What method for reducing nitrates/phosphates do you use?

[Reef-Geek]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

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?

[WarDog]

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

[Reef Pilot]

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.

[Aquattro]

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

[Reef Pilot]

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.

[crimper]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

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?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by crimper

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).

[Animal-Chin]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

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).

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...

[kien]

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

[Animal-Chin]

Originally Posted by Reef-Geek

How about upgrade skimmer?

Selling one?

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...