Why are my nitrates high? And how do I get them to 0

Sump/fuges can be made easily and cheaply out of a store bought plastic bin.
The nice thing about them is you can bend and fold them into an already existing stand on a DT that's up and running, you can't do that with most existing system unless you keep it real small.

Big Box stores have every shape and size!

I keep my nitrates reading 0 on API, with LR, NO deep beds in the DT, and NO sand in my sump.
I do use a Skimmer and a large 'chaeto basket'.

I'm attaching a pics of my sump container. It's a 50gallon Rubbermaid 'roughneck', think, strudy. I squeezed in under my existing 125 long DT!

YOu can see it in operation near the end of my short (3min), DT vid in my sig.

Whatever you do, good luck, and keep on reefing!

 

+1 a good skimmer, and a refugium packed with macro algae is sufficient. I wouldnt spend a few $100 on something that you dont need IMO

 

IMO, there is nothing wrong with the use of a DSB nor the miricle mud route. My tank has been running 9 years with a DSB (2-3" of sugar sized sand). It certainly is not a nitrate factory. Actually quite the contrary as a DSB does an excellent job of denitrification. I have no reason to beleive that a mud system would be any different. I have a very close friend that has been running the same DSB for over 20 years. The current tank running on the sand bed has been up for 16 years.

With Dr Sanjay Joshi tagging along, we recently visited Leng Sy of Ecosystem Aquarium to see his 500g sps tank running his Miracle mud product. I must say I was impressed. The 500g was stocked to the gills with fat fish. Even with a large fish load, the tank has wonderful color on all the SPS colonies. The filtration consisted of bio balls, miracle mud, a small GFO reactor, 2 return pumps, and 2 uv sterilizers. No skimmer, no carbon, no calcium reactor, just a really easy to use system.

1. bioballs are configured in a wet dry type system to breake down ammonia to nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate. Basically a nitrate factory!

2. Miracle mud, like a deep sand bed takes care of the denitrification.

3. GFO binds the phosphate.

4. UV sterilizer kills free floationg pathogens

Bottom line is I have found over my many years in this hobby, there are many right ways to succeed in the hobby. Keep an open mind.

 

Point well taken, my mind is opened

 

A deep sand bed is 4 to 6 inches, not 2 to 3.

 

Exactly

 

LOL. That entirely depends on the size of the sand, the finer the grain, the less it takes for denitrification. with sugar sized sand this begins to happen in as little as 1". If I turn off my Tunze pumps, all day you will see nitrogen bubbles rise from my 2" sand bed. I'm not sure who told you that a deep sand bed is 4-6 but they are not fully informed. Like I said earlier. There are many different ways to keep a reef and being closed minded is the quickest route to failure. You can never stop learning in this hobby because there is always someone who can show you another way.

 

YES!
This is exactly what I suspected!
I've been looking at sand for a new build and began to ponder if this was a possibility after a recent water change in my nano which has really old crushed coral. It looks nice but it sucks as a substrate.

...Maybe I'll actually consider sugar sand this time...

 

I am already in the process of moving my sugar sized sandbed to my fuge and replacing the display with crushed coral.I just did not want to loose the benefits of the fine sand bed.

The hobby is not that hard. We all strive for the same thing. Success seems to come from the same things also. IMO we all look for good water conditions to avoid nuscance algae and to promote a healthy reef. That always involves:

1. rapid conversion of ammonia to nitrite
2. rapid conversion of nitrite to nitrate
3. reduction of nitrate
4. reduction of phosphate

There are many ways to complete each step. Even though some methods can make the average hobbyist cringe, it still can be a productive method that produces fantastic results in the end!

 

You never mentioned where your source water came from?