Why wont my nitrates drop?

How old is this setup? It took my tank about 4 months to 0 the nitrates naturally... this might just be an issue of patience (my top guess).

20ppm is acceptable for vast majority of coral.

hrm :-/ this is advanced stuff... it is easy to crash your tank doing this... I'd recommend against it... be careful and EXACT if you do try it.

tkeck - your thinking is wrong. 1lb is the minimum for a reef tank. 2lb per gallon is much better. I'm running just shy of 2lb/pg. OP is running less than that. Reducing the amount of LR is never the answer...

 

I also had 20ppm of No3 for the longest time. It was always at 20ppm, it never went higher or lower, just always at 20ppm. 20ppm will not harm corals, it would have to be in the 100's. I got rid of 90% of my BB, added a decent size refugium and got a better skimmer. After I did all of that, it took about 1-2 months and my NO3 have been zero ever since.



Luna

 

I have vaccumed the sand bed...i have blown off the rocks every other day or so....i have read a lot on the vodka dosing and seems tons of people have had success with it..I am going to try this out...i am going to be precise and if my fish start to show signs of stress I will stop....if 20ppm isnt deadly to corals i guess i don't have too much to worry about then. I just really want my water to be perfect ya know? Guess i'm picky..lol btw I have tested the water to do water changes and it had 0's around the board....i have used 3 different test kits too...all give the same results..the system is about 8months old.

 

Perhaps the tank is overstocked? How many fish do you have in your tank compared to its size?

 

i really do not think its even close to being over stocked...I have 1 lemon butterfly, 1 sailfin tang, 1 firefish, 2 clowns, 1 pink watchman goby, 1 cleaner wrasse, 1 six line wrasse, 1 Pajama cardinal, 1 sgt major, 3 green chromis....1 BTA, Hermits, snails, 4 conchs, 1 small serpent star, 1 flame scallop....its a 125g (6ft long) tank so there is plenty of room...

 

I have had very good results with AZNO3. I even overdosed in short periods and there was no impact on the livestock.