High nitrates and alkalinity

Scoota9010

Scoota9010

New Member
Hi. I need help. I am new to this hobby and I think i got way to ahead of myself. For about the last two months I have been having a lot of problems with getting my water quality to where I need it to be in my reef tank. I have a lot in my tank for a beginner maybe. I don't know. Im just stumped. I have a 29g bio cube. I'm running chemi-pure, Purigen, a phosphate media, a carbon, with chaeto. I took out the bio balls and put in the 3 stage Refugium. I'm sorry if I don't know the exact names for some of the things. I'm new to this in the last 8 months. Anyways I am having a lot of problems with nitrates and alk. And I'm running into the problem that when my nitrates or phosphates get high my first instinct is to do a water change but I feel like I'm doing them too often and that may be what's causing my alk to raise to high, just a theory though. Another theory I have is that my calcium was too low for a while and that didn't help my alk problem either because my corals weren't eating up the alk.
I just bought a media rector running bio pellets. Not sure exactly what brand. I'm at work right now. I bought the wrong size pump for the media reactor but still have it running thinking it couldn't hurt my situation but now I feel like my tank got cloudy. Anyways I'm have problems with all my levels. I have an anemone and he'll be ok for a couple days them sucked in. My corals are doing ok but haven't grown much at all in the last 6 months. I am new to this hobby as I said. I had a friend help me get started but I don't get much help from him anymore and it's getting really frustrating and dicouraging.'I love the hobby but I put so much time and money into and seem to be getting no results. Please help. I'm trying to explain my situation as best as I can.
 
Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
Can you tell us more about your tank?
Feeding, flow, what kind of substrate and what kind? Protein skimmer? How much live rock do you have? What type of fish?
 
Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
A 29 gallon is a hard beginners tank. The smaller the tank, the quicker it pollutes and the harder to maintain accurate levels.
 
Scoota9010

Scoota9010

New Member
I feed chopped up krill once a day, oaster feast every few days, and fuel for coral enhancement. What do you mean by substrate? I use the smallest power head available with some
Of the vents blocked off because I was afraid of to much circulation. As for the skimmer I'm using the coral life one for biocubes. And as for rock, I have a decent amount of rock. Maybe 15 lbs.
 
Scoota9010

Scoota9010

New Member
i have heard that. I love the cube though. Can you make a sump for it since there's no plumbing set up for it.? I'm willing to do anything
 
Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
Scoota9010 said:
I feed chopped up krill once a day, oaster feast every few days, and fuel for coral enhancement. What do you mean by substrate? I use the smallest power head available with some
Of the vents blocked off because I was afraid of to much circulation. As for the skimmer I'm using the coral life one for biocubes. And as for rock, I have a decent amount of rock. Maybe 15 lbs.
Click to expand...

Substrate is your sand bed.
 
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Kristin1234

Kristin1234

Active Member
Scoota9010 said:
i have heard that. I love the cube though. Can you make a sump for it since there's no plumbing set up for it.? I'm willing to do anything
Click to expand...
Well anything is possible but youd have to drill the holes and that's probably not a possibility since your tank is already up and running. A pre drilled tank is always ideal that way you don't have to worry about leaks as much.
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I would start by measuring calcium magnesium and alkalinity and post the results
What kind and how many fish do you have
Are you dosing anything? If so how much?
 
Scoota9010

Scoota9010

New Member
lmforbis said:
I would start by measuring calcium magnesium and alkalinity and post the results
What kind and how many fish do you have
Are you dosing anything? If so how much?
Click to expand...
I test my calcium and alk daily. Trying to keep my calcium as consistent as possible. It's at about at steady 470. The alk is about between 10 if in lucky but usually around 12. Something.
Can't get it any lower. I don't test magnesium. I have two clowns, a leopard wrass, manderian goby, and a yellow goby.
 
Scoota9010

Scoota9010

New Member
Scoota9010 said:
I test my calcium and alk daily. Trying to keep my calcium as consistent as possible. It's at about at steady 470. The alk is about between 10 if in lucky but usually around 12. Something.
Can't get it any lower. I don't test magnesium. I have two clowns, a leopard wrass, manderian goby, and a yellow goby.
Click to expand...
And the alk between 10 and 12 is a huge improvement compared to the around 17 a couple weeks ago.
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Magnesium is just as important as calcium and alk. You need to get a mag test kit ang get your magnesium levels to around 1300. Then you can try to stabilize calcium and alk. Magnesium helps keep the other two in check.
 
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