Nitrate problems Help!!

tangster

tangster

New Member
I have a 75 gallon with the following:
LR=55 lbs
Seaclone Skimmer - This works very well.
Emperor bio wheel
UV sterilizer
FISH:
Hippo Tang
Purple Tang
Dragon Goby
Mandarin Dragonet
Bi-color Blenny
Lawnmower Blenny
I am trying to get my water stable enough to start adding corals but my nitrate is extremely high. I was able to lower the phosphates down to 0 but not the nitrates.
I have a 2 inch crushed coral substrate that has a UGF that is not being used.
Could the UGF be traping ditrus and causing the high nitrates?
Can I remove the UGF and have nothing under the crushed coral, and is it okay to have a 2 inch depth of crushed coral.
What is the best way to lower the nitrates quickly so I can have a healthy reef tank?
I also do 10% water changes every month.
Any help will be much appreciated. :confused: :confused:
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
IME
ugf's, cc and box filters all help to produce nitrates
the ugf and the cc are both the problem, finer grained sand would be much better @ about 4 inches
and another 50+- lbs of lr would help, the big problem is your livestock, you have too much in there to make any big moves at once
our tank is 75 lbs @110 lbs of lr, 3.5 inch dsb and a detrivore kit, an Emporer 400 (no filter or media, just used for circulation now) 3 powerheads and a comparable bioload(difference=no tangs yet, but many shrimp and inverts), and our nitrates stay under 20(well under), changing 4 gallons every week and a half
HTH
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
how long you had your mandarin?
any probs?
we 've been considering one but are a little leery, because of what wa have heard about them not taking food, and don't want it to starve, or depleat our detrivore stock which we worked so hard to get;anything you can help me with here?
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
Important questions: 1. How long has your tank been up? 2. What are your fish-feeding rates? 3. Do you have a cleaner crew?
IMO, cc is no problem, nor is a box filter if you change the cartridges regularly (like say every few days), or a biowheel if you pass the water through the cartridges first. If your protien filter is good as you say, this should help bigtime.
CC should mimic the properties of DSB beneath liverock. Liverock by itself also sucks up nitrates. In addition, some CC is very fine grained, almost to the point of being called sand. I totally agree that the finer the substrate, the better it becomes at producing the oxygen-poor environment needed for nitrate-consuming bacteria. So livesand by itself is better than live CC for nitrate reduction. But IMO, CC is no more a detritus collector than sand.
sam
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
Oh, one more thing. I would not recommend turning off your biowheel for a week because if your tank is already depending on your biowheel for ammonia/nitrite consumption, turning it off cold-turkey will temporarily increase the levels of these toxins. If you want to investigate Ubeturwrasse's suggestion, I would remove one biowheel at a time over the course of 2 weeks (assuming you have two biowheels). The point is to make the no-biowheel transition slowly so your tank can recover without killing your biosphere.
sam
 
tangster

tangster

New Member
First off! I have had my mandarin for 2yrs and he is doing great.
My biowheel does not have any media in it, just two biowheels.
I have no clean up crews except for two turbo snails.
Should I remove the UGF or will this cause me problems.
 
tangster

tangster

New Member
I feed my fish flake food in the morning and one frozen cube (size of a sugar cube) of brine shrimp at night.
What is the best way to remove the UGF with out causing issues? Also is it necessary to vacum you r substrate.
What are the best clean up crewa to get rid od ditrus?
 
texasreefrat

texasreefrat

Member
I would suggest getting a clean up crew, they do a great job of processing waste products before your water does. As for the removal of the ugf, well, there is really only one way to do it. I kept my CC and just added 2" of LS over it, some say this isnt good, but my nitrates are 0 and have been even though I NEVER DO WATER CHANGES. Thats right, I said it, NEVER. Im a bad man. My water tests perfect. Remove the plentum and youll have lower nitrates in my opinion.
________________________________________
Never take one opinion over ten, one opinion kills fish, ten have learned.
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
I agree with TexasReefRat. I would get a much better cleanup crew. See those offered by SWF.com. Include snails for major algae and scarlet reef hermits for major detritus processing. I have cc (but no ugf) and never have to do water changes due to high nitrates.
I would also only feed once a day, and sparingly at that. In fact, it even sounds to me that one cube of frozen brine per night for your 6 fish is a bit excessive. Does anyone else have an opinion about this?
cheers,
sam
 
peasly1

peasly1

Member
this is only what I heard or read but I thought if you have an ugf set up but not using it...that it will trap air and cause poisonus gas..I'm sure someone can correct me or tell me more about that please..and you have to clean the cc or it will become a problem
 
tangster

tangster

New Member
What if I remove my UGF and add sand on top of the CC will this work?
If I purchase live sand can I add it directly to my tank with out any problems.
What brand of live sand do you recommend?
 
klh

klh

New Member
I agree with the others. I would also like to add that in my opinion, you are way overfeeding. Perhaps you should start feeding once every other day until you can get those nitrates down. I would also suggest getting rid of the cc altogether and going with a dsb.
 
mlm

mlm

Active Member
I have used Nature's Ocean live sand with very good results. It does not cloud the water at all. They sell it here on saltwaterfish.com.
 
burnnspy

burnnspy

Active Member
jwtrojan44 has the most valid suggestions, IMHO.
An unused UGF is not a problem and may help reduce nitrates. Air trapped in a plenum will not become toxic gas! CC needs to be vacuumed weekly to help prevent nitrate buildup, I recommend just doing the top 1". 2" of gravel is not enough to have nitrate reduction.
Any tank with corals should have water changes done periodically to replace lost essential trace elements.
BurnNSpy
 
tangster

tangster

New Member
From all of the suggestions, I think I will do the following.
Cap off the UGF and leave it in.
Enhance my clean up crew.
Vacum the CC to get rid of some of the waste.
Remove bio wheels.
Do 10% water change ever 2 weeks.
Can I put live sand layer on top of CC or will this cause more problems or less problems?
 
burnnspy

burnnspy

Active Member
Tangster, your plan is sound. Just remember that vacuuming the sand weekly will go a long way towards keeping the tank healthy.
BurnNSpy
 
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