Nitrate Reduction Products I have used, with results.

I tried to search for info or reviews on these before I got them, didnt find any, got the products anyway and now Im posting the results for others to see.

Naturally I have 1 overstocked tank, because its really easy to do, and as you can imagine nitrate was building steadily. Went from zero to 60-70 ppm over the course of a few months, even with 30% water changes every 2-3 weeks. It was a 92 gallon corner tank w/ sump and refugium. The refugium is FULL to bursting with macro algae, of which i export about half every 3 weeks. The tank, the sump and the refugium all have a 5-6 inch DSB.
And there is about 200 lbs of live rock in the setup. Also have a skimmer running 24/7.

Livestock includes: roughly 40 tiny hermits, 20-30 N. Snails, 2 medium hermits, 1 sally lightfoot, 1 mithrax crab, 1 skunk cleaner shrimp, 5 blue damsels, 1 humbug damsel, 1 scopas tank, 1 flame angel, 1 foxface rabbitfish, and 1 fat condy. I had more damsels, but I cought and removed those. All the fish seem happy, active and healthy, as do the inverts, and I have had zero get sick or die etc. But the level of nitrate bothered me, so….
I got and tried the following….

The 1st is seachem de-nitrate. Its rough and granular, like little chips of stone.
I put it in a media reactor and throttled back the pump feeding it to a really low setting (per manufacturers instructions), about 20-30 gph. Did a 50% water change initially and then hooked up the reactor and let it run. Nitrate started at about 30-40ppm, and a month later they were about 40ppm, so based on this short test, this product seems to have done a decent job at keeping my nitrate levels stable, and I now really love media reactors. I currently have mine stuffed full of activated carbon and my water is very sparkly.

The 2nd product I got and tried was Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Reducer.
Lol, this stuff is strange looking and has the consistancy of hand soap. Its supposedly a polymer suspension or something of the sort. Its funky looking when you put it in the tank, and breaks up into viscous goopy particles and blows all over the place. Eventually it dissapeared. I dosed the tank on day 1, 3 and 7. Nitrates started at 40-50ppm or so and after 3 weeks, nitrates are now 10ppm, and my taro & kenya tree’s are going nuts, and the pulsing xenia seems to be getting bigger as well. I’ll point out that during this time I had only been topping off the tank with fresh water, and had NOT done any water changes. After this I dosed the tank one more time, and tested it about 4-5 days later. Zero f-ing nitrates. LOL. The fish are all as active as they ever were (they a hardy bunch) and the kenya and taro tree’s are all dropping branches everywhere like its their job.
On that note, I got 1 5$ kenya tree frag, its about 6 times bigger than when I bought it 3 months ago, and there are now 6 baby tree’s growing all over the tank

So there ya go, these have been my experiences with these 2 products, and I hope you find this helpful.

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