nitrates

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[coralnut123]

i have a 150g reef tank with a wet dry filter.  i am using no media in the wet dry.  i have about 150 lbs of live rock, only 1 fish, i feed about every 3 days and he eats all.  how do i get my nitrates down?  all other parameters are good just the nitrates are at about 40 ppm.  please help! 

[skipm]

Where are you getting your water?  Is it filtered and if so how?  Nitrates are usually lowered through water changes.  With the tank you describe it sounds like you have another nitrate source, have you lost many fish, corals, or inverts?

[coralnut123]

i dont really have much in it as of right now.  i just got the lighting back up and going.  i have been using tap water and lots of prime.  im running 500W metal halides.

[nemosreef]

All I can say is do many small water chages and use R/o water tap water is really no good for a reef.

[skipm]

Tapwater is your most likely source of the high nitrates.  The water we drink has much higher levels of nitrates in it than the water you want to use to make aquarium water.  They also add things like phosphates which are harmless for us but cause problems in the aquarium.  Start doing water changes with either RO water or better yet RO/DI.

[coralnut123]

does anyone know where in summerville i can get RO water?

[nemosreef]

The closest place that I know to get RO water is at Tideline Aquatics.

[daniel89]

or walmart jugs of water the one with the purple cap ive heard that it can be used.

[Aquaforce]

Seeing that you have a 150g, in the long run it would save you both time and money to get your own R/O D/I unit. You can get a good one from many different manufacturers (personally I like AquaFX/Aqua Engineering Great people Good prices) for under $200 generally... You can have it hooked up with a float valve to  a holding container so that you ALWAYS have plenty on hand. Also, some people have a float hooked up as well to their sump so no need to top off FW, the only issue is it can drop pH kinda quick(but we should be checking our pH/alkalinity as often as possible anyways!)

I would suggest you should research what the different units cost to purchase and maintain vs. the time and $$ and effort it takes to purchase from another source.  Not to mention that most quality units come with a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter (AquaFX models come standard inline pre and post membrane) so you KNOW that your source H2O is as pure as can be!

Let us know what you do! Water changes are the best way to reduce nitrates, through dilution, but if your source water is bad, it wont help much.

[Chris]

I can't add much more than what folks have already mentioned.  Getting a good RO/DI filter with TDS meter and making your own water would be the best thing to do.  I got the Ocean Reef +1 with the chloramone upgrade from the Filiter Guys and have been very happy with it.  The best and quickest way to reduce nitrates is with water changes.  20% water change equals a 20% decrease in nitrates, a 50% water change equals a 50% reduction in nitrates.  After that, running a skimmer and/or an algae turf scrubber would help too.  If you had your lights off for a while, you may have had some die off which could of busted our nitrates.  HTH

[skipm]

You can also use macroalgaes to help with nitrates.  They use the nitrates as a foodsource and compete with nuisance algaes for the nitrates and hopefully starve the nuisance algaes out.  You want to regularly harvest the macroalgaes because if they are consumed or break down in the tank (like after a die-off or they go sexual) all of the stuff they have absorbed will be re-released back into the tank.

[coralnut123]

thanks goes to everyone, i picked up a 55 gal drum from a good friend of mine and will be useing that for my water changes.  i lined it with plastic bags (big garbage bags free of perfumes) and headed my way to mount P.  there, at the water station by moultrie middle school, RO water is free.  looks like i will be taking monthly trips.  thanks again for all the feedback.

[Chris]

and headed my way to mount P.  there, at the water station by moultrie middle school, RO water is free.  looks like i will be taking monthly trips.  thanks again for all the feedback.

coralnut,

I used to get RO water from the RO stations in Mt. P and use it in all my tank.  Still had cyano and nitrate problems.  Over time and several phone calls to the Mt. P water department, this  what I learned:

The water that supplies the RO staions is now the same water that comes out of the faucets in Mt. P.  

Chlorine, chloramine, and everything else is added to Mt. P water, home and RO stations.  

The RO membrain they use has a very low rejection rate meaning a lot of stuff sitll goes through.  If it was setup  like a reef RO/DI system they would be rejectiong 4 gallons of water to 1 gallon of RO water made.  Way to expensive for a city to afford.  The memrane is small enought to filter out the smell of the water that Mt. P was known for.

Long story short, if you want good water you are going to have to get a RO/DI filter system.  Sorry.  HTH

[grabthereef]

  :(i agreeeee with all!!! 

however,, if u are having problems with 1 fish the easiest solution would be to do several waterchanges with good water... when you are facing problems with simple things  like this then simple things are the answer .. with one fish do water changes less periodically, there are other methods of no3, pho, removal, we just need to know more about your setup blah blah blah you shouldnt have to worry
jus my .2$