in the sump as well as 60 pounds of rock cause I have two frag tanks plumbed together. I have about 60 pounds of live rock in the small frag tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
May 16, 2010
Messages
5,694
Likes
23
Points
38
Location
Rancho Cucamonga
#47
So I am at a loss here with my nitrate. I currently have a 280 gallon frag system. Kole tang, Atlantic tang, yellow tang, sixline wrasse, two clowns, snails and hermits. The rest is all coral. I have about 60 pounds of rock total and bare bottom. I'm running filter sock that gets changed every 2 days, 33ml nopox a day via doser, 2 marine bio blocks and mangroves. I just did 40 gallons water change last week. I cannot get my nitrate below 80. It's seriously affecting the corals and I am at a loss.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tl;dr thread...but do you run a skimmer?
 

racer2438

New member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
16
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Santa Maria CA
#49
Ditch the Mangroves (add chaeto instead or culurpa if you can find some), add more bio blocks, (I have 6 in my 150) Keep doing small water changes during the week till you start bringing down the nutrients. What skimmer you have on that system? Also ditch the no pox and add a bio pellet reactor. (I did this and my nitrates actually started to go down, was at 40ppm now at 10ppm).

How funny.......I did the complete opposite and brought nitrates down big time.....I also dosed vodka......
 
Top