Cant control nitrates

Is your chaeto growing well enough that you are removing a good amount every week or two? You only have one method of nitrate reduction (besides water changes). If it's not working at it's optimum, you will continue to have high nitrates.

 

To answer some questions.

Take is 10-11 months old
300lbs of LR
Reef octopus 3000 skimmer.

 

Sounds appropriate. I would validate your nitrates with another hobbyist or LFS, preferably with a different brand of test kit, hopefully fairly new. I ran into this with a friend's tank that was off the charts, and we never did figure out why. His nitrite was also off the charts, which should have caused major problems, but most of his livestock was okay. I know there are things with water chemistry that can cause false high readings, just can't remember where I read it.

Other than that, increase frequency and volume of water changes, put in some media to absorb the nitrate, and consider starting a carbon dosing program to reduce and prevent the problem in the future.

 

Bio pellets....

 

How long have you had this issue? Did you recently have an ammonia issue (dead fish or something)? If so, that could be the result of your elevated nitrates. How many fish?

Flow, lighting, etc. have no bearing on your nitrates (but could be a factor in algal control from the elevated nitrates). If you have verified you numbers, we need to find a source.

 

yeah i would agree to verify your nitrate results, however it is very feasible that they are really that high. I find when nitrates get high, the corals still tend to ok (at least for a while) but instead what you see is browning of sps corals, etc. LPS are not as affected. Just my opinion.....I have had our SPS tank get that high before when I have slacked off on care

 

The latest trend in our reef club here is Red Sea No3Po4X. People are having good results. I personally have been using the new XL biopellets that don't need a reactor with good results, but my nitrate was only 5-10 when I started. I would look into a nitrate absorption resin to bring you down, and look into some kind of carbon dosing as well.

 

Update:

So friday evening, i took a sample of the water to the LFS and had them check my nitrates against what I originally tested them at. They also got a reading of around 160. I bought seachem de-nitrate from the LFS and saturday morning I got to work. Saturday morning I did a 50 gallon water change on my 210. Siphoned my sand bed. Added 205 snails from Reef Cleaners. Found that one of my hydors was in reverse mode. Cleaned my refuge sand bed. Found a problem in the neck of my skimmer. Noticed a small small small leak in the bulk head on my overflow. Spent around 9 hours satrurday correcting all these things. This morning my nitrates were at 10. I'm not sure if I found the source or if this is from my mainteance, but its a start

 

Wow lot went wrong at once. Good idea with the CUC, will help with algae and nitrates since they eat crap before it breaks down.

When you say siphoned your sandbed do you mean just vacuumed the top or did you stir it up? Never stir the sandbed on a reeftank caused all kinds of issues.

Seachem denitrate is prob not goign to do you much good, its not a chemical resin that absorbs anything but a form of biological filtration with small enough pours to allow for anaerobic conditions and nitrate removals much like we have with our liverock.

 

Sounds like you are on the right track, but I don't see how any of those things could have brought it down that fast. There still could have been some kind of anomaly in the water that was giving a false reading that your large water change and cleaning corrected. I'd keep close eye on it. Good luck.