Nitrates

[whiz_bit]

Hi,
I live in the UK and have a 180l tank, which I have stocked with mainly Malawi and a couple Victoria Cichlids, my current filter set up is a Fluval 205 canister filter. I am having a problem with increasing nitrates in the set up, at least partly down to the tap water I am using for water changes (40% about every 7-10 days) has 40ppm out of the tap.

About 2 months ago I purchased 1l of Seachem Matrix, 1 of DeNitrate and 100ml pouch of Purigen, over the course of the last 2 months I have gradually added the Matrix to my Fluval filter removing the ceramic media that was in there, I am now running about .9l in the Fluval with the Purigen but have not seen an improvement in the nitrate situation.

My question is where do I go from here, will the 1l of DeNitrate I purchased be enough? I have been trying to work out whether to get a new canister filter and put the DeNitrate in my Fluval and reduce the flow or whether to build a custom filter to house the DeNitrate?

Regards

Wayne

[Tech Support AN]

Thanks for the post and for using our products!

The De*nitrate works as both a nitrifying and denitrifying filter when the flow rate is 50 gph or less. Matrix will work at any flow rate to remove ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. It sounds as if you have plenty of filtration for your system. The best solutions for reducing nitrates are more frequent water changes, decreasing the amount of dissolved organics (overfeeding, excessive supplementation, etc.), and boosting your biological filtration by adding a bacterial supplement such as our Stability. Also, keep in mind that Purigen will not directly reduce your nitrates, but will help to control them by removing the pre-cursors. I hope this information helps! :-)

[whiz_bit]

Thanks for the quick reply, at the moment I don't have the De*nitrate in the setup as I don't have anything to put it in, can you advise on what is the best thing to run it in?

[Tech Support AN]

You are very welcome!

Honestly, anything that receives water flow of 50gph or less will work perfectly fine (canister, sump, etc).