Filter Questions

[tbrunner]

Hi All,
I currently have a CPR Bak Pak 2 and a whisper 60 filter on my 55 gallon fish only aquarium. All my testing levels are great except my nitrates never get low enough - always are between 30 and 40 on my tester. Does anyone have an opinion on my whisper 60 filter? Should/Can I take the carbon filter out of it (it seems to get very dirty - I am thinking it may be producing nitrates) and still have enough filtration? Do I need a carbon filter? Should I leave the 'bio-foam' in the filter? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom Brunner

 

[birdy]

How much LR do you have? if you have around 60lbs or more than you can take out the bio media in the bak pak, and yes you should take the filter cartridge out of your power filter, both of those can contribute to nitrates, I would not do them both at the same time though.
Do you have corals or just fish? with just a fish tank, anything under 40ppm is just fine. The best long term nitrate removal is a refugium with macro algaes.

 

[tbrunner]

Maybe you can help me with something else then. I have a yellow tang and his gill area is darker than normal. He seems fine, just doesn't look 'right'. What in the water can cause this. I feed him seaweed selects as well as other flake food.
I assumed it was my water quality - any other ideas?
Thanks,
Tom

 

[tbrunner]

Sorry - also I have no live rock currenlty. I will probably get some soon, just got this up and running.
Should I take just the cartridge out of the whisper filter or do away with the whole filter? I am not set on using it, just use it b/c it came w/ the aquarium.
Thanks Again!

 

[saltymist]

I hope I've read your posts correctly in giving my reply:
1. You have a FO tank not a FOWLR since you have no live rock in the tank.
2. Your primary source of filtration would be the media that is in your bakpak and the whisper filter.
So, 1. I would go get some liverock, since undoubtely your going to want to add it before adding any fish to your tank since it might NOT be cured and could cause a cycle.
2. It seems to me that your going to need 1 or the other filter media in your system to act as a host to the biological process, else you've basically got nothing to do it. So I would probably leave in the sponge, and the bakpaks filter media and if your water is clear to the sight, then feel free to remove the carbon, but if it gets cloudy again you may want to keep the carbon.
Just do regular water changes, and rinse out one or the other filter materials in your weekly water change water.
I am running a canister filter in my tank, and my nitrates use to be <10 without the canister, then after two weeks of not cleaning the canister with the regular water changes, the nitrates were up around 30 or 40, so now I clean the sponge in the canister (it's all that I run in the canister with the exception of some carbon if my tank isnt crystal clear), and changed the water and the nitrates are coming back down.
Goodluck,
P.S. I hope that tang isn't in the tank we are discussing since if you just set it up it hasnt even cycled yet and if you are using the tang to cycle, you'll probably end up one morning looking at a floater.

 

[birdy]

Salty mist gave a good reply, if you have no LR in your tank, then you must keep the biomedia in your bak-pak, as far as the carbon filter, Carbon is depleted rapidly in a swt, I would put a new one in once a month for three or four days, then the rest of the time run it without the carbon.