nitrates nitrates nitrates

[jimosburg]

Have 92 gallon corner with wet dry sump. Have bioballs. Approx 130 lbs of rock. have 1 chromi, 1 hippo tang, 2 clowns, starfish, 2 hermit crabs, 1 bicolor psuedochromi, lawnmower blenny, two pajama cardinals. I only feed 3x's a week. Have reverse osmosis. I use instant ocean reef salt.
also have a protein skimmer. Wanting to add corals and inverts, but nitrates of the charts

 

[cannonman]

Do you wash your bio balls? What kind of substrate?

 

[jimosburg]

never have washed bio balls. have asked seeveral lps and all have said not to. Have been cosidering washing or removing

 

[stanlalee]

how often do you do water changes and how much? What do you consider "off the charts"?

 

[jimosburg]

20% water cahanges every couple of weeks. Off the charts is 80 in that range

 

[cannonman]

Wash the balls in salt water when you do a water change- might help. And more frequent water changes... also, what kind of substrate do you have?

 

[jimosburg]

not really sure on the substrate. Was told it was live sand. Tank is a couple years old. Given to me a year ago. Trying to convert from fish only to reef

 

[jimosburg]

After looking and reading other post I thing it is mostly crushed coral substrate

 

[cannonman]

I would increase the frequency of the water changes and clean your bio balls with water from your next change. They can be "nitrate factories". Just be sure to use salt water to clean them because you don't want to kill the beneficial bacteria living on them.

 

[cannonman]

If it's CC then that may be the problem or part of it also.. I have CC in a 75 fowlr that I'm changing into a reef and I am replacing it with sand because my nitrates are always on the high end.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

I wouldn't wash your bio balls - it'll most likely recycle your tank. I've seen it from other before.
There are some ways to lower your nitrates. it's a natural part of the ocean habitat, what you're missing is plant life that consumes nitrates
Try buying a refugium system and add some mangrove plants, money plants and they will enjoy the nitrates as a food suppliment.

 

[cannonman]

rinsing bio balls in some salt water won't restart a whole cycle. period. washing them in fresh water and killing all the bacteria could cause a spike. As far as "plants" go, good luck, my guess is that you're going to have to add an awful lot of them to lower nitrates in a tank like that down from 80ppm.

 

[jimosburg]

I do have some plants. Added about a month ago. didn't seem to help too much.

 

[cannonman]

again, I would wash the balls and start doing weekly water changes of maybe 15-20% and test the water every few days to see if it starts helping (you'll know after a couple of weeks if it's going to help) actually, I might start off the new weekly regime with one big water change of 40% and then the above.. but that's only me, i'm sure others would go about it different... no absolute right or wrong, just opinions.