Your suggestions on nitrate removing methods

adubson

adubson

New member
I'm looking for your suggestions on adding something to my new reef tank in order to control nitrate levels. I don't have the means to setup a refugium in my sump, so for those who do things on top of regular water changes, what do you do?

Vodka dosing, cleaner clams, sulfur reactor..?
 
Vinegar more safe than vodka..I do vodka to my main SPS tank and Vinegar for my 30 mix tank..all nitrate is unter 0.25.
 
maidia said:
Vinegar more safe than vodka..I do vodka to my main SPS tank and Vinegar for my 30 mix tank..all nitrate is unter 0.25.
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Thanks maidia

What's your process for vinegar dosing? I don't have a dosing pump, so is it something that can be added just once daily? Any pH issues?
 
PH is ok..I am using dosing pump and start with 10ml 2 times a day..have been 4-5 months now go up to 25ml 2 times a day (30 gallon tank + 15 gallon sum)
For vodka I do 2 times a day and 15 ml each now (120 gallon + 40 gallon sum)

Start slowly from 5ml fisrt then go up 2 or 3 ml each week until Nit and Po4 down to what you want then cut off in half and stay there (depend how many gallon your tank ans sum)
 
I have a DIY algae turf scrubber, ATS. It takes up less space than a refugium.

I haven't used the Santa Monica scrubbers but one uses a magnet to stick to the side of your sump and another floats on to:

http://www.santa-monica.cc/
 
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Vinegar dosing worked well for me in the past. Now I do Red Sea NoPox dosing.
Whatever you choose, just do plenty of research on it. You cant overdose with using algae refugium/scrubber. If you overdose with carbon dosing, it can mean a tank crash, but if you research well, it's less maintenance.


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I've been running biopellets for a year and a half with good results. Others have had severe issues with biopellets, so do a lot of research if you do that route.
 
If vodka dosing is a little riskier than the vinegar dosing then I think I'll give the vinegar a shot. I'd add a biopellet reactor but I'm looking for the cheapest option here. Any benefit in doing the Red Sea NO3-PO4-x over vinegar?
 
maidia said:
Vinegar more safe than vodka..I do vodka to my main SPS tank and Vinegar for my 30 mix tank..all nitrate is unter 0.25.
Click to expand...

Not to derail this thread, but Mai, can you elaborate on your statement about vinegar dosing being safer then vodka? In my understanding, as long as you don't overdose either you will be fine. Most difference is, some users report cyano growth with vodka dosing, which I combat by adding different bacteria strands every once in a while.
 
Mark, I dose vodka into my 120 + 40 gallon from the beginning..I start at 5ml first then up to 28 ml..all PO4 and Nitrate come down zero which mean my SPS are not happy and fade out color. So In need to cut down to 10-15 ml 2 times a day..If the OP seem new to carbon dosing I recommend using Vinegar better..
Also, my 30 gallon DB tank had the same issue when I dosing vodka so I change completely to Vinegar and all corals happy now..(this is mix tank). The zoas and frogpawn are un-happy but the SPS are good. That why I recommend for newbies dosing vinegar safer, better and also cheaper..Just my experience and 2 cents.
Same as your thought, overdose is easy to harm the corals. I read some where from othe sites, vodka is stronger than Vinegar, sugar is less than vinegar..Someone still dosing sugar because they scare to crash the tank.
Also a guy in Hongkong or Taiwan (I forget the link) he tried VSV (Vokda, sugar and vinegar mix) and his tank is look real nice..I did try it but my tank look really weird..so I stop it.
 
Also, when I change from Vodka to Vinegar (I come back vodka for the big tank) I got lot of cyano both tank but they go away after a month or so..The 30 gallon get heavy cyano when I changed from vodka to vinegar I have to use Chemiclean (forget the name) to get the cyano out...
 
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adubson said:
If vodka dosing is a little riskier than the vinegar dosing then I think I'll give the vinegar a shot. I'd add a biopellet reactor but I'm looking for the cheapest option here. Any benefit in doing the Red Sea NO3-PO4-x over vinegar?
Click to expand...

