What method for reducing nitrates/phosphates do you use?
 

Lets discuss our removal method successes and failures here. I'm trying to go next level and I'm not sure what method I want to try, lots of info online, lots of scary stories.

I have a 125 6 foot tank stocked with 9 fish. My fish are pigs so I feed daily and I feed frozen food (Mysis, clam, krill, brine, silversides).

When my tank had like 4 fish, I had no phos or nitrates, sparkling clean sand.

Now, my phosphates are .o2 (no biggie) but my nitrates are about 10. This makes me nervous...lol

I run Rowa Phos in a reactor, this seems to work great for phosphates.

For nitrates I have my skimmer rated for 150 gallons and a refugium PACKED full of cheato. This did the trick for a smaller bioload but doesn't hold the nitrates down anymore. I have a small CUC (10 turbos, 5 hermits, 1 tiger tail cucumber if its alive) and I do weekly 15 gallon water changes.


Where should I go from here? Vodka? Red Sea NoPx? Bio Pellets? Aquaforest Salt?

What do you use? How well does it work? What would you never do again?

How about upgrade skimmer?

I use Zeo. Damn expensive but I get good results for no3 and po4. Not a huge bioload of fish however.

I use GFO to keep my phosphates down, and bio-pellets to keep nitrates at near zero. I also use MB7 with my bio pellets to prevent mulm and cyano. Works great for me.

Go to post #30 of my journal (link below) to see all my tank husbandry practices.

I tried vodka, no luck. Switched to biopellets, no better luck. Switched back to Zeo, too early to tell.

And if you browse through the first few pages of my journal, you can see some of my early struggles with nitrates before I finally figured it out. A couple years ago (also documented in my journal) I experimented with decommissioning my bio pellet reactor. That turned out to be a big mistake, as the nitrates returned with a vengeance and took many months to get them under control again.

What Biopellet do you use Walter?

I have always used the Vertex ones, not sure if they are all the same. 1000 ml lasts about 2 years, or more (although consumed much faster initially).

Selling one? :lol:

Honestly, I could afford a bottle of vodka right now but not to drop $800 on a new skimmer. Perhaps in the future but my skimmer seems to work really well, I empty a lot of black goo every 4 days, just ask my family, they LOVE the smell...:lol:

So cost wise it's a biopellet reactor and pellets every 2 years? I'm guessing the 2 little fishes phosban reactor isn't good enough for pellets? I have one that was modified for them but have never used it, got it free in a trade a few years ago...

I poop scoop after my fish keeps the tank clean.

I installed BioPellets within a few months of starting up my current tank (6 years ago), and haven't felt the need to try anything else.

I know of people who have tried virtually all the various methods. In fact, I'm sure we will continue to hear from some of them in this thread. My personal opinion is, all the various methods can work, but the same methods can also NOT work. It depends on so many variables that are in play in our systems. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some), we have no choice but to experiment with the various methods and discover for ourselves which ones work and which ones don't. Just because one method works for one hobbyist doesn't mean it'll work for you, and inversely, just because one method failed and didn't work for one hobbyist doesn't mean it will fail for your system.

Playing around with nutrient export is one of the fun aspects of this hobby, but also, nutrient export is the bane of this hobby :lol:

Not really familiar with that reactor. The important thing is to have a tall one to allow enough room for the bio pellets to tumble properly without clumping and floating up and getting stuck at the top.

I have the old UF20 Vertex reactor (not sure the name of the current replacement model). Works very well. I don't even use a pump for it. Just have a T off the return pump, and control the flow with the reactor ball valve on the input side. Important to have the reactor flow output go to your skimmer input.

And it is totally maintenance free. Usually run it for over a year before adding more pellets.

huh, I think my reactor is pretty much the same. I should pick up some pellets and give it a shot.


Seems like biopellets are the most common here.

You should start a poll. We LOVE polls.

As I've written in another thread, I've been using Hydroton in several large media reactors to greatly reduce my nutrients. I've never had low nitrates due to my habit of heavily feeding my fish (4-6 times daily) but now, with media reactors full of Hydroton, my nitrates are very low, (around 2 ppm last time it was tested with a Hanna tester by Monocus) and my corals have been extremely happy. I have had several other local reefers try out hydroton with very good results. My nitrate tests always used to show in the Fuscia range:redface: but now even my new SPS corals are colouring up within days of being added to my tank, which is a mixed blessing cause now I'm starting to collect a few more SPS:cry:

However, this new use of these clay balls developed for Aquaponics was originally tested and proven by Paul, from Oceanic Corals, who convinced me and a few other local reefers to give it a try. To be honest, a gallon or two of Hydroton is more effective at eliminating nitrogenous wastes than a hundred pounds of live rock. I leave my live rock in my tank so my corals have a place to grow and my fish have places to swim/hide. I depend on the hydroton to do my biological filtration.

Anthony

So you take the clay balls and put them in media reactors? Do they need to tumble? Do you have to clean them or replace them? Tell me more...

Can I just add a pile to my sump?

I never used this product myself but it has lots of good reviews, it supposes to be more efficient than vodka :biggrin:

Red Sea Reef Foundation for Aquarium NO3:PO4-X 1-Liter

http://www.amazon.ca/Red-Sea-Reef-Fo...2890058&sr=8-1

In the past I have used biopellets and vodka dosing both with little success. I am trying an ATS out now. T early to say if it is working as my rock is leaching still. If it works it certainly was a simple build!

