Nitrate Reef Confessional

Ok- so I have what I would consider a Nitrate issues IE they are at 20 and have been pretty much for the past year. Not sure what is causing them so thought I would give some information about my tank for some ideas. Everything in the tank is doing awesome.. Just would like to see zero for those Nitrates.

Tank/Equipment

120 Gallon Mixed Reef
130 lbs of Live Rock
3 inch sand bed
15 Gallon Sump with Cheto and live rock. (no sand bed)
2 MP40w impellers
Bermuda BPS-3c skimmer
2 x 150 MH
4 x 55 Actinic
Aqua Controller III
Mag 1200 return pump

Tank Inhabitance
30+ corals ranging from Softies to SPS to LPS
Fish- Two False Perc Clown fish, Sixline Wrasse, 4 inch Sailfin Tang, Tomini Tang, Zebra Goby.
3 cleaner shrimp
1 long spine sea urchin
1 Clam
Numerous snails and hermits


Misc
13 gallon water changes done weekly sometimes twice a week.
I do not vacuum the sand bed. Tried that once and it did not drop the Nitrates
Feed once a day
Use RO/DI water and have tested it and no Nitrates are present
Change filter socks every 1-2 weeks (usually 1x per week)


Parameters
Nitrates 20
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Alk- 8
Phosphates 0
Temp- See Signature
PH- See Signature
ORP- See Signature
SG- 1.023

Questions I ask myself
Could it be my sand bed?
Do I need a sand bed in my sump?
Am I overstocked?
Is my sump to small?
Do I have enough flow going through my sump?

If I'm missing anything that may be helpful here let me know and I'll be happy to share.. Would just like to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks!!

 

I couldn't imagine your tank being Overstocked, My 120g has way more fish then yours and they are quite larger Id assume. Everything seems like it should be inline for you to have a good system running!

Hopefully you can figure it out!? +k for luck!

 

Thanks Red! Back at ya.. The thing that bothers me is that I did not skimp on this thing, and took my time to do everything right. Just can't get this to zero. Honestly everything looks great it just bothers me that they are not perfect.

 

You don't hear it discussed a lot, but nitrates are brought down by anaerobic pockets deep within live rock. Thing is, you have to have enough LR to accomplish this. The more, the better.

You gave us a lot of information. Thanks! You claim to have about 1 pound of LR per gallon of water. You could probably double this amount if you wanted.

I suspect if you got yourself some more LR, that you would experience a gradual decline in nitrates.

Good luck.

 

You could try a larger water change? That might help reduce it a bit...

oh on another note, My filtration is all mechanical, besides the 140 lbs ish of live rock.

I know when my nitrates hit 30 back when cycling the tank, i did a 40 gallon change and it dropped it down to where the tank reduced it to zero... and havent had an issue besides a small spike about a month ago when one of my Sponges decided to croak... But once again did a fairly decent water change, removed the sponge... and back to 0 again.

 

I do have a sponge that has been "Shrinking" do you guys think I should pull it out?

 

Thanks Spark-- I must say you are well spoken and always have well thought out answers for individuals that post on 3Reef. I appreciate that.. Thanks! K+

 

IMO, If it isnt healthy looking, decaying and what not, I would... Id wait for someone else to chime in though.

 

I would try cutting the feeding to every day and reducing the amount.

Although I have sand in my fuge I didn't see a drop in nitrate until I added chaeto in there. If I were to do it again I wouldn't put sand in my fuge. I'd just use the space for more water volume and chaeto.

 

It looks ok- just much smaller then it once was.