Anybody had any experience with Nitrate Sponge Media from Kent? I've got some high nitrates right now and I am doing frequent water changes, cutting back on the feeding of my fish to every other day and I am considering purchasing this Nitrate Sponge media and running it inside of my wet/dry filter. There is someone on Ebay who has a 1 gallon bucket of this stuff for $18.00 and my LFS sells a 2-qt container of it for $19.99. Go figure.
I have tried one of the nitrate sponges in the past but I've found that the best method is good tank habits and just a little patience(sing like Axel Rose here) As a wise man once said, nothing good happens fast in a reef tank!
Just continue your good habits and things should straighten up in no time! HTH
The nitrate sponge is not a fast-fix, it's not like phosphate sponge or an "absorbant". It's a biological medium that will eventulally populate with bacteria to convert the nitrate into nitrogen.
Having said all that, I have to echo BigDave's comments about good tank housekeeping.
Do you know what is causing your high nitrate? What is your nitrate reading specifically, and what kind of filtration/skimming are you using? What's your tank size and how much live rock? Crushed coral or live sand? When you water change do you vacuum the sandbed (unless you have a plenum or DSB)...
Perhaps we can help you nip the source of the nitrate and fix the problem that way.
Jenn, my tank specs are at the bottom of each post I place on the website, you can click on it to access the info. I do not have a DSB at this point, but I have about a 4" substrate of crushed coral. I already suspect what is causing my high nitrates, which when tested are about 100. Too much feeding and my tank is not overstocked. But I do have two big puffers that make a mess, if you know what I mean, and they certainly aren't helping any. When I do a bi-weekly 20% water change with RO/DI water, I do vacuum the substrate. I've also been watching my wet/dry filter built into the aquarium and keeping the filters clean not gunked up. I cut back to feeding the fish every other day now. They fed no flake food. I cut up frozen squid for them and all the fish eat that, even my yellow tang. I do place some lettuce in there a couple of times a week for the tang. Ever since my magnum 350 broke, which is a sore topic for me - see my product review on this webiste, my nitrates have been higher. The mag 350 helped with keeping that level down and I ran carbon in it. I have no carbon now and my only filtration is the wet/dry. I know I need to get another canister filter, I'm thinking fluval 404. I'm not ready to take the full jump into reef at this time, otherwise I would buy a refugium, MH lighting, skimmer and all the other stuff I need. Thanks for your help.
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