Does Sea Urchin helps the nitrate reduction?

hadiosbourne

hadiosbourne

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Hi Guys,
I just wondering if sea urchin are beneficial to a tank which struggling with nitrate,
Do they really help with reducing nitrate or they just make it worse,
I believe they leave a lot of residue.

Thanks!
 
Some urchins eat algae which can help slightly with reducing nitrates as its a form of nutrient export. I only had one urchin in my life and never found it to be scrappy. Large ones can become destructive, moving your rockscape
 
If a animal/invert/fish takes a poop in the tank, it generates ammonia. If you're already battling with nitrate don't bother. Ammonia becomes nitrite due to a process of bacteria breakdown, another bacteria then steps in and the nitrite becomes nitrate, denytrifying bactaria then turn the nitrate into nitrogen, which bubbles off into the atmosphere.

2 ways to get rid of nitrates:

Nitrate pellets
DSB
Chaeto

Some people missunderstand the chaeto, cause the plant has to make use of suffecient nitrates to grow then you cut that growth away to eliminate the nitrate levels. ie cheato takes longer.

for now do water changes till either you DSB is up to standard or you get a huge growth of cheato, or if you lucky, get a hold of some red mangrove.
 
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Wes said:
If a animal/invert/fish takes a poop in the tank, it generates ammonia. If you're already battling with nitrate don't bother. Ammonia becomes nitrite

2 ways to get rid of nitrates:

Nitrate pellets
DSB
Chaeto

.
Click to expand...
Thanks, i actually have that sea urchin in the tank for a long time , so now i'm giving it to a friend to deal with my nitrate issue, i'm keeping 5 fishes in the tank,
2maroon clown, 1yellow tang, 1 regal tang, and 1 mono angel,
I'm giving the regal tang and mono angel along with the urchin away,
Then i'll start doing the water changes , I'm also using Redsea no3 po4 remover as well, heard a lot about it but has no affect for me yet, so hopefully after water changes it see the affect,
Regarding chaetos, do they need lots of light to grow? can they be left in the refugium
with some natural light only? or they need more lights?

Thanks for the advise again.
 
I'm a bit of a bacteria nut. Try dosing bacteria along with vodka. This should sort your nitrates and phosphates in no time
 
hadiosbourne said:
Thanks, i actually have that sea urchin in the tank for a long time , so now i'm giving it to a friend to deal with my nitrate issue, i'm keeping 5 fishes in the tank,
2maroon clown, 1yellow tang, 1 regal tang, and 1 mono angel,
I'm giving the regal tang and mono angel along with the urchin away,
Then i'll start doing the water changes , I'm also using Redsea no3 po4 remover as well, heard a lot about it but has no affect for me yet, so hopefully after water changes it see the affect,
Regarding chaetos, do they need lots of light to grow? can they be left in the refugium
with some natural light only? or they need more lights?

Thanks for the advise again.
Click to expand...


Faster you get the Chaeto to grow the better, Cause the more you can cut off, hence decreasing your nitrates, stronger light = better growth IMO.
 
Okey, Got rid of the regal tang, mono angel, and sea urchin left with 2maroon clown and a yellow tang, I'm going to do a 20% water change this week, and 20% next week, and add some bacteria and chaeto, hope this would sort the problem.:thumbup:
 
Do a 20% waterchange weakly and dose bacteria just after waterchange. feed less till nitrates drop constantly
 
I think a urchin could possibly increase nitrates.

Here is my thinking:

The urchin eats algae which then gets excreted and breaks down to ammonia and eventually nitrate.

The algae the urchin ate is no longer absorbing nitrates and therefore the nitrates in the tank will increase. Algae does not cause nitrates, it eats nitrates. If you let your algae get out of control would it not eventually reach an equilibrium where the nitrates being produced by fish and feeding and being taken in by the algae and bacteria.
 
mandarinman said:
Do a 20% waterchange weakly and dose bacteria just after waterchange. feed less till nitrates drop constantly
Click to expand...
Thanks, That's exactly what i'm doing, i'm thinking of 2 water changes,and i'm using biodigest start as bacteria.
Hope it gets it right.:)
 
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Manic said:
I think a urchin could possibly increase nitrates.

Here is my thinking:

The urchin eats algae which then gets excreted and breaks down to ammonia and eventually nitrate.

The algae the urchin ate is no longer absorbing nitrates and therefore the nitrates in the tank will increase. Algae does not cause nitrates, it eats nitrates. If you let your algae get out of control would it not eventually reach an equilibrium where the nitrates being produced by fish and feeding and being taken in by the algae and bacteria.
Click to expand...
I agree 100%:thumbup:
 
Just for interest what is your nitrate reading and what volume is your tank?

Do you have corals at all?

I am just thinking you may have acted too quickly when you might not have had a real problem, or maybe a small problem that could maybe have been managed without you needing to remove livestock.
 
Albert Terego said:
Just for interest what is your nitrate reading and what volume is your tank?

Do you have corals at all?

I am just thinking you may have acted too quickly when you might not have had a real problem, or maybe a small problem that could maybe have been managed without you needing to remove livestock.
Click to expand...

I've got a RSM 130D , and the nitrate reading is 2.0ml
I've been having this problem for over a year now, since i bought the tank,
I had a couple of corals with the tank and i added some, but most of them died recently and the others doesn't look good at all.
I've tried different options to decrease nitrate,
Tried Vodka dosing for 2 month, no effect.
Tried 50% water changes every 3 days for 2weeks,it was fine for just a week ,
again it went up!
tried the nitra guard, again was fine for a week, after that went up again,
Tried dosing Red Sea NO3 PO4 remover for 2month,no affect.
Added more liverocks, still no change:(

I can't think of anything that i didn't try,
I think it was the time to let my fishes go.
 
mandarinman said:
Do you have bio balls or ceramic beads in your system anywhere?
Click to expand...
Yes i do, Actually i've upgraded my filtration system too,
Here is what the original RSM filtration looks like:

50384f590f911b67c.jpg


And here is the upgrades i've done: :biggrin:


50384f590fca7f942.png

I've removed the crushed live rocks by the way, Instead i added more live rocks to the main tank and increased circulation.
 
And i'm planning to culture some cushion star fish in the refugium,
Any thoughts is appreciated :biggrin:
 
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