Nitrates and Phosban Reactors w/ Carbon.

[steveperry98]

I have a 125 gal mixed reef w/ 40 gal sump, that I have been dealing with a NO3 problem for a little while. I have been doing 35gal water changes about every 3-4 days for a couple weeks now and I can't get it to drop below 20ppm.

I talked to Steve at Pruess for about a half hour today and he seems to think that I need to adjust my skimmer. He said, I should try to get a more watery skim mate and empty the cup everyday instead of a thick goop that I clean out twice a week. Also that I should get a higher quality NO3 tester to insure that I truly am having a problem, something about using cheap test kits that were not as accurate.

So I made the adjustment's.

Then I went a step further and order a Phosban reactor and I plan on using activated carbon. Steve seemed to think this might help as well.

Anyways what do you guys think? Anyone had any luck with this kind of a setup? I have also been doing a lot of research into vodka dosing as well. Although I think I should probably make one attempt at a time to fix this problem.