NitrAtes question

[fishzen]

I have read that biowheels become nitrAtes factories.
My water parameters are PH 8.2, Ammonia 0, NitrItes 0, but the reading for nitrAtes has been going up steadly for the last three weeks, it is currently at 40, I have CC substrate, I changed 20 % of the water last week, the same day I did vacuum the CC.
Based on your experience, Should I get rid of the biowheel ???? Should the LR and the bacteria on the CC enough to take care of the nitrItes ???
Thanks.

 

[bobothewizard]

Hmm this is kinda two fold, my "suggestion" to you would be ... Hold on to your seat.... Drain the tank saving the water, remove the crushed coral, add live sand, about 3-4 inches, refil the tank with the same water and then remove the bio wheel while hoping for the best. Few weeks later you will be almost nitrate free. I can tell you this works, as i had the same problem you do now when i had the CC.
[ November 19, 2001: Message edited by: Bobothewizard ]

 

[bigdawg]

He wasn't asking if he should go with live sand. For a lot of people (like me) building a dsb is not economically feasible right now. Just answer the question if you can help. I would also like to know if the biowheels are bad, and if so why do filters have them.

 

[peasly1]

the cc is most likely your problem w/ nitrate..it holds unwanted waste.. bob sugested the dsb maybe because it gets rid of nitrate and acts a bio filter along w/lr..as for the bio wheels I was told they are bad too

 

[fishzen]

Here is what I have:
Percula clown
Pygmy angel
fire shrimp
seabae anemone
buble tip anemone
hermits and snails
around 15 pounds LR
I was feeding the fish every day, not anymore since the nitrAtes are going up. I feed the anemones once a week.
Here is what I'm going to do:
Switch to LS, I am going to buy around 30 pounds from my lfs.
Can I move everything to containers, remove the CC, add the LS, and put my LR, fish and inverts back again ??? Is the tank going to go through a re-cycle ?
Please advise.
Thanks.

 

[blutang]

With such a small tank your gonna have to watch you levels very very closely. I would advise to maybe only feed 3 times a week and very sparingly at that.
later!

 

[fishzen]

I understand that !!
What about the re-cicle question ????

 

[fishzen]

Thanks Sammy !!!!! I really appreciate your input.
Last questions though.
Nature Ocean's Bio-active Live Aragonite is the sand you are refering to ?. I got confused since it does come on a bag, and is not in water like every other live sand I have read about.
Should I get rid of the bio-wheel as soon as I got the new setup ?.
Once again thanks!

 

[just_got_tanked]

I have a question of my own on this topic. I also have cc and I was told that this was a good thing. Is the only difference in live sand is that it has been in a established tank, or on a real coral reef? If the cc has been in the tank for a while is it now live sand itself?

 

[diatom]

Fishzen~
Bio-active will work very well...you have to add your own critters though. IMO get rid of the biowheel as soon as your new system has had time to age a bit.
Tanked~
They are not the same thing. CC is much more corse then sand (live or dry) Live sand is just dry sand that is inhabitied by bacterial and usually various other critters. a 4" or greater bed of live sand will work as a bio filter reducing or eliminating your nitrates. CC is too corse for many of these creatures to live in and often compounds the nitrate problem by traping food in it.
[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: Diatom ]

 

[flamehawk]

CC does become"live cc" over time. THe problem as I am told , is that it traps food between the large particles and thus becomes a haven for high nitrates. I have crushed coral in 3 of 4 tanks. It does seem to be accurate that over time , nitrates seem to build in cc tanks. I'm already strategizing how to convert a tank fully stocked with fich from cc to ls. Another project for another day.

 

[wally]

Sand also has a much greater surface area for bacteria to live in/on. That is the main reason it works better than CC.

 

[just_got_tanked]

ok maybe im not getting the full picture on this live sand. the crushed coral that i have is very fine. the step below what i have was called sugar sand...or something. i was told that the sugar sand was really hard to clean...as far as when you do water changes. So if the sand that i have in my tank is comparable to the sand found on a beach...the soft sand(very fine), and with the addition of my live rock and freezed dried bacteria is this sand almost what you can call live sand.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Folks,
Thanks for the indepth conversation with the identical problem I have been having over theh last three months! My Nitrate level continues to climb and I attribute this to the Crushed Coral substrate that was recommended to me by more than two Marine books, and a number of pet store people. I have taken my LR out of my tank on three separate occasions (damsel removal) during a water change - a couple of 5 gal buckets of water for the rocks to reside while I chased a blue Damsel and a Seargent major around the tank without effecting the Ammonia/nitrite - bio filter. I purchased two unseeded sand bags ( 14 lbs) the other day and plan to purchase a bag of LS - 24 lb bag and will begin the change over in a week.
I wasn't aware sure that this was really going to help (aslo looking for a filter) until I saw your discussion.
Thanks and I'll keep you all posted.

 

[just_got_tanked]

i curved off from the original question a bit, but i have read that nitrates are really arent toxic. its the nitrites that can give you a big problem, and can be toxic to fish. the books that ive been reading have been very helpful. but still i get caught up in this topic.

 

[ironreef]

High nitrates aren't good either. cc is to large for the animals to work and it trapes detrius. Smallgrained sands are easy to clean= the animals do you never touch it.Natures ocean isn't true LS it just has bacteria where you can get that anywhere. I would buy the cheapest sand what ever it is.You can have cc just keep the layer thin under 1/2" The LR will help but what kind of filter are you using ? Just carbon? alga tank? IME I can feed alot of food @4-5cubes and pinch of spinurila for my fish ,dsb corals ect... everyday and all my nits parameters read 0 po4=0 but I have an alga tan and a good skimmer.

 

[fishzen]

Ok guys/gals.
The switch to LS was done over the weekend ! I added 40 pounds (two bags) of natures ocean. I must say that it does look nicer. I will post an update by mid-week on the water parameters with the new setup.
A question for Diatom. You mention that I should add my own critters, what those should be ?
Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[diatom]

Fishzen~
Quite a few places offer kits with pods and worms to seed your LS. The sand that you bought is considered live because of the bacteria that it contains but inorder to remain viable it really should have a detrivore kit added.
HTH,
Brent