Mangroves?

[Mikek]

Though I have had no unfortunate deaths to fish, coral, or inverts, nor huge algae bloom, my 55g is consistently showing about 40ppm nitrate. Nitrite and ammonia at 0, PH between 7.8 and 8, sal 1.023. I make my own water from the tap, but have tested the water out of the tap and it is perfect. I tried water changes, a small 1g refugium with a couple of plants on the back, and still 40. I am about to add a couple of more plants I just ordered, but also came across the idea of Mangrove plants, and how successful they are for Nitrate reduction. I saw an article about the importance of acclimating a mangrove, but it didn't give much information as to how. Is it similar to any other addition, as far as method and time?

Thanks :)

 

[reefnoob]

How big are your water changes?
And if you really want to use plants for nitrates reduction, mangroves would probably be the worst bet, as they grow very slow. The best plants would be chaeto or caulerpa in my opinion.

 

[Mikek]

My water changes have been as much as 25%. Admittedly, I haven't done several in succession, they've usually been a week or 2 apart because I worry about shocking the bios with too much change too quick. I have a shaving brush and a halimedia now in my refugium and have a teacup, fern codium, and another shaving brush on their way. I've been getting my plants from reefs2go, and they have mangroves that are leafed shoots with roots making the wait for a functional plant much less, but I'll have to see about getting chaeto and/or caulerpa next.

 

[Kelz88]

Have you tried more then one test kit? Maybe that one went bad? Also are you using RODI water or tap? Might be from tap water if you are using that

 

[Mikek]

Using tap water, but the tap water has amazingly good readings, including near 0 nitrate with the same test strips that show 40 in my tank. That being said, I just bought a brand new container of Tetra Easy Strips and am getting the same reading as the last batch of them were giving me. Since there was a distinct difference in result using the same strips on my tank and tap, I'm figuring the strips can't be too wrong, so I have not used another type of test yet. I just did a 25% water change today, and figure I'll do another tomorrow if there isn't any further decrease, then the additional plants are scheduled to come in Tuesday.

 

[d2mini]

You would need a TON of mangrove for any kind of nutrient reduction/export. They are very slow growers. I had 50 of them growing at one time and I don't think it made any noticeable difference.

 

[Mikek]

Chaeto it is then :) Thank you very much, you all have saved me some needless time and money.

 

[reefnoob]

Also test strips aren't accurate. You should get the liquid kinds instead. Although the liquid ones are more expensive, they are MUCH more accurate.