Don't need to tumble. Just rinse, place into media reactor or even an old stocking (get these from my mom:wink:). As long as water is passed through the clay balls, it will work. I imagine even adding it into my overflow box would be reasonably effective. They are very strong (from Germany) and since they don't have to tumble, they will last for years. They don't control phosphates, but the Ammonia and Nitrite consuming bacteria probably live on the surface and the Nitrate consuming anaerobic bacteria live in the porous center. I honestly never expected it to have any effect on my nitrates so I didn't believe Bill (Monocus) when he first told me my nitrates were only at 2 ppm and I made him retest it on his Hanna tester.

Mine are sitting in Vertex, BRS and TLF media reactors.

I have 2 big bags for my spring Aquaponics project (going to drill a big cube tank, pump water from my koi pond up into it and have it flow through the hydroton to feed my veggies like Romaine, Kale, and watercress) so if you want to try some, I can sell some to you for $10/gallon. Personally, I add hydroton at a rate of 1 gallon or so per 100 gallon of tank volume. I think Paul was using a 5 gallon bucket to handle a 300g FOWLR (and NO LIVE ROCK!!!). When I saw that, this is what convinced me to try hydroton because if Paul is willing risk $1500 Gem Tangs using it:crazyeye::crazyeye::crazyeye:, then I had to try it for myself.

Considering how expensive almost everything is in this addiction, investing in some of this media from Paul was a drop in the bucket but probably one of the best $10 I have spent on reefing.

If you want more info, contact me or come on over.

Anthony

In my own tank I just use light stocking and good maintenance. I don't use GFO or carbon dosing. Nitrate is less than 0.25 ppm and phosphate is 0.003-0.009 ppm.

One of my clients' 230-gallon tanks had 750 ppm nitrate and 2.5 ppm phosphate when I started maintaining it. Using a small recirculating biopellet reactor with only 500 mL biopellets the nitrate is down to 20 ppm and phosphate is down to 0.3 ppm. Biopellets can certainly mop up a good mess!

750? Could you see the fish through the algae? :lol:

I use a combination of macro algae (red bubble kelp),PÛRA Complete and NOPOx from redsea.

I feed frozen twice a day and have 12 fish in the tank currently

Nitrates are at such low lvls that its undetectable by my test kits and phosphates are in the low range 0.2ish

So you like the NOPOx? Works well, no issues?

I like it, easy to dose, they have a very nice measuring cup that comes with it. Its a mix of bacteria strains that eat nitrates and phosphates and its not a very quick fix, takes about a month of daily dosing to notice a significant impact.

The reason I got it was I had a small cyno issue crop up due to all the power outs and increased bioload, the NOPOx has done a fantastic job of getting rid of it.

You mean could I see through the green hair algae, cyano bacteria, and dinoflagellates? :lol: You should have seen the sludge in the sand!

225gal display with 100gal sump. I run a fresh cup of GFO each month in a BRS reverse flow reactor for phosphate. My PM Bullet 3 with an Iwaki 70 pump is rated for 400gal by the manufacturer and is perfectly capable at keeping Nitrate undetectable even with heavy feeding. Unfortunately though I do have to run a filter sock (for micro bubbles) on the outflow, it takes up a lot of space, makes a lot of noise and that pump draws a lot of electricity relative to modern pin wheel skimmers with similar ratings.

Can we have a poll to see if we really do LOVE polls? Actually nevermind every thread should really have a poll.

btw: skimmer, biopellets, macro fuge. I'm not convinced the macros do anything but I enjoy growing them.

I have to ask. Is anything suffering with your nutrient levels?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Have to agree. I understand being proactive with husbandry, but I imagine all these bio pellet/GFO reactors, zeovit regimen must be really expensive and time consuming. I get by on 2 water changes a year(yes year),dosing vinegar and a decent skimmer and just enjoy my tank. Mind you I have lps/softy tanks mostly, but what sps corals i have had over the years have done well for me

Well....no, my tank is rocking the way it is to be honest but since I increased my fish stock I have seen my nitrates climb from almost undetectable to 15 at one point. I just don't want to see algae show up like it did in my 50...

Bio-cubes 100% of the way!!!

Dont look back - cheap, simple & effective!

What's a bio-cube?

Hers some info....

https://reefbuilders.com/2012/09/27/...biocubes-orca/

Normal biocubes if you've got no3 and po4
Titanium biocubes if you only have no3

Buy them here....(I think he's in Quebec). J&L had them at one point and might be able to source some (talk to Jeff).

Reef Concept

I'll say it again...

Bio-cubes 100% of the way!!!

Dont look back - cheap, simple & effective!

I used to use Biopellets and stopped..... Waist of money, time & energy.

I've done biopellets (vertex) then switched to vodka and vinegar dosing and now back to all in one biopellets. The all in one work but are almost to aggressive on phosphate as I can never register above 0 on my Hanna ULR (9 heavily fed fish in a 60 gallon) and because of this nitrates have climbed a bit.

I'm now starting aquaforest and just loaded up my sump with siporax (took me forever to stack these things in an egg crate box).

Should have the rest of my aquaforest products next week and I'll be dosing Pro Bio S with Pro F for nutrient reduction and many of their other products for coral health.

I'll slowly reduce and remove the biopellets while doing this and keep you updated.

Plus 1

Only thing I will use. Works like a miracle.

Made by orca labs in South Africa, but lost distribution in na. Reef concept did bring some in.