High no3, how and what to dose

[Ciosku]

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 240 liter
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - 200 liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique - NO
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) - NO
5. Are you using Ozone - NO
6. Are you using UV - NO
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - Schuran 150 with 6000l/h pomp
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - PO4: 0.00, NO3: 10
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels - Ca:450, KH: 7.3, Mg:1300
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) - Zeovit method with algea scrubber
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) - 2x24w T5 blue, Radion xr15 G5 pro x 2
12. What corals do you keep - SPS Acropora x 40 frags, 5 x lps,
13. Tissue color (light or dark) – light and normal
14. How long has the tank been running - 9 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system - to keep low nutrients and have nice sps colors
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - Real Reef Rock 18 kg
18. Any present problems - high NO3, no Ca, Kh consumption (FM balling light only 4ml day) poor gains
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - brown film on the rock, sometimes acropores release thin white threads
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) - hanna hi93713 (po4) Hanna hi 722 (kh), salifert: ca, mg, no3, k, new.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
ZEOvit – 0,5 liter
ZEObak – 4 drops week
ZEOstart3 – 0,1 ml (2 drops) day
Xtra – 0.5 ml other day
Coral Vitalizer – 2 drops other day
carbon – 150 ml
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) - 35 PSU, 25 temp, K 390-400,
23. Which salt brand do you use - Red Sea Salt
I have 10 fish

3 months ago my parameters were stable (PO4: 0.01, NO3: 1) I did the ICP tests, it turned out that I have a very high Bar (240). I have used AL99 for 1.5 months. From then on, NO3 slowly increased. Now there are 10. The acropores have brightened, a few unchanged.

How to reduce NO3 and what can block Ca consumption
Thanks Marcin

[G.Alexander]

Hello Marcin,

is the Al level still high or where you able to get it under control ?

Can you please additional post a picture of your sump which does show some details ?

G.Alexander

[Ciosku]

Hello,
This is main sump.
I mean Ba (barium), I used the AL99 absorber for about 2 months (from January). The absorber went off as the NO3 started to rise. I will be doing the ICP test next week.
I forgot to add, I dose Iodine 0.2 ml (triton) every other day.

[jacky]

My experience is not very good. If it were me, I would try to remove the green biochemical cotton. In addition, I will keep the plastic white square box away from the sea as much as possible to avoid touching it.

[G.Alexander]

Thank you for the picture, can you tell my something more about the white box on the left side under the dosing pumps ? Is it any kind of additional filtration ?

I just try to find anything in your system which is responsible for the elevated NO3 level. Al based absorbers should not be used directly in the system as of the higher PH levels Al might be released to the water which might have a negative impact to the biology.

10mg is not really issue and I am sure the level will start to drops slowly over the time. I would try to do some more water changes for the next couple of weeks, the skimmer seems to be skim relative dry also, lets adjust it to skim more wet and clean it daily to remove as much as possible.

The sponge is something I would also remove, you can never be sure if they do leach any kind of harmful substances even if they are decelerated to be used in saltwater.

I would also recommend to increase the ZeoStart dosage to 0.2 ml 2 x daily while keeping checking NO3 regular to see if the level does further increase. Please also check the flow through your ZeoVit reactor by measuring it, 200 liters per hour would be ideal. If there are sediments in the sump and on the glass of your display system make sure to vacuum it out also.

G.Alexander

[Ciosku]

Hello, thanks for the info. This white box is an algae filter, I've been using it for 4 months.
I measured the flow through the zeovit reactor, it turned out that it was 100l / h. so far I went up to 150l / h at the end of the week I will raise to 200l / h
Does it make sense to dose Coral Vitalizer, Xtra if I do not have calcium Ca consumption? (constant level 450)
Doadaje only Kh (baling with FM)
Marcin

[jacky]

Basically, this device is not necessary in the ZeoVit system. If it is me, I will remove it slowly. At the same time, slowly adjust the flow rate of the zeolite reactor to the recommended level. The nutrition should not increase, and additional BioMate can also be used. It is also recommended that you replace 15% of the water 3 times within 10 days to refresh the elements in a balanced way. Zeo CV and Xtra can be dosed twice a week. Keep the basic water parameters as stable as possible. If everything goes well, the coral tissue should expand well over time

[G.Alexander]

Hello Marcin,

As Jacky said the algae filter is not really necessary but I would recommend to keep it as long as the system runs nutrient poor stabile, thank you can think about removing it. The increase of the reactor flow will indeed be helpful and I would expect a slow decrease of NO3 within the next couple of weeks. You can keep to dose CV and Xtra 2 x weekly but lets reduce the quantity to 50%.

G.Alexander

[Ciosku]

Hello everyone, For almost three weeks I have been struggling with brown bloom on rock and more. I removed the algae filter. flow through reactor 160. ICP test showed too high Ba bar (288) other parameters normal (ca 455; mg 1310; K 395n Po4 0.018; kh 7.6; No3 10-15) I won't take anything for a week. Only in the last 10 days I have done 4 changes of 20 liters of water to Red Sea blue. What could be the reason ?

[jacky]

I will use Zeo CoralSnow (2ml x 7 days) to do a deep cleaning of the system, and at the same time use a toothbrush to clean, and remove them as much as possible on the glass and wherever the eyes can see algae. At the same time, pull the zeolite rod several times x2 times a day. It is also recommended that we get BioMate, which is also a good choice. Please also check whether the flow rate of the zeolite reactor is 200 liters per hour. With the passage of time in the Zeo system, I believe it will gradually improve.

[G.Alexander]

Pictures are very blue so I can not see what exactly the slimy patches are. Do they disappear while the dark period growing back when the lights are switched on again or are they present all the time ?

G.Alexander

[Ciosku]

Hey, that brown bloom isn't slick or slimy. it is more like diatoms with bubbles and threads. Most when lighting. It does not disappear at night.

And the skimmer has stopped skimming for over 2 weeks.
Marcin

[G.Alexander]

If the stuff does stay while the dark period I would rule out Dinoflaggelate so as you mention before it might just be some kind of diatoms.

As you have mention more water changes, if the RO water has some issues it can have something to do with it. Have you already checked the quality of your RO water with a accurate TDS meter and do you use a purest water resin as the last stage of your RO until ?

Please also post your actual dosing regimen.

The skimmer should build up foam, please check if anything in the skimmer pump does decrease the skimming process.

G.Alexander