i have nitrates at 25ppm right now in a 180 gal with 100 gal sump. i have the ati bubblemaster on it. i had commissioned someone to make me a denitrator for this problem. he said i can make it but for how much the denitrator would be and the media you would need you might be better off getting a better skimmer. what do you guys think? i have 11 fish none over 5" but plan to add more. i have to feed alot so thats a factor.

IMO, I would look into a better skimmer, or other methods of dealing with nitrate. I understand denitrators are difficult to get up and running just right, require constant tinkering, and may not be all that effective. It's gotta run for a while to establish colonies of anaerobic bacteria, and if you push too much water throug it, and you get oxygenated water down to the bacteria, you have to start all over again.

Have you considered growing macro, or a DSB, or even a remote DSB? It sounds like your sump is plenty large for a nice fuge with DSB and macro in it.

i have a fuge for macro but it isnt growing. i have a dsb in the tank. i have 350+ lbs of live rock and sand. i have an area for macro in my sump. i even put some in my tank to see if lighting is the problem and so far nothing.

What macro do you have?

i have various species of caluerpra and chaetomorpha and something called dragons breath

you may have too many species of macro all competing for nutirents and stunting each other via allelopathy. i've seen this often...and these tanx eventually crash in terms of the macro.

try cutting back to the Chaeto and one or two of your faves, then see how you do.

of all the people i have posed this to. you are the first to suggest that. i will try it

With a DSB, and as much live rock as you have, your tank should be able to process quite a bit of nitrate as long as you have adequate flow through the rocks and across the surface of the substrate.

How old is your DSB? How long has it seemed to be nonfunctional?


Have you ever done a series of large water changes to get your nitrates under 5ppm and then tracked them to see how much excess nitrate your tank produces?

How much flow do you have through your display? Through your sump?
Have you eliminated any dead spots or zones where detritus can settle or collect on the rocks or the surface of the DSB?

Two things immediately come to mind......macroalgae and clams. BOTH utilize nitrates.

Two things immediately come to mind......macroalgae and clams. BOTH utilize nitrates.

You'd need a LOT of clams to get 280g of water @ 25ppm down to manageable levels but macroalgae combined with a properly sized & functioning DSB should do the trick.

parts of the sand are 6 mths old and parts are several years old from established tanks. well i have had high nitrates for about 2 or 3 months now. i have 4 seio 1100's and a 1500 in the tank. i have a mag 12 return pump and a blue line 30 for my uv which i believe is about 700gph. i tried to eliminate dead spots but some corners have more flow than others