Nitrate Problem

[pumper7]

I have a 125 SeaClear System II with a nitrate problem. The tank is 6 months old with 80 lbs of LR and 80 lbs of sand. I have a small SFE, Trigger, and 5 damsels. I feed once a day and the food is gone with in a few minutes. All my levels are good with the exception of Nitrates. 10% water changes weekly.
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrates are 40-80
LFS told me to remove the bio balls slowly because the bio balls and LR are creating the nitrates and the LR is enough of a bio filter. Is this correct?
Also would adding a refuge help lower my nitrate levels?
Thinking of a 30 gallon sump with fuge and a skimmer since the System II skimmer is weak. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[sprang]

Don't worry your nitrates should adventually go down. Six months is fairly young, so you will probably notice a good drop in another six months. Sounds like you have a decent set-up so unless your critters are acting wierd stop testing for nitrate, it will just tick you off! It takes at least a good year for everything to balance IMO.

 

[sprang]

oops forgot to ask... how big is your tank? Also I don't use the bio-balls I think the l.rock in good supply should do the trick.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Pumper7
I have a 125 SeaClear System II with a nitrate problem. The tank is 6 months old with 80 lbs of LR and 80 lbs of sand. I have a small SFE, Trigger, and 5 damsels. I feed once a day and the food is gone with in a few minutes. All my levels are good with the exception of Nitrates. 10% water changes weekly.
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrates are 40-80
LFS told me to remove the bio balls slowly because the bio balls and LR are creating the nitrates and the LR is enough of a bio filter. Is this correct?
Also would adding a refuge help lower my nitrate levels?
Thinking of a 30 gallon sump with fuge and a skimmer since the System II skimmer is weak. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Like was mentioned, your tank is still fairly young yet. Your tank is 125 gallons right?? If so, more LR would be beneficial. You do know that you have an aggressive tank, can't put much clean up crews in there, they'll most likely be eaten. And yes a fuge will help to reduce your nitrate levels. If you really want to lower that Nitrate, you need more then just 10% water change if it's high, IMO I would do like 20-25% water change to lower it every other day. My Tank was already setup for years by the previous owner, I bought it used with all the same stuffs and I added in LR to seed the sandbed, the sandbed has since become Live and it's removing nitrates from my system, I have zero detection of Nitrate. They all turn into Nitrogen Gas. :happyfish

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by Pumper7
LFS told me to remove the bio balls slowly because the bio balls and LR are creating the nitrates and the LR is enough of a bio filter. Is this correct?
This is very painful...
I agree with your LFS. Make sure you have a lot of waterflow in the tank though.

 

[oceanists]

I am going to add a fuge to my system also ........... in hopes of my ates going down , mine are only at 20 but i still want them undetectable

 

[pumper7]

Thank you for the replies.
Yes the tank is 125 gal, well 125 minus the wet/ dry in the back of the tank. I kinda got taken on the whole "system" idea. I have found out that I am severely limited in what I can do to the tank since it was designed to be all inclusive. The back 4" of the tank is the filtration area with little or no access for additional powerheads, plumbing, etc. I need to figure out a way to plumb the tank for the fuge.
This shall be an adventure. It looks like I will be removing some water, drilling the back of the tank and plumbing an outlet and return for the sump. Not to mention some reconstruction of the stand to fit the sump through the front doors. I have found a LFS willing to talk me through the process.