NO3 reduction technique???

[shah1n]

Has anyone tried any way to reduce NO3 , I know I know Water change but due to my Job schedule I am out of town too many times and do not get enough time to change it regularly,

Any suggestions, Ideas ... anything? ;)

[zhenya]

Has anyone tried any way to reduce NO3 , I know I know Water change but due to my Job schedule I am out of town too many times and do not get enough time to change it regularly,

Any suggestions, Ideas ... anything? ;)

Hi sha1n, Welcome to Reefland!

There are many ways to reduce NO3 levels in aquaria, however we would need a bit more information on your particular system to offer any meaningful suggestions.

That said, what type of filtration do you employ presently, do you have a DSB,refugium, what livestock do you have and how many of it? That is the questions that we would need answers to.

[shah1n]

I have 1 yellow tang, 3 true percula clown, 1 purple firefish, 1 cleaner shrimp, 4 red leg crab, 12 hermit crabs, I do use live rock as filter along with 1 - Biowheel 170 filter, 1 HOT magnum canister filter, I have setup my tank with one reverse flow pump to push water under sand bed and one smaller pump to pull it out. My amonia levels are zero all the time, along with NO2 but NO3 levels remains same, my fish and shrimp do not look unhappy at this time, but once I changed water and lost couple of my fish over night ( 4 months back) though the water was conditioned for a week.
I use RO filter to get the water cured for my aquarium.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks for your help friends.

[shah1n]

Oops I forgot to say...... I have 55 Gl tank.

[zhenya]

I have 1 yellow tang, 3 true percula clown, 1 purple firefish, 1 cleaner shrimp, 4 red leg crab, 12 hermit crabs, I do use live rock as filter along with 1 - Biowheel 170 filter, 1 HOT magnum canister filter, I have setup my tank with one reverse flow pump to push water under sand bed and one smaller pump to pull it out. My amonia levels are zero all the time, along with NO2 but NO3 levels remains same, my fish and shrimp do not look unhappy at this time, but once I changed water and lost couple of my fish over night ( 4 months back) though the water was conditioned for a week.
I use RO filter to get the water cured for my aquarium.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks for your help friends.

Well, from reading your post first thing that jumps at me as a potential culprit are your Biowheel and canister filters. Those things are very efficient in converting ammonia and Nitrites into Nitrates but it all ends there. I mean how do you remove NO3 from the tank then? You need some other means to proccess it and convert it to Nitrogen gas or set up a refugium where you can grow algae to utilize it.You can harvest it and remove portions of it, hence removing some nutrients via biomass.
I'm not sure what is the reason that you have pump pushing water under your sand bed, is that like an undergravel filter? I think this renders your sand bed useless in terms of filtration.
Is your tank FOWLR? If so, having NO3 levels a bit elevated is not all that unusual or detrimental to the fish. It could result in potential unwanted algae growth if left unchecked though.

[tussinhead]

Do you use a protein skimmer? If not, you might consider one.

[shah1n]

Yes I do use the gravel filter for reduction of NO2 and also use Protein skimmer ( HOT) from day one and infact thats what I believe keeps my Amonia and NO2 down to zero all the time. I am not sure if Biowheel is suppose to reduce NO3 levels, do you??

[zhenya]

Yes I do use the gravel filter for reduction of NO2 and also use Protein skimmer ( HOT) from day one and infact thats what I believe keeps my Amonia and NO2 down to zero all the time. I am not sure if Biowheel is suppose to reduce NO3 levels, do you??

I don't believe that Biowheel will reduce NO3, in fact I think it will increase levels over time.

Here's a link to the article by Randy Holmes-Farley about Nitrate in aquaria. I think it might help you. Also, I believe this article may be helpful as well in understanding different filtration methods.

[shah1n]

Hey,

Recently I came accross AZ-NO3 reducer, has any one tried it? also I am going to get 125 Gal tank , any suggestion on how big sump I will need and how to set it up?

shah1n

[Samper]

More frequent water changes will also help you although that doesn't fix your problem only combats it.

[zhenya]

Hey,

Recently I came accross AZ-NO3 reducer, has any one tried it? also I am going to get 125 Gal tank , any suggestion on how big sump I will need and how to set it up?

shah1n

Hey!

I did try this particular product few years ago when I had set up my first tank with wet-dry filter full of bio-balls... it does what it claims. However, it is a temporary fix and doesn't solve problem of high NO3 levels all by itself. You need to track down the sourse of your Nitrates and get it fixed, then like Samper had suggested, keeping up with water changes will help keeping it down. Again, if it is a FO tank, slightly higher NO3 levels is not a big concern but in a ref aquarium they should be undetectable by hobbyist kits.

To answer your questions about your 125g tank we would need to know more about it, like is it drilled, for example? As for the size of the sump, I think 35-40 gallon sump should be adequate. The bigger size sump you can fit in your stand the better, if that is indeed where you planning to have it set up.

[shah1n]

125 Gal that I am getting in to has not been drilled , so far the prev owner was using HOT filters , which i do have it too in my fish and inv 55 gal tank but its hard to get it clean under those area. I am going to plan this tank to be house for the nice fishes that I have as 2 purple firefish, 2 cleaner shrimps, 1 pearlscale butterfly, 1 yellow tang, 1 blue hippo tang and 3 percula clowns and some cleaner crew. I also want to have some anemones and some corals but that after I get MH lighting in future. Right now I will go with Fish and inv only but to have a stable aquarium in couple of months.

Let me know all possible ideas for sump, thanks to all of you.

this is great place to have all the good experience.

shah1n