[bigGman]

I set up my reef system about 8 months ago in my juwell trigon 350 i have a external eheim pro2 canister filter running as a biological filter, the juwell internal filter full of floss and sponge and 45 kg of living rock all for filtration and have just purchased a aqua medic denitrator 400 and a phosphate reactor both to be fitted.i have never been able to acheive nitrates lower than 15 even though i use ro water doing 10% water changes weekly and recently they have started creeping up. I get my advice from two different shops that have both been in the trade for a while one tells me to use the external fillter and the other tells me not to bother and put the load on my living rock and skimmer which i have only just upgraded to a v2 400.. HELP PLEASE!

[Clay12340]

If you are going for a reef it seems that the live rock and skimmer is the most commonly offered advise. Canister filters are great for breaking ammonia down into nitrate and catching small particles. However, they do nothing to remove the nitrate, and those trapped particles can't go anywhere. A skimmer physically removes waste from the water so that it can't become nitrates in the system. Live rock and deep sand beds also do a lot to remove nitrates if they are in the proper environment.

It might be worthwhile to test the nitrates in your source water as well. An RO system with old filters or some malfunction may not be doing the job.

[Reefland]

Hi bigGman,


I would agree with the removal of the unit. It isn't needed and is just costing extra electricity.

[Samper]

I would also agree that the unit needs to be removed and a protein skimmer/sump put in its place. I wouldn't throw it away though. When you blow out your rocks with a baster or powerhead you can use it to polish off the water and clear out the debris. You should keep it as clean as possible while you are using it.