nitrate problem

[bogie man]

I have a 75 gal saltwater tank, which I am trying to slowly add live rock and maybe some basic corals and mushrooms--nothing fancy. I have 14lbs of LR and plan on 10 to 15 more very shortyly. I have a protien skimmer on 24/7 and I really nice wet/dry filter rated up to 150 gal. I'm turning the water over about 7 times an hour with a 1200 gallon an hour pump. I feed every other day with pellets food and bay scallops. 3 50% water chages and 1 100% (opps) in 10 months. Why can I not get the nitrates under 40ppm.
1 yellow tang 2 sgt mjr damsels
2 percs 1 small lion fish
2 black damsels 1 hermit crab
2 blue damsels 1 choclatechip starfish
1 purple lobster 1 cleaner shrimp
3 purple tip condi anenomes

 

[bobothewizard]

Ill bet you have a crushed coral substrate, if not whens the last time you cleaned the filters in your wet/dry, or changed em for that matter.

 

[osakamy]

you should have some plant or if possible get a denitrator or you can built one. i am currently testing an eheim filter that i have already convert to a denitrator and waiting for the result coz' only the nature can help this. hope it work!!!!!!!!!

 

[q]

What is your set-up. Do you have a clean up crew? They will eat waste in the tank before it can decay.
I bet the lion fish eats the cleaner shrimp for a snack one of these days.
As you get more LR you can start to take out the bio-balls in your wet/dry and just use it for water flow. I would put in a DSB now.
[ December 26, 2001: Message edited by: Q ]

 

[burnnspy]

Over feeding + Wetdry filter = high nitrates. Adding a DSB will help reduce nitrates also.
BurnNSpy

 

[kimmisue]

I have a money plant and other plants that help maintain my nitrates as well as a dsb and clean up crew.
Once I added the plants my tank settled down..then with the addition of the sand..knock on wood I haven't had a problem since.
that has been over a year.
hope this helps
Kim

 

[predator]

I'm with burn n spy.Over feeding and that wet dry filter are contributing.And a dsb would more than help.

 

[kris walker]

Yes, watch out for overfeeding. A DSB will also help greatly. But something that is often overlooked is the nitrate reduction potential of liverock. It is real. It is not quite fully understood, but it seems there are bacteria deep in the anerobic parts of the lr. Many have reef and fish tanks with LR and CC substrate, and there are 0 nitrates to prove this. This will only work with large chunks of lr, not lots of smaller lr rubble (rubble don't have deep enough interiors).
Good luck,
sam