Drink Up!
No really, we are not kidding. We noticed that over the months, our nitrate levels in the Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide demo tank were slowly climbing up, even though we had not added any new fish to the demo tank. In fact, we even had a few less fish through natural mortality. On the other hand, many of the fish had grown, especially the Blue Hippo Tang who eats more than the four Ocellaris Clowns in the tank. We have 300lbs of live rock in the tank and sump, weekly 5-6% water changes, a MTC-1000 protein skimmer.
1 ml per 20 gallons to start
Bob Wiatroski, the host of The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide suggested some adding some vodka to the tank each day as the vodka encourages the development of the denitrifying bacteria deep inside the live rock. Bob has had customers do this and after 30 days, their nitrates fell to zero. All this with no ill effects to the fish. At this point we are adding 1 ml per 20 gallons. Since the demo tank is 210 gallons, we are adding just a little over 10 ml a day. Right now we are in the middle of this experiment, so keep posted to our blog to see our results.
Also, use the cheap vodka. Save the Stoli Crystal for yourself!
