supamarine
Active member
my tank is been running for nearli 2 months and my salwater nitrate is 20...i did a 20% water change a week b4 the result...do i have to do another water change to reduce the saltwater nitrate..thanx..
how to reduce saltwater nitrate
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Jonathan G.
Well-known member
i also have the same problem of a steady 20ppm nitrates... not to hi-jack his thread but use a wet/dry filter and just set it up with 40# live rock in a 75 gal tank. i was thinking about hooking up my penguin 330 just as added water flow and just put in filter pads and taking out the bio-wheels. what do you think? oh yea my wet/dry has a built in skimmer. and i also do weekly changes of 10-12 gallons. should i just do one 20 gal change or do like a few quick 10g changes? also whats the best filter pad to reduce trates? i bought some poly fiber today but was thinking about getting the carbon pad or this other kind of filter pad. once again i didnt mean to hi jack i just have the same predicament and thought these were good questions.
bigdave
bigdave
Take out the bio balls in your wet/dry filter. Until you do you will always run higher nitrate in you system the live rock is the best bio filtration there is and there is no need for the bio balls or bio media. I think you will find out if you do this it will go down to zero. Dave
Jonathan G.
Well-known member
cool thanks for your advice dave also what should be done first then... i could go to my lfs and get some live rock rubble for my wet/dry or order about 60 more lbs of live rock from online for the main tank first, which will bring me up to 100lbs? know what im saying? i guess which order is more beneficial for my tank? oh and i heard when you replace your bio-balls you cant do it all at once is this true? TYIA and also dont mean to hi-jack his thread just thought these were some important questions.
supamarine
Active member
oh so does live rock reduce nitrate cause i dont have much live rock in my tank
supamarine I still need to know what you have for filtration in the tank my friend, Nitrates come from alot of different things.
Johnathan bioballs basically house nitrifing bacteria, thts what they were designed to do for FO tanks. What this means is that they will take your ammonia from waste and convert it down eventually to nitrate but no further. The bacteria that take nitrates and converts it to gas live in an anerobic zone and use the nitrate for respiration insteed of oxygen. If you want to have these bacteria strains you need to create an enviroment for them, LR and LS will do this.
If you put rubble in the place of the bio balls you will see virtually no change as tht eniroment will still be blasted with highly oxygenated water and will still promote the growth of the nitrifiers and not the de nitrifiers. So dont do that.
On removing the bioballs you are correct in the take it slow concept. The bioballs now form a very large part of your nitrifing bacteria population, removing them all at once will be to much of a hit. So you should remove them at a slow pace (20% every three days) this way when you remove some it allows time for the population to grow else where in the tank.
hope it helps
Mike
Johnathan bioballs basically house nitrifing bacteria, thts what they were designed to do for FO tanks. What this means is that they will take your ammonia from waste and convert it down eventually to nitrate but no further. The bacteria that take nitrates and converts it to gas live in an anerobic zone and use the nitrate for respiration insteed of oxygen. If you want to have these bacteria strains you need to create an enviroment for them, LR and LS will do this.
If you put rubble in the place of the bio balls you will see virtually no change as tht eniroment will still be blasted with highly oxygenated water and will still promote the growth of the nitrifiers and not the de nitrifiers. So dont do that.
On removing the bioballs you are correct in the take it slow concept. The bioballs now form a very large part of your nitrifing bacteria population, removing them all at once will be to much of a hit. So you should remove them at a slow pace (20% every three days) this way when you remove some it allows time for the population to grow else where in the tank.
hope it helps
Mike
I agree with mojo...I would add this however...as you are slowly removing the bioballs, watch your ammonia levels...if it starts to dramatically rise, back off for a bit and let the tank stabilize before removing any additional bioballs...
As pointed out above, you will be removing something from your tank that your system has become fairly dependant upon for aerobic filtration, and any time you start altering this, you'll have a period of adjustment in your tank. I'd have a water change or two ready to go during this time just in case....
MikeS
As pointed out above, you will be removing something from your tank that your system has become fairly dependant upon for aerobic filtration, and any time you start altering this, you'll have a period of adjustment in your tank. I'd have a water change or two ready to go during this time just in case....
MikeS
Jonathan G.
Well-known member
the rubble that i would get from my lfs, actually all the live rock he sells, is kept in a tank with a bunch of damsels and a LMB so would this make any difference rather then just being just rock in a tank with a skimmer? he said that having the fish and stuff in there it makes the rock have a different kind of bacteria needed rather then the rock just kept in a tank by itself. also im gonna make a new thread about how i should take my bio-balls out so i dont take this guys thread =)
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Jonathan G.
Well-known member
0 to very little algea growth, and i do plan on adding either a 10g refugium or if i have room a 20g high. and what is the best kind of macro? is gracilaria good cuz i've heard that from several differenr people. also do you think if i add some shaving bush plants and some mangrove tubes in my tank it will help?
