Reef Nutrition Raise Nitrates?

I have been fighting nitrates, reading at 10 for a month+ and I have really cut back on feeding. Running phosphate reactor, carbon reactor, marco in the sump, washed filter pads in Baking soda, Wouldn't reef nutrition be just like fish food as far as breakdown goes? e.g. should I keep that cut back on frequency?

 

Nor Cal Guy

yes, any foods, frozen, dry or liquid , can be the source of Nitrates as they break down in your system

depending on what your keeping 10ppm Nitrate is not a major issue IME
but I appreciate that you would not want it to increase

have you tried blasting the rock work with a power head or a turkey baster
as sometimes uneaten food gets into the pores, holes, and cracks in the rock work and that gives you your background nitrate levels

in addition do you have any rockwork in your sump? as if you did, giving that a blasting to remove sediment can help

Bio balls? if you have bioballs under the filter pad in your sump - again removing 25% of them each week over 4 weeks and rinsing them can also help reduce nitrates

Steve

 

Steve,

Saw 20 today on the API test. Loosing a few acros and some other encrusting SPS are browning out. Over half of my sps are doing fine but I am worried. Loosing a prize doughnut coral too.

Yes rock in the sump. No bio balls but the sump is looking kinda nasty. I need to find my gravel vac and clean it out. I got some nitrate removing filter pad today. I am running it now. Made my skimmer go nuts! I also got a sea cucumber to help the food issue in the DT. I have many fish and 6 shrimp (1) tiger pistol, (2) cleaners, (3) peppermint, then a 3" Sailfin, small hippo, 5 chromis, 2 fire fish, sand sifter goby, gramma, small clown and a tiny yellow damsel that lives in the overflow to catch food that flows into their... so I know I have a major bio load. I combined many tanks I had and could resist keeping some of my well behaved fish. I already took out two fairy wrasses that I loved and am considering taking out the Sailfin.

 

Nor Cal Guy

how much rock do you have in the DT - as even with a heavy bio load , you should be able to maintain biological filtration capacity in there (1st 2 stages at least)

I would be tempted to remove the rock, from the sump 25% a week over the next 4 weeks this gives the baceteria to increase in the DT to compensate for the amount you removed from sump = in the mean time that nitrate remover will be doing its job

the Macro algae you have will start to have an effect and with the space cleared by rock removal, you could always add a bit more or a different type

water movement in main tank goes a long way to keeping that rockwork sediment free
but in the sump where its a lot calmer that sediment accumulates and your nitrates increase



Steve

 

While I rarely use any type of chemicals or other stuffs in my tank I think you might want to look into the product Microbacter7.

And like steve said look for detritus in the sump, rockwork and sandbed.

 

Display is packed. I don't know how much is in there so here is a picture:



I think my sump has way to much sediment now that I have looked. Not much dead space in DT, maybe the back portion...

 

1st comment from me, is the tank looks excellent

there does seem ample rockwork in there, and judging by the amount of ripple I can see at the water surface , your good with flow IMO

There are quite a few fish in there, so that may explain some of the nitrate issues
but if your sump is full of sediment, my 1st instinct says thats what requires most attention

may be worth removing and rinsing the rocks ( shake them around in the water change buckets) and then clearing the base of the sump

once its cleaned out, test in a weeks time and hopefully the nitrates will have dropped some water change with the cleaning , water change week after and you should see a drop IMO

Steve

 

Steve, I will give this a try. So far the pad hasn't changed the nitrate levels.

 

Help!

BTW, thanks for the compliment Steve! Means a lot from a Mod.

10g WC today, got all visiable waste out of the pump side of the sump. There was a lot. Gravel vac'd the sand. New nitrate pad. Cleaned skimmer...Nitrates=20ppm!

I will start removing sump rock rubble tomorrow. Should I remove 25%, dry it, then the next week remove 25% more and put the dried rubble back in? Poor pods. I'm going to tear up their home.

 

You dont always get immediate results a 10% water change would reduce the nitrate levels you had from 20 to 18 at best - which on our hobby test kits will look like no change at all

but what was happening is that those Nitrates where being created due to the accumulated crud in there so at very least you have stopped them escalating and they should reduce over time

I would not put the rubble back in there to be honest
(old saying on another site was ,if rock rubble and bio balls do the same job, neither belong in your sump)

I would remove 25% per week over 4 weeks and thats to ensure you dont disrupt your biological capacity to much in 1 go - the bacteria removed will be compensated for by bacteria increase on the live rock in your DT
if you have a fuge? I would maybe add a piece or 2 of the rubble to there which will ensure your pod population is maintained

Steve