Finally achieved 0 nitrates

[DDK]

So some back ground is that I had many tanks +600 gallons in volume, since most of them were flowerhorns they all died when they hit 5-6 years old. Now I only have one tank, a 240g with a single jardini thats roughly 8 years old now. I've been wanting to get out the hobby for years because I dont have the time nor does it give me the joy it used to. But since jardinis live up to 20 years, throughout the years Id try these "myths" to get rid or reduce of nitrates and I actually finally found something that worked so i thought I'd share.

My tank is 240 gallons,
-single 22 inch jardini, fed 2-3 times a week
-two aqua clear 110's
-nitrates at 80 ppm (i know its horribly high but I just dont have the time to change the water twice a month as it takes ~2 hours)
-total dissolved solids at the end of the month before a w/c sit around 330-340ppm
-90% monthly water changes
-my tap water ~190-200 ppm depending on the time of day

Here are the myths or solutions I tried without much success
Carbon pellets (dr tims)
-used with a reactor with correct flow and went through 3 bottles with no success
Ghetto diy nitrate reactor
-To be fair it probably works for other people but for me it didnt and I dont like throwing vodka in my tank lmao
Ponthos
-Only would remove ~20ppm max no matter how big the plants got for some reason
Algae scrubber
-Worked the best and cut my 80ppm of nitrates by half resulting in 40ppm
-Used a air pump and evaporation would be at least 20-30 gallons a week so I got rid of it.
-Algae also separates and will float/clog the filters.


I remember watching pond guru's video's "pimp my filter" and people having good success reducing nitrates with their biohome ultimate media. I thought it was all fluff as I already do have ceramic media and still have 80ppm nitrates lol, but looked it up on amazon and almost died because its 2.2 pounds or 1kg is 45 bucks lol. They sell it on greatwave engineering for $18.32 per kg so I bought 1kg or 2.2 pounds of the ultimate, and also 500 grams of Biohome BioGravel. I shoved everything into the aquaclear 110's and it all barely fit with my existing ceramic ring media.

Note I use a dissolved solids meter and not a real "nitrate test kit" Noting my tap water's ppm level and then checking the tank's ppm I can estimate the difference and confidently say the difference is nitrates. My tank does require ~20 gallons every 2-3 weeks to be top off due to evaporation so some dissolved solids do concentrate but nothing crazy.


2/15/21
-Added 3lbs Biohome ultimate/gravel
-340 ppm before w/c
-260ppm after w/c

3/08/21
-no w/c just checking ppm
-330-340 ppm

3/18/21
-90% w/c
-340ppm before w/c
-230ppm after w/c

4/26/21
-90% w/c
-230ppm before w/c
-220ppm after w/c

So it took me ~2 months to achieve near 0ppm of nitrates, the calculator for nitrate reduction on greatwave engineering stated that I would need something stupid such as 40 lbs of media as recommended is 1.5-2kg for a predator tank per 26 gallons lmao. You would need at least 3-4 fx5's to even have a chance to fit that much media which is stupid. I got away with about 3.3 lbs of media. Of course this is the first month and I'll continue to check to see if my ppm is near my tap waters ppm, but right now I can confidently say I found something that works for me. I still plan to do monthly water changes to replenish minerals, but now I can do 40% w/c's without unplugging all the filters/heaters and worrying about the media drying up. If you run aquaclears you know that itll siphon the water out from the filter compartment untill the filter inlet is exposed to air which is damn annoying when your trying to keep the media wet. Just thought id share as I searched and tried many things and wasted a ton of money throughout the YEARS to find something that actually removes nitrates effectively.

 

[DDK]

2.2lbs or 1kg of Biohome Ultimate media under my existing ceramic rings



500 grams of BioGravel


shoving that much media into the aquaclear 110's did in fact cut the flow by 30-40% but from my understanding thats actually a good thing, slower flow allows the denitrification to more effectively happen.

ppm of 4/28/21 based off of temp, the ppm can be off ~5% give or take.


Here was the total


Here are the bags used, very good quality btw, and amazon prime next day shipping is legit


I'm not sponsored nor care if you buy what I buy, after trying a lot of things throughout the years i just found something that works for me so i thought i would share it. If my nitrates do change in a negative direction ill be sure to update.

 

[FJB]

With all respect to you (or anybody), biomedia cannot remove nitrate. It would convert ammonia and nitrite to the end product --> nitrate, but will NOT remove nitrate. Only water changes (and plants, if you have a lot of them), will remove nitrate, but not much else.

I know you know this, so I am confused at what I am reading.
Something does not add up in your account of the situation. I don't believe you may have solved the issue of high levels of nitrate due to insufficient water changes.
I hope things work out well for your tank and fish.

 

[DDK]

changes (and plants, if you have a lot of them), will remove nitrate, but not much else.

I know you know this, so I am confused at what I am rea

So that is partially true, generally all ceramic media does is harbor aerobic bacteria that converts ammonia, to nitrite, to nitrate, supposedly the biohome media has a dense core, in this dense core anaerobic bacteria can thrive and live. In the ultimate media I broke a couple pieces up before i put it into the tank and it does have a different color(brown/grey)/texture core which is very dense. This is where the denitrification takes places or where the anaerobic bacteria lives since its an anaerobic zone and converts nitrates into o2 in theory. Which regular ceramic media does not have.

