Knowledge here on clams?

[dlh0024]

Taking advice here I searched and searched and found these little necks today. Had to buy the bag which has about 2.5 lbs or 20 clams. Is this too many for a 75 gal tank?
My Nitrates are 160 plus and have tried so many things to lower it. If the clams do it and run out of Nitrates will they die? Do I need to feed them something else too?
Thank You in advance!!!!!!

 

[reefforbrains]

Calms do pull nitrate, but nothing near those numbers, trates that high have to have an explanation. Clams will drop it let say from 160 to maybe 155, the fact they pull nitrates is often glorified just because it makes clams all that much cooler to have, but they will not take place of any real biofilter normally used.
What kind of equipment are you running on your set up? Fish only or Reef?

 

[dlh0024]

Running about 100lbs of live rock, new lighting system, two fluval filters, small bio wheel, a "ammonia?" wheel that is a sponge that goes in and out of the water, two power heads just pushing water, etc.
The base is crushed coral but can't be as bad as most people here talk about. I have a QT that has it and it does not have near these levels.
I have alot of algae growing on the live rock and I did pull a bunch off last night to see if that helps. Tested today and no change. Did large water change last night. Same readings today. The fish store said leave the tank alone for 6 weeks with only adding water. Did that. No change.
Tank setup for over 3months now. All other levels where they should be other than ph a little low.
No one knows what the problem is so I read the clams might help.
Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[reefforbrains]

Also forgot to mention it in the first post, No -clams do not eat nitrates exclusivley, they are filter feeders and pull in water and usually take everything out of it, nutritional and otherwise they are like little sponges, but they just dont have a GPH rating that would have any impact on levels compared to a true filter.
I can only assume you are keeping up on the maint and cleaning your fluvals but this is where I would look first. No the crushed coral is NOT causing it.
I dont know what kind of algea your talking about , but if its green algea growing in clumps then it was most likley helping lower your trates. Trates and Phosphate= liquid fertilizer the plants use up as they grow.
Sounds like you have a constant source of new trates and my vote is the fluval. Could also be dead spots in the tank concerning current that can make trates by decay and so on in the unseen nooks and corners. How is the flow through your tank? behind rocks ect?

 

[reefforbrains]

Also how long have you had the rock, and where is it from?
did you cycle the tank to a 0 reading on Trites, Trates, and Amonia when you first set up?

 

[dlh0024]

The tank is all good with readings. I maintain more than I should. I never thought of any dead areas in the tank with water flow but some inverts/fish, etc need that calm area don't they?
I can clean the fluvals again and again but nothing changes. Just getting really disgusted here as the $600 tank setup is now over $4000 with equipment, chemicals, salt, rock, etc. Supposed to be relaxing right!!!
Not in my case.
I've since shut off the bio wheel and ammonia wheel as I've read here they cause nitrates. Still no change.
I can't be alone with a huge Nitrate problem. (Bought 3 different test kits, not the test kit reading inaccurate).
Need help badly.

 

[dlh0024]

Also, live rock is from local fish store and mostly from this site. Do I need more of it? Pretty soon there won't be room left for the fish!

 

[velvetchs]

Where do you get your water from? Do you make it or buy it from a lfs? We had a lot of nitrate issues in our tank; explanations ran everywhere from cc as a substrate to having a bio-wheel. Tested the water we were buying - sky high nitrates! Needless to say, we stopped buying it and bought a RO/DI to make our own. No nitrates since.

 

[dlh0024]

I plumbed in the RO unit too and make my own water. Tested it and that is all good too. Forgot to mention I also have a skimmer in addition to all the other equip.
No one seems to know what the prob is here and I've tried to follow any/all advice given!

 

[petjunkie]

How often are you doing water changes and are you siphoning out your crushed coral when you do them? How many fish are in this tank? That high of nitrates in a tank that young seems very odd. Maybe bad readings on the test kit? What are you using to test your levels?

 

[backcountr]

what are you running in your canister filters and when you clen the are you replcing the media or just washing it off?