Nitrate-Removal sponges

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Bruce Leyland-Jones

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When I re-established my Juwel tank, I stocked up on filter media and have only just noticed that one of my sponges is for Nitrate Removal.
Currently, my nitrates are very low and so I don't have an issue with these. I've also got plenty of plants, included floating Salvinia auriculata, so I don't foresee Nitrate problems in the near future.
I'll keep the sponge to one side for emergencies.

Has anyone used sponges like these and did they work?
Assuming zero ammonia and nitrite levels, would a complete loss of nitrates not upset the plants?
I'm also aware that shrimp are very sensitive to nitrates, so perhaps such a sponge would have more value in a shrimp tank?
 
Iā€™ve seen these products in LFS and online before.

Have never even considered purchasing those even though I have high nitrates straight from the tap! Typical!

But like you, I like to use lots of plants and floating flaunts, in particular the fast growing types and I believe they do absorb more nutrients from the water column, including nitrates.

Ona typical week I would have around 40ppm nitrate straight from tap and by end of week the readings would be around the 5ppm area so I have to sort of assume the plants are playing their part in reducing nitrate even though have heard from knowledgable members that some plants donā€™t actually consume much if any nitrate, an area I need to do more research on tbh.

In those tanks I had red cherries and they were prolific and nicely coloured with very little colour fading, though I did add new red cherry shrimps to that tank every now and again to lower the cross breeding to stop their colours fading too much.

So the high nitrates from tap did not seem to affect that all that much from what I observed, very few deaths and behaviours were normal for shrimps.
 
Iā€™ve seen these products in LFS and online before.

Have never even considered purchasing those even though I have high nitrates straight from the tap! Typical!

But like you, I like to use lots of plants and floating flaunts, in particular the fast growing types and I believe they do absorb more nutrients from the water column, including nitrates.

Ona typical week I would have around 40ppm nitrate straight from tap and by end of week the readings would be around the 5ppm area so I have to sort of assume the plants are playing their part in reducing nitrate even though have heard from knowledgable members that some plants donā€™t actually consume much if any nitrate, an area I need to do more research on tbh.

In those tanks I had red cherries and they were prolific and nicely coloured with very little colour fading, though I did add new red cherry shrimps to that tank every now and again to lower the cross breeding to stop their colours fading too much.

So the high nitrates from tap did not seem to affect that all that much from what I observed, very few deaths and behaviours were normal for shrimps.
Wow! 40 from the tap. I checked once & got 5 . Will recheck. Read the city keeps it under 10, but I read much that ainā€™t so
 
I haven't used nitrate removal sponges, but as I described in My Nitrate Fight, I have found great value in API's Nitra-Zorb. Nitra-Zorb is a resin they sell in pouches intended to be placed in filters that adsorbs ammonia and nitrates. The resin can be recharged many times with ordinary salt water. The nitrates in my well water are much lower now but there was a time that the nitrates were off the chart!
Of course, I recommend to most hobbyists the many ways of Lowering Aquarium Nitrates which includes fast growing plants, good bio-filtration, good tank maintenance, and routine periodic partial water changes of sufficient frequency and volume. However, it seems to me that these days, more and more, we're seeing an increase of high nitrates in source water, especially in agricultural areas. In these cases, even large volume water changes merely replaces tank nitrates with source water nitrates rather than reducing nitrates. In such cases, a nitrate adsorber pre-filter or in-tank can make a huge difference in increased water quality.
 
I haven't used nitrate removal sponges, but as I described in My Nitrate Fight, I have found great value in API's Nitra-Zorb. Nitra-Zorb is a resin they sell in pouches intended to be placed in filters that adsorbs ammonia and nitrates. The resin can be recharged many times with ordinary salt water. The nitrates in my well water are much lower now but there was a time that the nitrates were off the chart!
Of course, I recommend to most hobbyists the many ways of Lowering Aquarium Nitrates which includes fast growing plants, good bio-filtration, good tank maintenance, and routine periodic partial water changes of sufficient frequency and volume. However, it seems to me that these days, more and more, we're seeing an increase of high nitrates in source water, especially in agricultural areas. In these cases, even large volume water changes merely replaces tank nitrates with source water nitrates rather than reducing nitrates. In such cases, a nitrate adsorber pre-filter or in-tank can make a huge difference in increased water quality.
You ALWAYS have the best posts!
 
for me the best nitrate removal sponge is one that is
- living
- self regrowing
- tasty for fish

floaters! hehe
 
I haven't used nitrate removal sponges, but as I described in My Nitrate Fight, I have found great value in API's Nitra-Zorb. Nitra-Zorb is a resin they sell in pouches intended to be placed in filters that adsorbs ammonia and nitrates. The resin can be recharged many times with ordinary salt water. The nitrates in my well water are much lower now but there was a time that the nitrates were off the chart!
Of course, I recommend to most hobbyists the many ways of Lowering Aquarium Nitrates which includes fast growing plants, good bio-filtration, good tank maintenance, and routine periodic partial water changes of sufficient frequency and volume. However, it seems to me that these days, more and more, we're seeing an increase of high nitrates in source water, especially in agricultural areas. In these cases, even large volume water changes merely replaces tank nitrates with source water nitrates rather than reducing nitrates. In such cases, a nitrate adsorber pre-filter or in-tank can make a huge difference in increased water quality.
Is this something I could shove into my 20 G sump thatā€™s below the 90 G tank, the one with all the goofy spiky balls? Seller says thereā€˜s a sponge in there which he rinses. Iā€™m not seeing it. Guess Iā€™d have to remove all the balls?
 
The consensus on those green Juwel sponges used to be that they don't work and to treat them like fine blue sponge. It's a few years I had a Juwel tank so they may changed things since then.
 
I can't say from personal experience as my tap nitrate is well below 5 ppm (the water company currently gives it as 2.8) and it rarely went higher than that even before I had the Juwel tank.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever done any lab tests on the sponges, just comments on various websites by people with high tap nitrate who claimed that they did not lower the nitrate level in their tanks.
 
I can't say from personal experience as my tap nitrate is well below 5 ppm (the water company currently gives it as 2.8) and it rarely went higher than that even before I had the Juwel tank.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever done any lab tests on the sponges, just comments on various websites by people with high tap nitrate who claimed that they did not lower the nitrate level in their tanks.
I hear you...but in my experience, people with high nitrate levels had these due to a lack of careful tank maintenance and no special sponge would've made much difference. ;)
 
My tap water nitrate was 5 ppm when I checked. Should take another look
 

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