how do i get rid of this???

[clintvalian]

i have 2 questions i hope you guys can help me out with...
1. how do i lower my nitrates??? i've tried sponges to absorb them, i've tried bags with the rock like material in them, i saw mr. salty has a tank set up under his aquarium with algea in it, etc...can anyone tell me more about this and how i can make this. mr. salty, if you read this your info would be really appreciated.
2. how much and what kind of lighting do i need inorder for my algea on my live rock to thrive. my lfs has blue and white lights, do i need these, what are these exactly?? how much lighting do i need?? i have about 80lbs of live rock on a 55 gallon tank.
thanks for all of your adivce.....

 

[mr . salty]

Nitrate sponges are pretty much a waste of time and money. I found that the most effective way of lowering 'ates is to reduce the load on your bio system,Install a deep live sand bed,and get a good cleanup crew.Of corse the algae tank helps alot too. This can be setup rather easily with a 10 gallon tank,and overflow box,and a return pump..Just set it up like a sump. Then add live sand,some rubble rock(live),and macro algae.The lighting is important too have,but it doesn't have to be anything special.Just plain old standard flo's will do great.And leave them on 24/7.Good lighting is however required if you want the rock in your show tank to thrive.This again doesnt need to be anything special,but the better the light,the better your tank will look.And after all,isn't that why we do this?? To look at a beutiful tank,with beutiful fish and corals in it????

 

[clintvalian]

thanks for the info mr. salty, your advice is very helpful, i was curious though, if i already have cc in my tank, how do i begin to install it with live sand? do i simply poor it into the water over the cc? do i remove the cc and if so, how without really disturbing the tank? any advice is greatly appreciated...thanks again..