tips on lowering high nitrate levels

[burrows14]

on my way to j&l today and gonna buy a protein skimmer for my biocube 29. will this help lower my nitrates? and is there anything else i should add to my filter compartment? my nitrates have been thru the roof and are coming down slightly but stil far from acceptable levels.

thanks
ray

[whatcaneyedo]

A good skimmer will remove a lot of organic waste from your tank before it can break down into nitrate. How old is your tank and what is your water change schedule?

This article recommends a few additional ways of reducing nitrate such as growing macro algae, employing a deep sand bed, and removing filtration materials that facilitate the nitrogen cycle. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

[burrows14]

the tank is almost 3 months old , its went thru its cycle before i put anything into it. i do a 25% water change every 2 weeks but i did one last thursday and one this thursday trying to drop this nitrates. i have a lil cyano growth but very minimal and since i started the tank ive always used reefchem stabilllity. i test my water every thursday and have never had any chemistry problems at all.

[burrows14]

i have a 2 in sand bed and i have a live rock filter. i pulled all the foam out of the filter system when i started the tank.

[Eyford01]

A few ways to lower nitrates you might want to consider: skimmer, algae (chaeto), mangroves, deep sand bed, water changes, and certain additives but I've never looked into those, and I've also heard clams can sometimes help but don't quote me on that one

[burrows14]

i have chaeto in my filter system , im gonna do another water change monday, im not a big fan of adding a bunch of chemicals to my system, i wouldnt ad a clam to my system because of the biocubes lighting system , or is there a clam that would do fine under the stock lighting maybe a scallop?

[Eyford01]

Unfortunately scallops are exclusive filter feeders and aren't photosynthetic so they don't host the algae that supposedly helps, this is also why they can be so very hard to keep alive, and I agree about adding chemicals, personally I would add more sand a deep sand bed is reconmended to be at least 3" deep and will have anaerobic areas that grow bacteria which can break down nitrates into nitrogen gas although that won't be an immediate fix it may help as a preventitive in the future, and seeing how your tank is relatively young it is possible that this is still just a mini cycle on the way to stability