fish only with trates question

[salt210]

I have a 210g tank that I am wanting to start adding some corals and need to figure this out. I moved the tank just under a month ago and the nitrates have already hit 20. the tank has phosphates as well. when the tank was moved the water was completely changed(100% new water) except for the little that was in the sump and fuge. the stocklist includes a lion, puffer and zebra moray plus 3 small damsels. I feed once every 3 days and not much. I was also thinking of adding more fish but dont think that is smart till I figure this out as well. what should I look at to figure this out?

 

[salt210]

I have been thinking about doing 25-30g changes every other week which I plan to start next week, but I am not sure this will help

 

[jackri]

What do you have for filtration and a skimmer?
Having a big ball of cheato in your sump with a light on it helps eat nitrates and phosphates as well.

 

[salt210]

I have a wet/dry and a nautilus TE skimmer. I have been thinking of ways to convert the wet/dry over so I can keep LR rubble in it. I do have a fuge but it is small(10g). there isnt much space in the stand to work with.

 

[prime311]

20 trates is nothing to fish. The Nitrate and Phos does suck for keeping algae/cyano under control, but it isnt a big deal for the fish. Are you using ro/di? You really shouldnt have a phos issue. If you feel up to it you could make a remote DSB.

 

[salt210]

moved in with some roommates so I dont have the room for it right now. would the bi weekly changes help to bring them down? Ill test the ro/di water to see if that might be causing a problem

 

[salt210]

Originally Posted by prime311
http:///forum/post/3012356
20 trates is nothing to fish. The Nitrate and Phos does suck for keeping algae/cyano under control, but it isnt a big deal for the fish. Are you using ro/di? You really shouldnt have a phos issue. If you feel up to it you could make a remote DSB.
prime311
I am wanting to add some corals here shortly.

 

[deejeff442]

when i moved my tank it took 2 months for the nitrates to come down under 20.
i just changed 20% water every 4-5 days and eventually came down to zero.
its just still cycling.nitrates dont bother fish too much.
but i wouldnt add corals till it comes down.
i had chato for a while but it didnt seem to do much once the nitrates came down and iadded a phosphate reactor.
i dont have chato anymore and the nitrates are still at zero.
the tank just needs more time to cycle.
the trates will out of nowhere drop off.

 

[jdl]

look into a reator and run GFO or look into building an algae turf scrubber or both. You can build a turf scrubber for about $20.
The GFO will get rid of your phosphates, and the algae turf scrubber will remove both nitrates and phosphates.

 

[prime311]

Oh I missed that part, and you posted in the FO forum
Corals themselves will use up some Nitrate and Phos. I still think DSB is a good idea.

 

[salt210]

yeah, I posted here because I wasnt sure where to post it