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nitrates

jimmy

Cuttlefish
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Sep 4, 2007
Messages
16
hi can anyone halp me i have very high nitrates 80 ppm in all 3 octo tanks. they all have good skimmers wet-dry and 2 ehiem 2217 on each. i do water changes every 2-3 weeks about 20-30 percent.does anyone think a deep sand bed would help its already 3 inces deep. i have tried all types of removers i dont over feed every other day. does anyone have any advice? thankyou. oh and i do have live rock and i took all the bio-balls out a couple of days ago. but now im worried about rising ammonia.
 
there all 55 gal w/about 25 pounds of l-rock. i just took out the bio-balls so that should help and i made a diy de-nitrate w/coils in a pvc pipew/bio balls w/slow drip rate. its still not hooked up yet i just made it today. but i know it will take months to work if it works at all. but w/doing water changes i dont understand why there so high?
 
Refugium should help. People have also used remote deep sand beds. The bio balls probably was the source and you should be seeing it drop with progressive water changes. If your shooting to get completely 0 nitrates, you may also want to look into sulfur denitrators as well. Ive actually been reading alot about them lately.

Heres a DIY posting on one in RC.
DIY Sulfur Denitrator - Reef Central Online Community

I made a dual stage calcium reactor and Im thinking of just converting the 2nd stage into a denitrator. It should be fairly cheap to make one. Or you can buy a cool one here

http://www.midwestaquatic.com/PRODUCTS/sulfur_denitrifier.htm?gclid=CNux457trZICFQ0BiQoduCE_MQ
 
I would suggest performing additional water changes; perhaps every week until the nitrates are back under control, at which point you may be able to do them every other week.

Crushed oyster shell seems to work very well at sequestering the nitrate before finally releasing it into the water.

Good luck with the denitrifier.

Greg
 
I think the above suggestions are good, more live rock, deep sand bed, water changes,remove dead animals... one Question is whether the nitrate level is different than in the past? It is amazing how much octopuses and other animals can tolerate in terms of the nitrate level as long as its not a sudden change. If you still have high levels after these changes I would suggest trying vodka.It is commonly used in reef aquaria systems. The 2 carbon ethanol acts as a food source to produce enough bacteria of the sort that breaks down nitrates to nitrogen gas. Much like a denitrator works,only much so much simpler. For a 55 g. tank 1 teaspoon daily is a reasonable dose. Chart the daily nitrates and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the drop over 3-4 weeks.
 
I would be hesitant to add ethanol (vodka) to a cephalopod tank even in small doses, but that does pose an interesting topic. Though, the concentrations recommended (~0.00025%) should not pose any risk as they are well below the concentrations of anesthesia (1-5%) and euthanasia (5-10%).

Obi one,

Is this anecdotal or is there research done on this subject. I am interested in trying this with a shrimp culture setup I have and at those concentrations I would not suspect to see any problems with the use of ethanol. I have ethanol (everclear actually), and I will be using it in a 125g system. I would assume that 2-3 teaspoons (5-10ml) would be sufficient for the system. The nitrate levels currently run around 75 mg/L and that sounds like an interesting method. Any other information you can give me on the subject would be much appreciated.

Greg
 
gjbarord;113735 said:
I would be hesitant to add ethanol (vodka) to a cephalopod tank even in small doses, but that does pose an interesting topic. Though, the concentrations recommended (~0.00025%) should not pose any risk as they are well below the concentrations of anesthesia (1-5%) and euthanasia (5-10%).

Obi one,

Is this anecdotal or is there research done on this subject. I am interested in trying this with a shrimp culture setup I have and at those concentrations I would not suspect to see any problems with the use of ethanol. I have ethanol (everclear actually), and I will be using it in a 125g system. I would assume that 2-3 teaspoons (5-10ml) would be sufficient for the system. The nitrate levels currently run around 75 mg/L and that sounds like an interesting method. Any other information you can give me on the subject would be much appreciated.

Greg

Julian Sprung attended one of our MAS meetings and talked about this in depth. I haven't tried it personally but the man typically knows his stuff.
 
How long would it take for the ethanol to evaporate out and how often would it be needed to effectively reduce existing nitrate? My thinking would be to douce a tank between occupants ...
 
I've used the vodka method quite a few times, both in cold water and tropical reef systems. I am currently using it in 3 tanks. I had found it to be easy and the nitrates always came down to the 1-2 range from levels near 100. It will take about 3-4 weeks to see the drop, but then it is dramatic. A very good protein skimmer is a necessity.
 
Info on the Vodka method is available. A couple of sources that come to mind are The Reef Aquarium volume 3 by Delbeek and Sprung, and a recent Coral magazine- an English version of a German mag. Also I recall several discussions on reefcentral.com. Often people substitute sugar for the carbon source. And I suppose that if you're not getting the desired results you could drown your sorrows by drinking the vodka(!).
 
Methanol works better than ethanol in marine tanks for feeding denitrifying bacteria. But in reality you should be doing water changes as without a sophisticated denitrifying filter the amount of bacteria that you can grow in your aquarium is minimal and would not be able to convert the nitrate quick enough due to denitrifying bacteria needing specific enviormental conditions to grow such as very low D.O. also the bacteria will start producing Hydrogen Sulfide which is a lot more toxic than the nitrate if there optimal conditions are not present.
 

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