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High nitrate

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Let's take a step back......


What are your nitrate numbers (and phosphates).....and you're talking bleaching....so how old is the tank, what are your calcium, alkalinity and magnesium numbers? What lighting do you have? Fill us in on the water change schedule and how much you change? What are you currently doing to lower nitrates?

I'm not ready to jump on nitrates without knowing what's going on. I've seen high nitrate tanks with corals doing just fine.

If nitrates are sky high, I'd look at more water changes and possibly nitrate reducing steps, such as carbon dosing or refugium...or algae scrubber.

Bottom line, need more info.
 

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
Let's take a step back......


What are your nitrate numbers (and phosphates).....and you're talking bleaching....so how old is the tank, what are your calcium, alkalinity and magnesium numbers? What lighting do you have? Fill us in on the water change schedule and how much you change? What are you currently doing to lower nitrates?

I'm not ready to jump on nitrates without knowing what's going on. I've seen high nitrate tanks with corals doing just fine.

If nitrates are sky high, I'd look at more water changes and possibly nitrate reducing steps, such as carbon dosing or refugium...or algae scrubber.

Bottom line, need more info.

Agree with Paul here. You need to provide more information because it may not be a nitrate issue. There were times my tank was at 50 to 60 ppm nitrate and it didn't hurt my corals.

Information needed:

Age of system
How often do you do water changes
How much water do you change during water change
You water levels such as Cal, mag, dkh, nitrate, ammonia (which should be 0), nitrite (which should be 0) and phosphate
What bio media are you running (pellets, GFO, carbon, etc...)
Salinity you keep you tank at
 
Agree with Paul here. You need to provide more information because it may not be a nitrate issue. There were times my tank was at 50 to 60 ppm nitrate and it didn't hurt my corals.

Information needed:

Age of system
How often do you do water changes
How much water do you change during water change
You water levels such as Cal, mag, dkh, nitrate, ammonia (which should be 0), nitrite (which should be 0) and phosphate
What bio media are you running (pellets, GFO, carbon, etc...)
Salinity you keep you tank at

+1 Had nitrates around 60 once and corals only browned up but no bleaching.



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redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I know this is willys thread but I have high nitrates and find it impossible to lower them can i join in on this thread or should I start my own.

I'd suggest you start your own because you might have different issues.....start by telling all parameters, age of the tank, lighting, water change info, etc.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Cheap way would be carbon dosing, there are online guides for it, it's more involved though. More expensive way but more user friendly is biopellets and a reactor. There are also nitrate reactors, i've never tried one, and last thing you could try is one of the bacteria additives, something like microbacter7 or many other kinds. Just don't try and move quickly with any of these, too much carbon at once and you'll get cyano, biopellet and nitrate reactors i've not dealt with much so can't speak on them, and lastly the bacteria, an overdose would also likely cause a cyano bloom.
 
Like others...I question if the cause of bleaching is due to nitrates. If stopping the bleaching is the goal, then I think more information is needed. If lowering nitrates is the goal, then that can be managed a number of ways already mentioned. Would be cautious assuming they are directly related


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