Way back in the day marine pure was stating something similar, i bought some stupid expensive media and all it turned out to be was thick ceramic media without a dense core to support denitrification, if it gets clogged enough perhaps but as is nope imo. The "biohome" is breathable from the red clay looking part and the middle grey/brown dense part isnt so theres some truth to it, or at least thats my understanding.

Heres a picture i just broke one in half lol

 

[DDK]

So i stumbled across some old pond guru videos that describe why this media is supposedly different, and how it can harbor denitrifying bacteria. Which to me makes sense and to others it may not.

at 7:40-9:40
and also at
11:40-12:25

I'm not saying that hes 100% right but his logic is there about denitrification. Two days ago when I tested my tank's water before the w/c I thought my ppm reader was out of wack so I calibrated it with the 2.77 ec solution, switched it back over to 500ppm and tested the water straight out the tap, (still 190-200ppm) and then tested my tanks water again and showed 220ppm.

So something changed and all I did differently was add some extra media two months ago that supposedly has the potential to harbor denitrifying bacteria due to the dense core which other ceramic medias dont have. Ill keep testing the water to see if it was a fluke but tbh i dont think it is as I do agree with mr pond gurus logic, note im not a hydrologists tho lol..

 

[jjohnwm]

I am at a loss to understand why you have a large aquarium containing a valuable fish...and want to tinker with nitrate removal...yet you don't purchase a simple water test kit to measure nitrates directly, rather than using this back-door indirect method of measuring TDS and assuming that the only thing changing is the nitrates. If you are topping up evaporated water with roughly 10% of your tank volume each month that is a significant source of increased TDS over time...not crazy, agreed, but still significant.

I am not a chemist or any other kind of certified/papered "-ist", but I sure hope one comes into this thread and examines this thing thoroughly.

 

[DDK]

I am at a loss to understand why you have a large aquarium containing a valuable fish...and want to tinker with nitrate removal...yet you don't purchase a simple water test kit to measure nitrates directly, rather than using this back-door indirect method of measuring TDS and assuming that the only thing changing is the nitrates. If you are topping up evaporated water with roughly 10% of your tank volume each month that is a significant source of increased TDS over time...not crazy, agreed, but still significant.

I am not a chemist or any other kind of certified/papered "-ist", but I sure hope one comes into this thread and examines this thing thoroughly.

A jardini isnt a valuable fish by any means, you can buy them for under 80 bucks all day long. Fish in question isnt an asian arowana as their illegal in the states. But I used to buy the two stage nitrate test kits all the time but its plain and simply a waste of money. They're very inaccurate and the expiration date is usually within a year. And who wants to sit there shaking the piss out the second bottle due to the active ingredient crystalling at the base of the bottle. Rather than try and play a guessing game matching 10 shades of yellow I'd rather get a value from a solid tried and true meter I calibrate every so often.

I have been meaning to use my ro water to top off but its slow and takes forever.. a lot easier to dose the whole tank with safe from seachem and get the hose out lol. When water changes take 2 hours and you waste roughly 180-200 gallons of water at a time who wouldnt want to tinker with nitrate removal to possible give the fish better water quality as well as save time and our greatest resource which is potable water.

 

[jjohnwm]

A jardini isnt a valuable fish by any means, you can buy them for under 80 bucks all day long. Fish in question isnt an asian arowana as their illegal in the states. But I used to buy the two stage nitrate test kits all the time but its plain and simply a waste of money. They're very inaccurate and the expiration date is usually within a year. And who wants to sit there shaking the piss out the second bottle due to the active ingredient crystalling at the base of the bottle. Rather than try and play a guessing game matching 10 shades of yellow I'd rather get a value from a solid tried and true meter I calibrate every so often.

I have been meaning to use my ro water to top off but its slow and takes forever.. a lot easier to dose the whole tank with safe from seachem and get the hose out lol. When water changes take 2 hours and you waste roughly 180-200 gallons of water at a time who wouldnt want to tinker with nitrate removal to possible give the fish better water quality as well as save time and our greatest resource which is potable water.

Fair enough; I know that I consider any fish that I have owned for 8 years and grown to a large size to be "valuable", even if not particularly spendy.

I am on a well and consider water to be available for free and in pretty much unlimited quantity for all practical purposes; I've been called to task more than once for that attitude.

 

[DDK]

Fair enough; I know that I consider any fish that I have owned for 8 years and grown to a large size to be "valuable", even if not particularly spendy.

I am on a well and consider water to be available for free and in pretty much unlimited quantity for all practical purposes; I've been called to task more than once for that attitude.

Lucky lol, well water here comes out looking like white chocolate milk due to so much sediment in the water. But to be honest I'm currently tired of taking care of animals... sentimentally yea i would like them to live out their life span happy but once all my animals die i'm done. Maybe when im retired ill get back into the hobby. Who would have known this stupid fish i buy for 80 bucks cost me thousands and is estimated to live for another 12 years lol.. Kind of like my dog, it was a gift and ends up having ivdd needing a 7k back surgery... I even insisted I didnt want the dog but here I am a dog and fish dad gettin bled dry, doing water changes and cleaning up pee. Life eh.

 

[fishdance]

Low to no maintenance fish keeping us the holy grail !
I suspect bio film is reducing your nitrate as much or more than denitrification.

I suggest you look at constant drip auto water change to lower your maintenance further as getting low nitrate will not mean no more water changes. Like you, I have many fish tanks - some very large. I have several fish rooms in fact.