Please help me with my nitrates!

[larry083]

I have a 55 gal with live rock running a wet/dry eheim containing macaroni, substrate and chemi pure. Also have a skilter 250 and power head. Lighting is good too. Problem is my nitrates are always high 80 and above. Is there anything I can do beside water changes. I only have 1 tomato clown left, a feather duster, some snails and some crabs. Any fish I put in looks healthy for a few months and then suddenly dies. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[beth]

Larry, welcome to Saltwaterfish.com! You have posted in the Aquarium which is an off-topic forum, so I am moving your topic over to the Reef Forum.
The wet/dry is likely the largest contributing factor for the high nitrates. Can you provide info about how much live rock, what kind of sand you are using, etc.

 

[nm reef]

Originally Posted by Larry083
I have a 55 gal with live rock running a wet/dry eheim containing macaroni, substrate and chemi pure. Also have a skilter 250 and power head. Lighting is good too. Problem is my nitrates are always high 80 and above. Is there anything I can do beside water changes. I only have 1 tomato clown left, a feather duster, some snails and some crabs. Any fish I put in looks healthy for a few months and then suddenly dies. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
wet/dry eheim containing macaroni, substrate .....that bit of info made me curious....could you better explain the use of macaroni?

 

[beth]

Yeah, I paused at that as well....hopefully he means the ceramic pieces used in mechanical filters.

 

[reefreak29]

thats what he ment , u might want to get rid of the ehiem ,there wonderful for fresh water but for salt water i would buy a sump and a skimmer

 

[barelycuda]

I would agree with the above. I had problems with nitrates & my wet/dry for some time. I built a replaced the wet/dry with a sump I built, did a couple of water changes and my nitrates have been just abouve zero ever since.
Cuda

 

[khaosreign]

I have a 75 gal tank with 90lbs of live rock I have substrate that is sand and crushed coral my nitrates are 20 and I just lost an anenome and dont want to loose any thing else I took it out as soon as it started to look fleshy I have a protein skimmer. everything looks good for perameters. I have done water changes the last two days of about 6 gal at a time. I dont want to lose any other animalswhat is a wet/ dry Please help

 

[hagfish]

I would remove the wet/dry, ehiem, and skilter and get a high quality protein skimmer. All of the 3 items you mentioned can be nitrate traps. Protien skimmer is about as good as it gets for mechanical filtration.

 

[saltysteve]

Originally Posted by KhaosReign
I have a 75 gal tank with 90lbs of live rock I have substrate that is sand and crushed coral my nitrates are 20 and I just lost an anenome and dont want to loose any thing else I took it out as soon as it started to look fleshy I have a protein skimmer. everything looks good for perameters. I have done water changes the last two days of about 6 gal at a time. I dont want to lose any other animalswhat is a wet/ dry Please help

Get rid of the crushed coral go with live sand