Am I feeding too much?

[pthoma79]

I have a clown, royal gramma, bicolor blenny and a flame angel. I feed them daily, 1/2 of a frozen cube of mysis shrimp.
I have been fighting the nitrate battle, and can't get them to go lower than 25, even after doing 3 33% water changes (10gal in a 30 gal tank).
I also have been feeding phyto to the corals about 3 times a week.
Anybody have any suggestions besides more water changes? They don't seem to really be helping...

 

[meowzer]

Doesn't sound like too much food to me...how much phyto do you put in? Maybe you need to do that less...
Are you seeing leftover food?

 

[pthoma79]

1 tsp of phyto 3-4x weekly.
I see a little bit of leftover food, but not too much.

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by pthoma79
http:///forum/post/3039415
1 tsp of phyto 3-4x weekly.
I see a little bit of leftover food, but not too much.
HMMM...Maybe cut the phyto to 2x a week...do you have a cuc?
What I am asking is do you have anything that is eating the food the fish are not?

 

[pthoma79]

Right. I have 7-8 hermits, a decorator crab, and 4-7 snails (cerith, nassarius).

 

[pthoma79]

I also have about 45 lbs LR and 40 lbs LS

 

[meowzer]

Maybe get a few more snails....

 

[srfisher17]

If water changes don't immediately lower nitrate; you may have a bad test kit---they are notoriously unreliable. Unless you have nitrates in your source water, water changes just have to lower nitrates, even if only temporarily.

 

[pthoma79]

i have a salifert test kit. You think it might just be a bad batch? I have a cheapo test kit from when I first got the tank. Maybe I'll try that, just to see...

 

[pthoma79]

Other test kit showed the same. Any other ideas?

 

[meowzer]

Are your filters clean?
Like I said earlier....feed phyto 2x a week....
also try rinsing the mysis before you feed

 

[pthoma79]

Skimmer is as clean as I can get it. When you say wash the mysis, what do you mean?

 

[pthoma79]

Just saw an idea on another thread that said to use a turkey baster to shoot the rocks and areas with not as much flow. I'll try that tomorrow and see how that goes.

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by pthoma79
http:///forum/post/3039750
Skimmer is as clean as I can get it. When you say wash the mysis, what do you mean?
I put mine in a cup with water to thaw...then I put it in one of the really small fish nets, and slowly pour water over it....rinsing it

A turkey baster is ok to clean hard to reach areas, and also for siphoning...just be careful not to stir too much sand....

 

[ophiura]

I would think that much phyto in a small tank that often is a problem. When you say the skimmer is clean as can be...does this mean it is not skimming or?? What is the rest of your filtration like? Do you have biowheels? Filter pads or floss?

 

[johnvic]

From what I understand you should rinse the frozen mysis in RO water, just in case you rinsed in tap water.

 

[pthoma79]

What I mean by as clean as it can be is there are some corners that are very difficult to get at with a brush, but it is clean.
I have no other filtering, just my LR, LS and an HOB skimmer.

 

[stanlalee]

eliminate the phyto feeding all together. its too much phyto and few corals if any eat phyto directly. in most cases the pro's dont outweigh the cons. your better off feeding corals coral food or fish poo.

 

[pthoma79]

Will do