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Author Topic: high nitrates? no more!  (Read 1470 times)

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Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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high nitrates? no more!
« on: February 26, 2018, 18:52:29 »
kinda long winde, rambling post/discovery.  Hopefully I can help someone else with the same problem

As a few of you may remember, I have been fighting very high nitrates ever since I started my tank up (over 2 years ago).  Nitrates were always 75-90, maybe even 100.  But they were high
I first started doing water changes every couple days, 35-45 gallons each time.  Then when that didn't help, I switched to once a week, same amount. I started spreading them out further apart due to getting burnt out on them.  A lot of water, salt, and not to mention money going down the drain.

After a year or so I tried taking my number of feedings from two times a day, down to one.  Still no change.  Not one bit.  As I saw that my fish all seemed to act fine with only one feeding, I have stuck to this routine to the present time.

At this point I started asking around to fellow reefers.  Some blamed the dry rock that I used to start the tank up, and it would eventually run it's course and they would disappear.   FALSE.  Some said to stop doing so many water changes and let the system work it's way out.  Up until 2 months or so ago, I all but gave up on trying to figure it out.  I lost no inverts, no coral, and certainly no fish.  I had no algae outbreaks.  Or if I did, it was nothing more than diatoms every once in awhile.  Again, didn't concern me much.

I went in to Aquarium Artisans about two months ago.  I was going to buy a bottle of copepods and see how those would do in my tank.  For no other reason than just because.  While I was in there I was talking to a chic that worked there. (Not Jennifer, someone else).  I asked once again about high trates.  Her first question was what kind of food was I feeding.  Confident in my answer and happy about my answer, I proudly said LRS.  Her response?  THAT'S WHY.  I had a hard time believing that.  After using it for two years, and all the reviews about it not adding "additives" to your water, that would have been the last thing I would have thought to cause this issue.  So we were talking some more and how others stopped using the food for the same reason.  I asked what food she could recommend to see if it would help.  The name of the food is escaping me, but she gave me blister packs that they sold there in the store.  One was a green algae/mysis mix, and another was frozen blood worms (maybe). Both frozen blister packs.  Figured what could it hurt.  Food was food. 

So I came home, stopped with the other food.  instanty switched.  Did a water change the next night, my normal 50 gallons every two weeks.  Didn't test water for a few nights.  The next water test I was now down to 40!  WHAT!! after all this time, the numbers never budging, they now dropped.  The first thing I thought about was the food, but I was not sold.  I didn't think that was the cause.  So I continued with the new food.  Did my next water change two weeks from that point.  Couple nights after, I was now down to 5-10.  Holy crap!  I tested the water 3 times that night, making sure it wasn't a fluke or operator error.  Nope, got the same reading each time.

Did a water change yesterday (Sunday), and decided to test the water tonight. 
Holy hell again.  My trates are now down to 0-2.

I am completely floored.  Needless to say, I am done with LRS

I was close to running macroalgae, and using other media to get these trates down.
Now there is no need. All issues pointed towards the food I was feeding.

who would have thought?  NOT ME!

Offline merlin3

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Re: high nitrates? no more!
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2018, 20:07:33 »
Thats awesome that that helped. I feed lrs and love it and have no nitrate issues. I also feed about 15 different types of frozen food. Most people recommend rinsing all frozen food no matter the type.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: high nitrates? no more!
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2018, 20:42:43 »
How wonderful! Those ah-ha moments when you get something figured out are priceless. Congrats!

Offline jmblec2

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Re: high nitrates? no more!
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2018, 21:17:36 »
Interesting. I have been using lrs for 1.5 years and can't raise my nitrates.

Offline Heinbaughb

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Re: high nitrates? no more!
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2018, 11:27:39 »
Did you notice any difference in your reef with high nitrates compared to low?


120 gallon mixed reef.

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: high nitrates? no more!
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2018, 11:46:01 »
At this moment, no.  No difference.
It was more of a mental thing, KNOWING I had high ass trates.  I knew where they should have been, but I couldn't get them there.
Now I'm not afraid to put any inverts in my tank :)

Before I was very iffy on what I placed in there, invert wise.  So I only added a couple basic things hoping for the best. 

But now I think I can add more items that are sensitive to high trate levels, without a worry  :be happy:

 

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