I get almost zero phosphates with NoPox. As long as you keep small amount of nitrates, phosphates go down also. I only dose 0.2 ml per day now. I started at 3 ml per day on my 80 gal reef and had to keep lowering the dose as my nitrates lowered because you dont want to go to 0 nitrates or you get that imbalance of nitrate/phosphate, which equals cyano outbreak.


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maidia said:
Mark, I dose vodka into my 120 + 40 gallon from the beginning..I start at 5ml first then up to 28 ml..all PO4 and Nitrate come down zero which mean my SPS are not happy and fade out color. So In need to cut down to 10-15 ml 2 times a day..If the OP seem new to carbon dosing I recommend using Vinegar better..
Also, my 30 gallon DB tank had the same issue when I dosing vodka so I change completely to Vinegar and all corals happy now..(this is mix tank). The zoas and frogpawn are un-happy but the SPS are good. That why I recommend for newbies dosing vinegar safer, better and also cheaper..Just my experience and 2 cents.
Same as your thought, overdose is easy to harm the corals. I read some where from othe sites, vodka is stronger than Vinegar, sugar is less than vinegar..Someone still dosing sugar because they scare to crash the tank.
Also a guy in Hongkong or Taiwan (I forget the link) he tried VSV (Vokda, sugar and vinegar mix) and his tank is look real nice..I did try it but my tank look really weird..so I stop it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explanation Mai, but looking from your numbers you were overdosing it from the beginning. According to vodka dosing table, you should dose at first 0.2 ml of 40 proof vodka per 25 gal, this would come up to 1.28 ml. for your 160 gal. system. Half the dosage for 80 proof. Seems like you did almost 4 times that, no wonder that corals were not happy. Here is the vodka dosing table, so the OP can see what needs to be dosed, not just guess.
Table1-40Proof.jpg


I did post a link to it in one of my previous posts. Hope this helps a little to understand the whole process.
 
MMreef said:
Not to derail this thread, but Mai, can you elaborate on your statement about vinegar dosing being safer then vodka? In my understanding, as long as you don't overdose either you will be fine. Most difference is, some users report cyano growth with vodka dosing, which I combat by adding different bacteria strands every once in a while.
Click to expand...
[MENTION=259]MMreef[/MENTION] Mark what bacteria strands do you introduce and how?
 
Siebo said:
[MENTION=259]MMreef[/MENTION] Mark what bacteria strands do you introduce and how?
Click to expand...

I use Microbacter7 , Stability and Microbe-Lift special blend . I just ordered another one , Biodigest by Probidio. Pretty much I add according to instructions, just switching between brands every couple of weeks.
 
MMreef said:
Thanks for explanation Mai, but looking from your numbers you were overdosing it from the beginning. According to vodka dosing table, you should dose at first 0.2 ml of 40 proof vodka per 25 gal, this would come up to 1.28 ml. for your 160 gal. system. Half the dosage for 80 proof. Seems like you did almost 4 times that, no wonder that corals were not happy. Here is the vodka dosing table, so the OP can see what needs to be dosed, not just guess.
Table1-40Proof.jpg


I did post a link to it in one of my previous posts. Hope this helps a little to understand the whole process.
Click to expand...

Mark,
I said for the OP dosing vinegar not vodka

"PH is ok..I am using dosing pump and start with 10ml 2 times a day..have been 4-5 months now go up to 25ml 2 times a day (30 gallon tank + 15 gallon sum)
For vodka I do 2 times a day and 15 ml each now (120 gallon + 40 gallon sum)

Start slowly from 5ml fisrt then go up 2 or 3 ml each week until Nit and Po4 down to what you want then cut off in half and stay there (depend how many gallon your tank ans sum)"

I folow this but seem not enough for my 120 gallon tank. It's seem happy for SPS now with 15ml 2 time a day. I dose MB7 too.

http://melevsreef.com/node/184

:)
 
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