Need help reducing nitrates (I know, old question)

rodger · Feb 10, 2015

I am at wits end trying to get my nitrate level to go below 40 mg/l. I have zero out of the tap per my API test kit (11/18 exp date). I have removed all but enough gravel to cover the bottom. I am now doing a 50% water change once and sometimes twice a day. I vacuum the gravel every time. I added a single pothos plant about 2 weeks ago, so that is not showing any signs of helping yet. Filtration consists of an Eheim 2262 with Poret foam, ceramics and 6 liters of Seachem Purigen. Also a 100 gal Rubbermaid stock tank sump with 100 micron socks and 100 cubic liters of K1 churned by a Pondmaster AP100 air pump. Tank is a 240. For the last two weeks I am changing filter socks daily. (I have about 40 of them) I have a fairly high bio load but considering how much water I change I don't know what else to do! I am in the process of putting an autodrip in the fish room, but what the heck....... drip/pour 500 gallons a day?
Let me recap:
50% water change at least daily
240 gal tank
100 gallon sump with apx 75 gallons of water
100 mic filter socks changed daily
100 cu l of K1 with agitation of 5500 CFM air
2262 with foam, 6 liters of Purigen and ceramics
zero nitrates from tap
just added pothos
API test kit exp 11/18

Ideas please!

nossalucard · Feb 10, 2015

I'm glad i dont have your waterbill.... :nilly:

Additionally, I've ALSO been wondering if we can have TOO much Bio, which might then contribute to higher nitrate, BUT as I've always understood it, you can only grow as much bacteria (Nitrobacter) as the system "needs", no more.

On another note I personally have considered but never tried, assuming the above concept was WRONG: start taking OUT biomedia (1 handfull)weeky till I see exactly how much I need, as eveident by ammonia testing maybe? Then once I arrive at what I ACTUALLY NEED (per given stocking at the time), and am sure system is stable, resume normal water changes and nitrate testing to check for any differences. I just have this sneaky feeling sometimes that we almost ALL have TOO MUCH bio filtration on some of these tanks...just a weird thought...

Also, i just started with Pothos a month ago(Early January), and it took mine 3 weeks to finally transition from dirt to water roots before I even placed them in the tank. I started them in a mason jar of tank water initially. Of course no changes in Nitrate yet(I stay about 40ppm in a 65 i'm testing on with weekly 50% water changes), and I dont expect anything till hopefully by this spring...

Yuki Rihwa · Feb 10, 2015

From reading and searching about US tap water, out tap water Nitrate is 40 ppm so it's already high in the first place, 50% WC daily or every other days won't get it below 40 ppm...it's wasting water IMO. Also, getting Pothos in the tank is good option for Nitrate reduction but it take very long time for Pothos establishing its new environment, I got 2 buckets of golden Pothos on top of my tank and its just start kicking off after over a month in there (producing ton of new leafs and roots start coming down from the top toward the substrate.

rodger · Feb 10, 2015

nossalucard said:
I'm glad i dont have your waterbill....

Additionally, I've ALSO been wondering if we can have TOO much Bio, which might then contribute to higher nitrate, BUT as I've always understood it, you can only grow as much bacteria (Nitrobacter) as the system "needs", no more.

On another note I personally have considered but never tried, assuming the above concept was WRONG: start taking OUT biomedia (1 handfull)weeky till I see exactly how much I need, as eveident by ammonia testing maybe? Then once I arrive at what I ACTUALLY NEED (per given stocking at the time), and am sure system is stable, resume normal water changes and nitrate testing to check for any differences. I just have this sneaky feeling sometimes that we almost ALL have TOO MUCH bio filtration on some of these tanks...just a weird thought...

Also, i just started with Pothos a month ago(Early January), and it took mine 3 weeks to finally transition from dirt to water roots before I even placed them in the tank. I started them in a mason jar of tank water initially. Of course no changes in Nitrate yet(I stay about 40ppm in a 65 i'm testing on with weekly 50% water changes), and I dont expect anything till hopefully by this spring...

Actually, nossalucard, you can have too much bio. K1 is so efficient that it strips micro nutrients from the water, which is why salt guys don't use it. The bacteria that eat nitrates are not the ones that eat nitrites so they aren't competing. That is an interesting thought about pulling media until you find out what the minimum you should use is.
My water bill isn't that high, really. I make my family use water from water changes for bathing etc so it won't go to waste.

xraycer · Feb 10, 2015

You need to give the pothos more time. For the pothos to be even more effective: provide good lighting and have make sure there is good water current moving through the root system. This should get you out of the 40s. When pothos starts growing then you know its starting to thrive and utilizing fish waste.

Rivermud · Feb 10, 2015

Nitrates can not be removed from the system unless you either: Have an anerobic colony of denitrifying bacteria (denitrator), remove it by hand(water change), it is consumed by a plant or algae. Note that algae doesn't removed it unless you remove the algae. You are going to need a LOT more plants if you want to go that route. Your system can with relative ease support 44 cubic feet of growbeds.. one pothos isn't going to make a lot of difference. My 100 gallon is going to be running 16 cubic feet of bed and could handle twice that if I were heavily stocked. Of course with plants you need to watch PH as well as Iron, Potassium, and Calcium deficiencies. Any plants will help but don't expect miracles unless you bump the plants up to a much bigger thing. I think you will find the drip to be your best bet. I've heard of a lot of people having great success with it.

mudbuttjones · Feb 10, 2015

I've had really good luck with pothos. I put them in the sump in november and they've easily tripled in size. Most of the runners are over 3ft long and I'm running out of room in my cabinet.

Here's an older picture. It's about 2x size now. There is a submerged sprabar thats fed by a 185gph pump. The plants are in a little 1/2 gallon container that drains back into the sump. I see constant new growth. They are under 2x 10w 6500k CFL bulbs for 14 hours a day.

It's not a miracle cure, but along with other methods it's very effective. If your getting high nitrates from the tap I dont know how much itll help though

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rodger · Feb 10, 2015

Rivermud, do you mean sq ft of pothos? If you really meant cu ft, is that vines and roots combined? How compact would you smash them to determine cu ft? How did you determine my system would handle X amount of pothos?

Rivermud · Feb 10, 2015

I meant cubic feet of grow space. Grow beds are measured by volume in the aquaponic world. Generally a minimum grow bed is equal in volume to the fish tank. For example i have a 100 gallon aquarium not heavilly stocked (in terms of aquaponics) A cubic foot of water is 7.48 gallons. That means i need 13.36 cubic feet of growbed space to equal the volume of my tank. Now this is a different ballgame that just having a few plants for your tank so its not fully apples to apples. However, it does should how many plants are needed to consume the continual load of nitrates. Adding plats to your system definitely will help. A system your size is probably going to need a bit more than just one pothos plant.

the lion who ate the sun · Feb 10, 2015

Give the pothos a month and you'll be shocked at how capable it is. How did you prep your pothos? If you were not thorough, there is a chance some of the white beads got into your tank. Those will absolutely destroy your parameters.


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Need help reducing nitrates (I know, old question)

rodger

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nossalucard

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Yuki Rihwa

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rodger

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xraycer

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