How do you get Nitrate close to zero?

[ottoman]

Hello,

I wonder how people reduces Nitrate close to zero. Read lots of thread, people said their Nitrate is = 0. I have Ammonia and Nitrite at 0 but always having hard time to reduce Nitrate (mine at 10 -20). Please advise.

Thanks.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Don't overstock a tank, don't overfeed, weekly water changes, siphoning, good flow, good clean up crew, good LR, grow macro algae, ect. Just good all round husbandry.

Deep sand beds if done right can help but most people don't use them properly and then they can hurt the tank more than help.

Carbon dosing (vodka) can work very well but I would do lots and lots of research before you start this and know it comes with risks and the long term effects on a tank are not at all known.

Other systems like ZEOvit are great as well. Again do some research.

[untamed]

Ammonia and Nitrite are both quite toxic and should always be zero once an aquarium has established necessary bacteria levels.

As the end product of the nitrate cycle, nitrate is much harder to get rid of. It is not nearly as toxic as ammonia and nitrite, but keeping nitrate as low as possible is a good goal as nitrate fuels growth of unwanted algae and impedes coral growth.

Methods to reduce nitrate are many, and include:
- growing/harvesting algae
- water changes
- Carbon dosing (vodka, vinegar, sugar, solid fuel balls...etc)
- Various types of denitration reactors
- Use of skimmers
- Controlled fish feeding

That's just off the top of my head. Next step for you is to research any/all of these methods and try to use any/all that work for you.

[Myka]

The easy answer is high nitrate is the result of a dirty tank. Top three reason for a dirty tank; over-stocking, over-feeding, and poor circulation.

Check out this link for some nutrient reducing options: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44860

[ottoman]

Thank you for your information. Do you run carbon? Do you run sulfur? I would like to set up a small reactor with sulfur/aragonite media. Any suggestion?

[Delphinus]

I experimented with remote sand beds and sulfur denitrators a few years ago when I had a 24" ritteri anemone in a 115g cube which was a nitrate producing factory (it would get up to 50ppm or more unless I did huge huge wholesale waterchanges (like 75%) which were very expensive and impractical).

In the end I scrapped both ideas, they just didn't work for me. I think my case was a bit of an anomaly though on account that the NO3 production was off the charts and my efforts were like draining a lake with an eyedropper.

A sulfur denitrator isn't too hard to set up though, if you can get ahold of a midsized calcium reactor you could easily convert it to a denitrator, basically you want to convert it so there's no CO2 input, use sulfur beads instead of calcium media, and you need a slow slow slow slow feed rate to keep the reaction chamber anaerobic/anoxic (too fast a feed and it becomes too oxygenated and the bacterial colonies crash).

But it's still a PITA. Myself I'd steer you away from this even if I had had more success with them (I tried it in two separate reactors, both were complete failures). Also sulfur stinks.

Seriously, more rock and beefier skimmers can make a tank able to process nitrates down to the point where nitrate consumption exceeds production (leaving you with a nominal or zero nitrate reading).

Zeovit and Ultralith systems or Reef-Resh systems can do the trick too, but that's a whole different discussion.

And one last possibility is these carbon-based-polymeric pellets (what untamed referred to as "solid fuel balls"), a fairly new product but from what I can see they look pretty promising. Just run some in a media reactor (ie. phosban reactor) and you could be set. It's basically carbon dosing without the actual daily dosing.

[ottoman]

Thank you, Tony, for your inforamtion. I read your other thread about the carbon polymeric pellets. I will order and try that. That product seems promising as you said.

Cheers.

[TheKid]

Can't a product like zeovit help too?

[staceyd72]

Can't a product like zeovit help too?

Yes, Zeovit is also becoming a popular method of nutrient reduction.