Nitrates off the charts

[bstoner]

I have a 55 gal. saltwater tank with over 100 lbs. of fiji live rock, yellow tang, bi-color angel, precula clown, 4 cleaner shrimp, 20 blueleg hermits, 3 or 4 scarlet reef hermets, 1 rock anemone, 1 green brittle starfish. The tank has a 4x 95 watt JBJ retrofit light, emperor 400 filter, red sea protein skimmer, and one power head.
I do 10gal. water changes every 2 weeks and at one point i did it every week in an attempt to get the nitrates down. I feed the fish flake or frozen brine once a day and put some fresh spinach for the tang in 2 times a week. I reduced the amount of food some time ago and have tried many other techniques like nitrate ruducers, and tearing down the whole tank and cleaning out each rock(sucked). The tear down helped the most, it got my trates down to about 30ppm. However shortly after that it went back up. I have used two different test kits both with the same results nitrates above 80 ppm. All of my fish do well some inverts have some trouble. I cant keep a diamond goby alive more than a month. My tank grows alot of red algea and some green algea. I also grow good amounts of purple algea which i think is good. I also use RO filtered water from the pet store and i have my own unit on the way.
If anyone may have some ideas i would appreciate the help or suggestions.

 

[sunken ship]

you might want to think about a protein skimmer.

 

[sunken ship]

NM, i didn't read closely enough, sorry man, i don't know what to say. Good luck though!

 

[bstoner]

I have a fairly deep crushed coral bed about 2 to 4 inches depending on area of the tank.
I am not familiar with fefugium with macro algea please tell me more.
I have tested the stores water and it shows up below 10ppm or sometimes none at all.

 

[rabid frog]

hey kipass what can you tell me a little about you fuge, I want to turn a 29 tall into a fuge but I am not sure how to regulate the flows, and the return to the main tank. Sorry not trying to steal your thread

 

[leigh]

yah, the refugium idea is very helpful...i've had all my numbers be 0 since i added mine. mine's also really simple...with my 55, i took a 20 gal tank put it in the stand underneath. bought an overflow box, ran pvc straight down from the overflow into the 20. used a powerhead/pump for the return with tubing back to the main tank. and even simpler than plexiglass i used eggcrate with fiberglass window screening to keep sand from getting into the pump. so basically i have 3/4 tank set up as a sump with live sand and macroalgaes growing and the last quarter has the pump. took about a day to set up...i can draw you a picture if it'd help...

 

[bstoner]

Thank you for the tip. I wondered about the crushed coral, when i do a change the water sucked out of the CC is always really brown. So you say that sand will not harvest the trates like the CC.
Also I do not have a sump system just live rock, protein skimmer, and a emperor 400 with bio wheels, is there a simple way to hook up seperate tank with the colerpa to eat the nitrates up.
Thanks for all your help
Oh ya one more thing if I do switch to sand; what kind should i use, all live sand or just dry sand since my tank is about 2 years old. Which kind would you reccomend.

 

[leigh]

here's the schematic for my tank sumpfugium setup...it's about as simple as you can get...really, it took a day tops to set up...actually i think more like half a day...i traded in all my freshwater fish, used my old freshwater 20 gal tank and spent about $50 all up + value of traded fish on equipment--so no more than $100 plus tank. -leigh

 

[demosthenes]

Originally posted by Bstoner
Oh ya one more thing if I do switch to sand; what kind should i use, all live sand or just dry sand since my tank is about 2 years old. Which kind would you reccomend.
Since you've already shown that you're willing to work for your tank, by the removing of all the rocks to lower nitrates, I would highly recommend the switch over to a DSB, and I would use straight SouthDown Play Sand. I wouldn't bother with Live Sand unless it's actual LS from a site like this or your LFS, where you know it's live, never something bagged like Arag-Alive. If it were me I would stay away from the LS, as it's much cheaper to just use the SD and use the LR to seed it. Good Luck with getting your nitrates down.
PS If you cannot get ahold of any SD, as it tends to be very tricky to get any, email me at Jtorma15@aol.com to try to get some. There is a pretty extensive effort by part of a friend of mine at BSU who is arranging for some 300 bags of SD to be transferred to a Home Depot up North. Just let me know if you need any.

 

[bstoner]

By SouthDown play sand do you mean just plain old sandbox type of sand or what? What does DSB stand for?
I also looked at my set up and I really dont have room for a 10gal or bigger refugium but i did find a stick on, in tank one, it is small but comes with a little powerhead and has some holes on one side for water flow. It is like 7x7x4 in. Do you think that this will help or would it be a waste of time and money. My stand has doors on both sides and in the center it has two shelves with mirrors behind them. Behind the stand is pretty full with balace for the light and about 10 more cords + power strip, timer, supplies, and chemicals.
I do however plan on going bigger in the next few years and your info will be very helpful in picking out my stand etc.
Thanks Again
Ben