Nitrates

[Piggy]

I tested my water tonight and the only thing that was off was my nitrates and calcium. How do I get my nitrates down and my calcium up? I do add a liquid calcium. Can't remember the name of the stuff. Can you just add more or do you need to raise the calcium slowly? All that in the tank is liverock and a few small hermits and snails.

 

[bobby]

To get your nitrate down you have to do water changes. What are your trates at? It should say on the back of your bottle on how much you can add a day. I make my own calcium and have a calculater online that gives me a amout to add but it says add half now and half the next day, but when I bought some it said dont add over one cap full a day so I guess it just depends.

 

[Piggy]

Here is where I get confused. I thought water changes only lower your nitrites. Which I have 0.

Here is my readings:

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Calcium 350

As of now I add liquid calcium. I've been adding just a little bit more each day because I'm not sure if I can just add alot. The bottle says a cap a day but I've been only adding maybe a third.

 

[d.french]

i use pickling lime and drip it in slowly for 2 hours a day when needed one teaspoon per gallon of top off water. keeps calcium up.

 

[bobby]

Water changes lower everything. If you do a 50% change it will lower it 50%. I would do a 20% change and see were your at. a reading of 20 is not bad but I would try to lower it and keep it lowered. Corals can live in a reading 20 and if it a FOWLR tank ntrates really wont matter unless it gets real high or you have a algae outbreak. What is your calcium level at?

 

[reeffreak]

Regular water changes will keep the trates down(10-20% wkly.)They do sell media that reduces trates but since I never use any,can't tell you how well they work.20ppm nitrates and 350 calcium is not bad at all.Test your make up water for calcium and adjust it there if its low.

 

[yote]

If your dosing calcium,Make sure you test your PH.It'll probably drop with added calcium.

 

[d.french]

depends dosing with pickling lime which is one of the cheapest price wise to go ph can raise up if you add to tank to fast thats why i use home made doser with slow drip in tank plus one thing of pickling lime cost 3 bucks and will last all year. Read up on it before trying though, but coraline algae is awesome now that i'm using pickling lime.

 

[yote]

Thanks for that tip D.
What brand do you use?

 

[d.french]

mrs. wages

 

[Piggy]

Never here of it but I'm going to read up on it. Thanks for the info.

 

[fishbait]

http://http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.htmlpickling lime, hmm... i have never heard of that either. but i am still a little wet behind the ears. and no, i didn't fall in the tank. just thought i would state that before someone like yote read this:) here is a link for a handy dandy little calculator for dosing. i have used it for calcium and it seems pretty accurate

 

[fishbait]

If your dosing calcium,Make sure you test your PH.It'll probably drop with added calcium.

i was was having problems getting the calcium levels past 380 in my tank no matter how much i dosed using seachem reef advantage. i was also using seachem ph buffer to bring the ph up since i use i.o. salt mix. i beat my brains out trying to find out why. then during my water change last week i tried something different. i was allways adding the ph buffer first and then the calcium. so instead i dosed the calcium first, and wah,lah! calcium came up to 420 and ph rose from 8.0 to 8.3 without adding any ph buffer. i'm no chemist by no means so i can't fully explain why it worked. (i have a few theorys but i won't try to explain them just for the sake of sounding like an idiot) i don't know if you will have the same effect with liquid calcium. or if you are using a ph buffer. but hopefully this will help

 

[yote]

I had the same problem with IO salt.Thats why I switched to Oceanic.Now my calcium is always at 420,and the PH is 8.2.
The only thing I add is food.

Oh,Fish.You might wanna try using a towel to dry behind your ears. lol

 

[bobby]

I have always used IO till a few weeks ago. I liked it but had to dose calcium and adjust PH, then one day my LFS had oceanic on sale so I tried it out and all the corals seemed to like it and open up fuller, also my coraline is spreading more and faster. I havnt tested yet but I can deffinetly tell a difference.

 

[yote]

Bobby,
I'd bet a weeks paycheck that the calcium is at 420 in a fresh mix.

 

[Piggy]

My nitrates are still up. Calcium is up to 375 so it climbed some. Everything else is good.

 

[bobby]

HAHA It might be yote. I havbt checked it, but the tank sure seems to like the change.

 

[yote]

Piggy,
How much food are you feeding,how many,and what kind of fish do you have?
Oh,And are you using frozen,flakes,or what?
Some times the kind of food as well as how much can cause your nitrates to jump.
What are your nitrates at now?

Bobby,
Every time Ive tested Oceanic salt,the calcium had been at 420 in a fresh mix.Ive heard people say that Oceanics alakinity is low,but mine is always in the 9 to 12 DKH range,but I change 10% in both tanks every week,so that miy be helpping me keep it up.

 

[bobby]

Ok Well I read that if you do a 50 50 mix with IO and O it is a good mix so I'm going to try it I still have a 3/4 full bucket of IO to use anyway.