high nitrates

[pro2k]

Ok, I've been neglecting my tank for over a year and guess what.....lots of green algae and dirty water. I tested a few things and everything but nitrates were fine. The Nitrates are about 80-90ppm. What is the best, and most effective way, of bringing them down? Thanks!!

[pro2k]

nobody has any suggestions?

[mandynm]

Do water changes. i'd start with say, a 30% water change. See what that takes you down and do a series of several smaller water changes the following couple of weeks. Don't do too large of a change, though. Then keep up on doing regular weekly maintenance (my preference, since it's smaller water changes) or whatever schedule you find fits. It's fairly easy to prevent this type of issue.

Another option would be to add some macroalgae. A personal favorite of mine was chaeto. I contained it so there weren't pieces flying over to make a mess of the tank and it worked quite well. It will help with nitrates and also once that's taken care of, macro algae has the benefit of competing with the nuisance algae for nutrients and reducing the nuisance algae.

[pro2k]

Thanks Mandyn. I just added a cleaner clam because I heard they like nitrates. I'm going to add refugium with macro algae soon. I will try the regiment you suggested and see what happens. What is considered acceptable nitrate range in reef tank?

[Sweetpea]

Water changes are your best bet. I agree that you shouldn't change too much at once- you could shock your livestock. How about doing a 15-20% water change each weekend until your levels are as close to zero as possible?

[greg97527]

Have you tested for phosphates? 90% of the time people forget about testing phosphates which in my experience is usually the problem although nitrates need to be dealt with as well.

[Reptoreef]

Do you have a refugium? Are you using any sort of a biological filtration such as a sock, sponges, or bio-balls? If so, do you clean the sock or sponges regularly and keep the bio-balls completely submerged? How about the amount of LR used or any type of DSB? There are alot of things that can be the cause... my suggestion would be a series of water changes and making sure to keep any kind of bio-filtration clean. If using bio-balls, get rid of them, but not all at once... remove about 20% of them weekly until gone.

[pro2k]

repto, no I don't have a refugium or any bio filtration other than LR. I'm going to be adding a fuge shortly and see if that will help things. For now, I will just start doing some water changes. Have any of you tried those denitrators such as that made by midwest aquatics?

[AuntKaren]

I didn't see anyone tell you what an acceptable nitrate rate is and you asked twice.....so..... I am going to say that acceptable is BELOW 1 but ideal is zero..... ok you guys come get me! LOL

[Sweetpea]

Come get you? Nah! ;)

I apologize for not answering that part of the post... got distracted I guess, lol. ;) I agree that you should aim for as close to zero as possible. On the other hand, my LFS water tests between 10 & 20 on the different occasions that I've tested when I've bought livestcok from them (and their tanks & the critters in them look great)! HTH!