nitrates

[hounddogg68]

i am having a tough time getting my nitrates below 40,,it seems like they are hung on 40,,i have a 55 gallon tank with 60 lbs of live sand with 50 lbs of live rock,,all i got in it fish wise is 1 clown and 1 blue damsel,,i run a filter with bio balls in it with 50/50 lights ,what would get these nitrates below 40,please keep in mind that im not rich,,lol,,,i have been trying water changes of 20% once a week but it doesnt seem to help,,thanks alot

 

[adrian]

Do you know the cause of the elevated nitrates? Nitrates, unless being introduced via tap water, or something else, is generally a result of a buildup of nutrients within the tank, these are the things I would look into, First off I would ditch the bio balls, if your sand bed is at least 4" in depth theres no need for them. Is there any chance you are over feeding? Do you have a skimmer? If not I would suggest looking into one.
Do you use carbon? Do you use floss, if so I would suggest you toss it with b-balls, floss is used to trap wastes, preventing them from being broken down in the tank, therfore they rot, this can happen to a degree with bio balls as well. How about water changes, this is the ultimate defense against trates, 10-15% water changes will keep the trates under control until you can get to the root of the problem and fix the it at the source HTH

 

[hounddogg68]

i feed the fish about 3 times a week and only a small amount then,,i will ditch the bio ballsmi have a 50/50 carbon and gravel bag that i created myself in the filter,,last week i put a detrivore kit in that included spegetti worms,bristle worms,a few different snails to try and filter the sand,,its really strange cause it stays at 40 on the nitrate level even after a 20% water change,,should i empty the water out of the filter when i do water changes,i have thought about this and to me it seems it might help

 

[adrian]

You want to eliminate any media that will trap wastes, what do you mean by gravel bag? What test kit are you using? You want to ditch you b-balls slowly, dont take them out all at one, you have to give the bacteria time to colonize in the sand and take over the duties of the bacteria on the balls, I would take out a hanfull or two a week until they are all gone. Its a good idea to keep a close eye on your water quality when doing this. How deep is your sand bed? What kind of sand? HTH

 

[hounddogg68]

i have almost a 4 inch sand bed,,2 inches of it from sand i ordered from here and the other 2 was sand i bought at the lfs not live,i am useing 2 different kits ,i have the test strips and also have the liquid kind,,,the gravel bags that i talked about are from seachem and called de*nitrate,i use this with my carbon,,seems to work fairly well,,i know i need about 30 more lds of live rock,,i also have a antheia polyp,any ideas on him,,i would really like to save him he has started looking kind of doomed the past 24 hrs

 

[adrian]

What brand is the liquid test? More rock is going to really help you, if your sandbed is not quite 4", adding more sand would be better. I would also ditch the denitrate gravel, water changes would be better idea, the gravel stuff only helps to mask the problem, its better to fix whatever is causing the trates. Have you tested any other water parameters, PO4, salinity, ect. You say the Anthellia are looking doomed, this is most likely not due to the trates, trates have to be at pretty high concentrations to become toxic. I think boosting you SB to 4", adding a skimmer, and doing a few water changes would be your best bet HTH