Tetra NitrateMinus.

[MaloK]

Shrimp are doing great! Since I got the nitrates down, they have really settled in and multiplied. I use Aquavitro Shrimp GH every time I change the water and check it to make sure the GH is 8-9. No problems since then.

BTW I added the Tetra NitrateMinus to the tank. I did kind of what you did- I found some ceramic bio-media and put it and the solution into a little container with aquarium water- then dumped the whole thing into the intake chamber of my filter (it's a built in on the back of my Fluval Flex).

Checked again today and so far the nitrates are holding at 5ppm- I can't seem to get it below that LOL. The stuff says it can take up to 2 weeks, though, and I didn't have all that much to begin with, so maybe it'll take awhile longer. I'll keep you posted on progress.

In reality if your Nitrate are holding at 5 ppm it's near perfect... It's great for the plants and there's no problem with the shrimps under 20 ppm.

But if you can switch from chemical to bacterial means to process nitrates. It's going to be a lot less work.

Finger crossed.

 

[MaloK]

One week more done without any signs of nitrates

Nothing else to report, TDS has not moved. one dose of fertilizer was added.

 

[MaloK]

Weekly report:

I fed the tank a lot more last week, Well it's still a ridiculous amount of food but it's more than twice, also added a cucumber slice in addition and left it there until it melts. and 1/2 dose of fertilizer.

Today's reading are 0-0-5, I think it is because I lowered the light intensity a little, but there is no difference in plant and algae growth rate.

I have not added more NitrateMinus nor did a water change and will keep an eye on that this week. The mineral content of the water is remaining steady and conductivity is slightly higher.

 

[raylove]

I only dosed the tank once.

Tetra replied to me that I should dose the tank a least every 12 months and keep the bottle refrigerated.

Lolll.

I'm a bit confused as the dosage instructions on the bottle say to dose weekly. That's a big difference to the 12 months you have subsequently been quoted. Any idea why the massive discrepancy?

 

[MaloK]

I'm a bit confused as the dosage instructions on the bottle say to dose weekly. That's a big difference to the 12 months you have subsequently been quoted. Any idea why the massive discrepancy?

If I remind correctly it has to be dosed weekly until establishment. and 2-3 weeks should be enough.

I only did it once, and it looks like it did establish and it's going for the moment.

The other information on 12 months came from Tetra and are yet to be verified from my point of view.

If nitrate continues to rise in proportions to current base level food I add and does not stabilize in the next week.

I will give a week of underfeeding to make sure the problem is not "me" overfeeding.

But atm I think I would have done at least 10 water changes of 25% in the last 25 days. to keep it that way.

I'm at week 3 of 52 of testing, and will not change any water until then if it stays on path.

And will report any additive I need to do it.

 

[MuddyWaters]

I've added 3 doses now (one each week with water change). The first 2 weeks I added it in the intake chamber of the filter. This time I put it in the outflow.

Nitrate remains at 5ppm steady. The black bar endlers have kept on breeding, so have a bunch of little fry and slowly getting more- the nitrate level hasn't gotten high, though, so shrimp and crawdads are happy.

 

[gwand]

My nitrates are 20 ppm and stable despite two doses of Tetra Nitrate Minus

 

[MaloK]

Weekly Nitrate Bulletin.

I maintained feeding the tank as stated all week. Nitrate oscillating between 0 and 5 since.

I added 1/2 dose of fertilizer Saturday, today's nitrate reading is <5 and conductivity has not moved. at 480 μS, 229 ppm... This also oscillate between 220-230 between fertilizer. Calcium reads at 100ppm and Magnesium is 50ppm. KH is maintaining 60ppm. PH holds at 7.6

There was no water change made, the tank is regularly topped with alternating pure RO/DI and remineralized water to maintain 150ppm Calcium and Magnesium in range (most of the time RO is required).

 

[Fishfunn]

I didn't find any place where I would logically could think a review for an additive be posted.

Long story short... My shrimp tank got smashed and I was forced to crash setup another tank and plop everything I could save in a new one...

This tank was running for months without any sign of nitrates, but after the recovery they kept creeping up non stop to critical levels and was forced to do daily water changes non stop.

After a week of water changes and my nitrates always climbing, and did a little research, I decided that I would have nothing to lose trying NitrateMinus... It states that it naturally deals with nitrates in an perfectly safe manner, for all aquarium inhabitants.. The description says to dose the tank once a week for up to 3 weeks, to establish the bacteria colony.

