Lowering Nitrate

[topthrill]

i need to lower my nitrate level, its not an emergency but i dont want the levles to get dangourus. right now its at 3.0

 

[PaulasPets]

Nitrate is removed by doing waterchanges. You can also have the nitrate converted to nitrogen gas, but this is done by bacteria that live in an environments with low oxygen levels. You can grow these bacteria in a deep sand bed. Another way to get rid of nitrates is by growing plants in your sump and take part of them out when they have grown.

Paula

 

[MoonTang]

Well a nitrate reading of 3.0 is very good. I would start to worry at around 40ppm.


What test kit are you using to get a reading of 3.0ppm?

 

[topthrill]

help my nitrate is at 4.0 now! anny higher and it will be dangorous!

 

[Lynden]

My nitrate, according to one of my test kits, is 110 ppm. Come on, Hagen Test Kits, I thought this was the Information Age!

But the point is, 4 ppm is not a dangerous level. My fishes, crab, and coral (aside from being beaten and torn within an inch of it's life) are fine.

To lower nitrate, you can use something called Granular Ferric Oxide, or GFO. Basically, these are just little rust balls, but every company has a different name for it. The stuff I use is called Phos-X. GFO is very effective at binding phosphates and nitrates, and so keeping them out of the water.

-Lynden

 

[Chac]

What scale are you measuring your nitrates on

 

[Lynden]

My nitrate read 110 ppm (obviously a false reading) the last time I tested it, before I added GFO. After 2-3 weeks, after we got back from Hawai'i, it now reads 20 ppm.

Even if the readings are false, that's still a pretty big difference

-Lynden

 

[topthrill]

i put in some nitrate lowering crystals in the filter B) its not that much though, my filter can barley hold it!

 

[BigIan]

our tank is running at about 50pm for nitrates with the onlu major problem being huge amounts ofr alge.

Its a long story as to why the nitrates are so high and have been for some time but as soon as lloyds tsb pull there finger out i should have a new RO unit and so be able to sort the problem

 

[N1z]

My tank once ran at 75mgs for a few weeks the corals were fine and fish was ok. And this was with salfert test kits and tetra. Now with my D&D filter my tank runs at like <5mgs! its insane!