Originally Posted by
grays4jc
http:///forum/post/3035822
OK a little overwhelmed here. I'm very ignorant to all of this. I have 1 filter that hangs on the back of the tank, and 1 canister. I checked all levels today and they are ok, go figure. What is the difference between mechanical and chemical filtration? (told you I was new to this!) I clean the filters I have about once a month. I don't have a clean up crew. I've been afraid to put anything else in there. What would recommend? As I said earlier, I have live rock about 50lbs, I have a 75g tank. I feed the fish I have 1x a day. I have a little pink algae, but it's not out of control. I would appreciate any advice at all, thank you so much!!!
Been into it for about a year? Seems like you have enough experience in this then that some of these questions should be just about common knowledge to you but let's just move on.
Mechanical filtration are the canister and the hon on the back filter. They mechanically clean the water by taking out any large particle floating in the water and return the filtered water back. However if you are only cleaning them "about once a month" they may be accumulating detritus, read fish poop uneaten food and other nasties here, that are decaying and causing elevated nitrates. I am a bit confused with this though because you said originally "My nitrate levels are not right" but did not explain what that meant. In your latest post you said "I checked all levels today and they are ok". What do it mean????
but let's move on.
Chemical filtration are are some of the things that might be in your mechanical filters that clean and polish the water. Chemical filtration is provided by carbon or chemical resins that extract toxins from the water. Activated filter carbon will aggressively remove chemicals from your water until the carbon becomes saturated. It is very important that any activated filter carbon in your filtration system be changed often. Chemi pure, Purigen are among other chemical filters that will do some more toxin and chemicals from the tank. Do you have any of this? Are you changing it out often enough?
A clean up crew in the tank is one very important aspect you seem to be missing. Snail will move around your tank and eat uneaten food, fish poop, live and dead algae and other decaying organic matter that will, if left alone, foul the water. If your fish are living, and they seem to be from your description, then I suggest you get aggressive about obtaining a clean up crew. Nassarius and Cerith snails to move in and through the sandbed, Trochus-Nerite-Turbo snails to move around on the rockwork and glass.
Water changes are also an important aspect to the husbandry of your tank. For beginners most recommendations will be to change out 10% of your water weekly. In your case around 6-7 gallons. This helps to dilute bad things in the water and to replenish good things that have been used up by your inhabitants.
Again I am confused by your statements as listed above as to whether or not you have a problem, other than an underdeveloped understanding of aquarium keeping. For now I will stop with my long winded post and suggest you obtain some reading material on keeping a saltwater aquarium and read it for a better understanding of the process.
I would also suggest you continue to ask questions here as there are many experienced reef keepers that can help you along.
And by the way