I understand that these bacteria needs a very low water current and as minimal oxygen level possible in their mix... I knew I had the bottom of a bag of Biohome Ultimate left somewhere.
When I finally found it, I took the dose for my tank size mixed it with water (this stuff is thick) I then wrapped the biohome with coated wire and soaked the it dry in there, so they can catch as much as possible, then installed it in the left compartment of my Aquaclear, where the water input pipe is, there is always very slow water movement there. And poured the rest of the mix in the tank.

5 days later at my second test, nitrates are nil... Completely nil.

This is going to save my RO/DI unit and a lots of minerals.

While all of this can be "luck" and unknowingly good timing... I'm still incline to say that it really does what it says. My only point of reference is that nitrate was always climbing until that.

Also for some reason the plants seems to have picked up their pace. If it's a placebo effect... It's really good.

Hello @MaloK,
What filters do you have on your tank that you are reading the nitrates on? I have been using a TetraNitrateMinus for over three weeks now in two of my tanks. I have canister filters on both, with Biohome filled in one, and foam filled in the other.
I seem to have a reduction in nitrate in both but not to the levels that you are seeing.

My other tank has a HOB filter with floating duckweed and some Amazon swords that have 0 nitrates all the time, and I havent used any TetraNitrteMinus in that tank at all.

I am coming to the conclusion that lower flow rates, like in a HOB filter, reduce nitrates great.

 

[MaloK]

You are supposed to seed your substrate with this product. Not your filter.

I seeded Biohome Ultra that I have, and installed it in the intake steam compartment of my AC 30, there is always a very low current in there because of the air vent used to prime the filter, it also serve as an over pressure vent. If your stack of sponges becomes too clogged, the overflow of water will return in the tank instead of blowing the basket up. Anyway, there's always a super steady low movement in there. I thought I could try to take advantage of it.

But... Simply disperse the product in the substrate toward the low flow area.

Since then I only added CO2 enriched fertilizer and food.

All low speed plants. but they are going pretty fast. No floating ones.

 

[Fishfunn]

I seeded Biohome Ultra that I have, and installed it in the intake steam compartment of my AC 30,

I have an AC30 on my one tank that always has 0 nitrates. I have another AC30, I am going to put that on one of my other tanks that I am using TetraNitrateMinus on.

 

[MaloK]

I think the big magic trick a HOB can pull over many other kind of filters.

They really increase surface area exchange by bringing a lot more of water in contact with air. Compared with all of them.

It's why I always liked Hob's, sump's and air powered sponges.

 

[MaloK]

Monday Report.

All is doing very well the tank dropped from 5-10 ppm last week, to 0-5 ppm today.

I feed the tank normally trying to keep things clean and filter maintenance low. I was adding 10 drops of NilocG ThriveC per week in two doses of 5 drops Wed/Sun. And I'm going to step back to 5 per week for a while. I think it promotes a little algae growth.

I have some incursion of what I think is staghorn algae. I might also cut back on the light some more. Most of the time if I do that, nitrate starts to rise soon after. For the moment I'm pruning infected leaves before it worsen.

Conductivity remains unchanged at 480 μS, 229 ppm

See how that does in the next weeks.

 

[gwand]

I finished my first bottle of Tetra Nitrate Minus in my 60 gallon tank. Seems to be working. However I cannot find anymore. Amazon is out. The are multiple sellers on eBay but they are all in the UK and the shipping charges are ridiculous.

 

[MaloK]

I finished my first bottle of Tetra Nitrate Minus in my 60 gallon tank. Seems to be working. However I cannot find anymore. Amazon is out. The are multiple sellers on eBay but they are all in the UK and the shipping charges are ridiculous.

You might have put a little too much for nothing. Atm I used only 20 ml on the bottle. And time.

But I understand that the results could differ a lot with the stocking.

I believe that there's not a single byproduct released by invertebrates that cannot be broken down and made available to other life in a tank. You can probably go for ever in these type of aquarium without changing water once.

But with fish, the nitrogen load is certainly a lot higher and requires a lot more bacteria. But if The initial seeding is sufficient and the area where than can develop is big enough, you should see a good difference.

But It will certainly take months to become noticeable in a high nitrate producing tank.