nitrates,,help

[hounddogg68]

we've had our tank for over a year now,,and have always had problems with the nitrates,i have a 55 gallon with bio ball filter,at the present using dry strips it is at 100,,all we got in our tank right now is 1 coral banded shrimp which has been in since the beginningsome blue legged hermits and 4 damsels,oh and 3 stowe away stone crabs,,,please help,,,about 35 lbs of live rock also

 

[hounddogg68]

oh i forgot ,i just ordered a clean up crew and 40 lbs of live sand to try and help the nitrates some,any other suggestions would be appreciated

 

[ebeckels]

how often and how much of a water change do you do? CC or DSB or just LS? A DSB will definitely help lower nitrates... CC will help raise them unless you clean it a lot. Try not to overfeed as well.
-Eric

 

[peasly1]

your tank does not seem overstocked at all so I would rule that out as a problem,but I also wonder how much you are feeding,even more so how often you do a water change and if you clean the gravel if thats what you have..

 

[ebeckels]

didn't i just say that right about what you said????
-Eric

 

[hounddogg68]

i feed about every 3 days and i did about 20 gallons water change every 2 weeks,,,but the past week i have been doing water changes every 3 day to try and get it down for the packages i got ordered,,ive taken the bio balls out and replaced them with carbon packages now,,,i can seem to get any green algae,all i can get is the brownish red algae,,i bought a small bottle of prime and a bottle of termin-ite to see if that will help,,thanx for replying cc , dsb ??

 

[hounddogg68]

oh right now i have green sand,,but i have some florida keys live sand on the wayalong with a cleanup crew and a small reef package

 

[thor]

cc=crushed coral
dsb=deep sand bed (4-6 of ls)
ls=live sand
lr=live rock
lfs=local fish store
ugf=undergravel fiter
hob=hang on back filter(i think ive heard it somewhere)
anybody have any others?
welcome to the board!