High Nitrates in 29g Bio-Cube

fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
Tank has been running since March of this year. Have 30 pounds of live sand, atleast 30 ponds of cured live rock. Tank never cycled. All of the water tests have been at 0 until now. The nitrates are at 20 ppm. Have a few small soft corals, zoos, rics,etc... 2 clowns and a pygmy angel, several hermits and a cleaner shrimp.Have a tunze skimmer in the middle chamber w/ live rock rubble also in the middle chamber.
I do a 20 % water change each month. I buy the saltwater/ R.O. water from a LFS. MY nitrates are at 20 and will go to 10 with a water change. all other tests are 0. i have used the test kit at the LFS and still at 20.
I dont know what to do to get the nitrates back to 0.
I change the filter material every couple of weeks or when it gets funky. I dont think that i am over feeding, as all the food (pellets) are gone within a few minutes. I do use a frozen food for the angel but it also is gone within a few minutes.I am at a loss here and need help.
Thanks, Rudy
 
mckevinfang

mckevinfang

Member
Ok. IMO this is what i would do.
buy yourself a Saltwater Master Test Kit at your LFS
Do weekly water changes not monthly
its not always a good idea to change your filter media so often you loose some beneficial bacteria.
right now i would probably do a 40% water change.
good luck
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
I do have a master saltwater test kit. and i just did a 50 % water change three days ago. did a 20 % change about ten days ago. I keep changing the water but the nitrates never go back to 0 and thats is my problem since all of the other tests are 0. In reading all of the other posts regarding this type of problem, over feeding comes up alot, but I really dont think thats the problem.
Thanks for all your help.
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
Originally Posted by FISH4RUDY
http:///forum/post/2804615
Tank has been running since March of this year. Have 30 pounds of live sand, atleast 30 ponds of cured live rock. Tank never cycled. All of the water tests have been at 0 until now. The nitrates are at 20 ppm. Have a few small soft corals, zoos, rics,etc... 2 clowns and a pygmy angel, several hermits and a cleaner shrimp.Have a tunze skimmer in the middle chamber w/ live rock rubble also in the middle chamber.
I do a 20 % water change each month. I buy the saltwater/ R.O. water from a LFS. MY nitrates are at 20 and will go to 10 with a water change. all other tests are 0. i have used the test kit at the LFS and still at 20.
I dont know what to do to get the nitrates back to 0.
I change the filter material every couple of weeks or when it gets funky. I dont think that i am over feeding, as all the food (pellets) are gone within a few minutes. I do use a frozen food for the angel but it also is gone within a few minutes.I am at a loss here and need help.
Thanks, Rudy
do a refugium. remove the skimmer and place chaeto (just chaeto no lr rubble) and thats it your good. tank has been running for a while and no problem with trates so far
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
10-20 aint bad...
Mine was prolyl at 20 for like 2 months and I didnt do any water changes.
Did opne over the weekend now its at 10
and when I do another one this wekeend should bring it down more!
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
Well I was thinking about taking out the rubble. Could I keep the skimmer and just throw some cheato where the rubble was. I really dont want to pitch out the skimmer that I just shelled out $150.00 for a few months ago.
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
you dont need to take out the skimmer. i was only suggestioning if you didnt want it there. and yea the chaeto will need a little light like above
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
My suggestions.
Take the sponge out of the third chamber every week or less and clean it. Most people just get rid of it.
Take the rubble out of the chamber, it collects detritus just like the bio balls do and if not kept clean will increase nitrates. Take an old stock filter pad and takd the material off and the carbon out of it. Go out and buy some Polyester fiber fil from Walmart of one of the craft places. Put some of that on the bare filter frame. Change it out often.
Get on a good weekly water change schedule of 10% - 20%.
In a tank the size of the 29 bio cube changes will happen quickly unless we are on a good husbandry schedule.
JMO
 
rotarymagic

rotarymagic

Active Member
ditch the sponge in chamber 3, ditch the mechanical/carbon unit in chamber1. Those are both nitrate traps. Becareful about rubble in chamber2 as its REALLY easy for detritus to build up there as theres not much flow going through it. Which skimmer did you get? Do you have the hood on still? If you ditched the hood, you could run an aquaclear110 hanging off the back for a fuge.. just a thought and then upgrade the light to a 150w metal halide. If you did this then you could run the intake of the A/c110 in chamber 2 or 3 and have it dump back into chamber 1 or 2...
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
I should have gone further into the modifications that I have already made. I have cut down the over flow chamber between chambers 1 and 2. I have a Tunze 9002 protein skimmer and live rock rubble in the middle chamber. I also removed the ‘blue’ sponge from chamber #3.I followed most of the modifications that were on previous posts when I bought this tank. All was well until recently and now I’m lost. The only solution that I could find was to feed less, only I am confidante that I’m not over feeding.
 
rotarymagic

rotarymagic

Active Member
Originally Posted by FISH4RUDY
http:///forum/post/2805306
I should have gone further into the modifications that I have already made. I have cut down the over flow chamber between chambers 1 and 2. I have a Tunze 9002 protein skimmer and live rock rubble in the middle chamber. I also removed the ‘blue’ sponge from chamber #3.I followed most of the modifications that were on previous posts when I bought this tank. All was well until recently and now I’m lost. The only solution that I could find was to feed less, only I am confidante that I’m not over feeding.
Check that live rock rubble in the middle chamber, that's probably your culprit as it might be getting packed with detritus. It happened to me too and I pull it out and put it in my DT for my candy stripe pistol shrimp to use for building a new condo LOL. I had a mystyery 15ppm nitrates no matter how much water I changed until I got that detritus soaked rubble out.. Try that out and are you already using something to pull phosphates out?
Are you still running the hood?
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
Yes the hood is still on. and I plan on removing the rubble. I think i will get some cheato to replace the rubble. Are you talking about the top-rear hatch?
 
rotarymagic

rotarymagic

Active Member
If you had the top rear hatch pulled w/ aftermarket light, you could run an aquaclear 50 or 110 as a fuge hanging on the back with its own little light or an algae scrubber.
For phosphate remover, I'd recommend rowaphos and buy a big quantity as its cheaper in the long run. Get a real carbon unit like chemi pure too..
 
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