Quote:
Originally Posted by Finisher604
How's that experiment working out for u ?
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I've concluded that growing macro algae to reduce nitrates is highly over rated. After 3 months, my spare QT tank is overgrown with caulerpa and chaeto, but my nitrates did not drop much at all if any. I had high nitrate water (about 40 ppm) from my main display tank in it, with no bio load (just 1 lonely lawnmower blenny). No sand or live rock, just a canister filter (no skimmer). I tested for N03 regularly, and still at 40.
Meanwhile, in that same time period I lowered the nitrates in my display tank to 20 ppm even with a heavy bio load, and very mature live rock and sand bed. That was done with the bio pellets and MB7, so have no doubt that works. Initially (7 months ago), this tank was as high as 100 ppm, when I first started with the bio pellets.
Maybe macro algae works with low nitrate water (<5 ppm) and a low bio load, but sure didn't do anything with my mature tank water.