Nitrate sponge

[Danyen]

For some reason, my nitrate levels are testing high this week, around 60. As it is, it normally tests around 20. I think it may be running high because I reaquascaped and kicked a bunch of crap up a week ago. My ammonia and nitrite levels are sitting at zero. My Ph is a little low at 8.2. My long term plan is to build a sump/refugium for dealing with nitrates, which I am now researching. My question is what to do in the short term. I do weekly 5g water changes on a 29g. Is adding "nitrate sponge" media beneficial? I have a media basket on my prizm skimmer that I could add it to. Is it normal to see a nitrate spike after rearranging a tank? Is there something else I should do? Thanks in advance

[DarthOcellaris]

I think that's normal. you change 5G a week...out of how many total gallons? Is your system volume less than 50G? If not, then you might want to increase that. You should shoot for 10% or better IMO.

When is the last time you siphoned your sand or siphoned out detritus?

[Danyen]

It's a 29g tank with about 40lb of live rock. I siphon the shallow sand bed every other week or so. 5g in a 29g with live rock should be about a 20% WC.

[saltysupply]

ive had really good results with az-no3 when trying to reduce nitrates...I also use them to keep them below 10ppm with no adverse affects...corals look better than ever.

[Danyen]

I have a prizm skimmer on my tank, which AZ-NO3 says it will not work very well with, so I don't think I'll be able to try that. Are there any other good products for reducing nitrates short term? Will carbon work, in a round about way? doesn't carbon remove organic molecules, which will in turn reduce the nitrate load?

[Laggs2003]

I use purigen on my nano. Its a great product and the best part about it is the fact you can regenerate it.

[DarthOcellaris]

Try chemi-pure. that cant hurt and it's relatively inexepensive.

Laggs, how do you use your purigen? I have tried that but the stuff always ends up all over my tank

[Laggs2003]

You can buy purigen already in a bag. They sell 100ml of it already in a bag for around 10-12 bucks. If you buy it in bulk just make sure you get one of seachems bags because there the same thing and the purigen will stay in the bag.

[Loverotties]

Are you using RO/DI water?

[Danyen]

I do my WC's with RealOcean purchased from the lfs. I top off to adjust salinity with RO water (not sure if it's deionized).

[DarthOcellaris]

Never heard of that brand. Is that new?

[Danyen]

nope... just more of a regional thing. Here is the website: http://www.catalinawater.com/Product.html

Basically, it's filtered, processed seawater thats gone through uv, ozone, and buffered that is taken off the coast of Catalina island in Southern California.

[DarthOcellaris]

Neat! How much does that usually run?

[Danyen]

usually about 0.60/Gallon. Scripps oceanographic institute in San Diego also sells water throgh lfs for about 0.35/gallon. Problem with scripps water right now is it's high in phosphates from all the fire ash. They have a really good reputation, but I've used Catalina water for years without problems. My 5g WC costs about 3.50 after tax... no garbage cans, no mess, just a weekly trip to the lfs store with a plastic gas can. Every lfs around has a huge tank in back with water for sale.

[Geoff]

i would not worry about it. 60 is not that bad.

what does your skimmate look like? it should be a light tea coloured liquid. if it is dark brown or chunky raise the water level in the skimmer and get it wetter.

what other kinds of filtration do you have on the tank? since your nitrites and ammonia are zero i would not worry about the nitrates. do you have a canister filter, wet/dry, or hang on filter on the tank? these can cause nitrates to rise.

G~