Question for my buds

[ClaptonsGhost]

Right now my tank is on it's longest winning streak since I set it up. Everybody is eating, swimming, happy and getting along. Water clarity is crystal clear and mushrooms doing great. I haven't bothered bringing my water to the LFS for testing because they always claim my nitrates are through the roof, even right after I did a 40 gallon water change.

Anyway, long story short I brought some in for testing just now and again, they told me that my nitrates and nitrites are high and that I should use Bio-Fuel and Bacteria something or other (I thought that's what bacteria beds are for! I've got 200 lbs of live rock in my tank plus a bacteria bed in my substrate!)

Question: What do you guys add, if anything, to your tanks. I do add Replenish for trace elements so I don't have to do water changes so frequently, Fusion 1 and 2 for calcium and PH, and vitamins to the food. I'm running ChemiPure Elite, a skimmer and a Phosban Reactor with bio-pellets and, as I said, the tank is running great. Should I add this other stuff or tell the LFS to stuff it? Remember also, sometimes they do me right, other times they screw me royally.

 

[beaslbob]

I used the improved diy two part but you're dong about the same thing.
For nitrItes, I have found that not feeding will result in nitrites dropping down in less than a week. Once that happens they tended to stay down.

I did dose ferris gulconate (from health/drug stores) to help prevent iron limitation on the macros. Just dissolved a capsule in on old soda bottle and dosed a capful each week.

Once experimented with calcium nitrates to bump up nitrates (5ppm or so) to help counter cyano.

But basically just the diy two part and of course my usual macros.


my .02

 

[bang guy]

A couple thoughts:

Get your own test kits. It's nice to know you're getting the real results even if you do trust the people at the LFS.

What are the numbers?

If you have Nitrites then your biologic filtration is not working properly. Something is killing off your bacteria, something is rotting in your tank that is exceeding the capacity of your bacteria, their test kit is out of date, or they just made up a number.

Are you overfeeding?

Do you have adequate waterflow through your live rock?

I would definitely NOT add the stuff they are selling you. Even if it does seem to work it's going to be temporary. You need to find the cause so you can implement a long term solution.

I would focus on the Nitrite issue first. Although not harmful a Nitrite level above 0.00 indicates a seriously inadequate bacteria population. So either there's a huge ammonia source somewhere in your tank or something destroyed your Nitrobacter bacteria population. Again, it could also just be the testing is giving a false positive.

 

[bang guy]

What is this "bacteria bed"? I've not heard of this. Something new? Is it some type of plenum system?

 

[jay0705]

Iam a firm believer if your fish and inverts are fine so is your water.

 

[bang guy]

Iam a firm believer if your fish and inverts are fine so is your water.

I'm a firm believer in testing the water so that problems can be addressed before it affects the fish and inverts.

 

[jay0705]

I'am not saying don't test, but if your getting questionable test results yet your inhabitants are acting normal, I would say it's the test

 

[2014FishKiller]

Iam a firm believer if your fish and inverts are fine so is your water.

+1, you will see something wrong with the fish, than testing the water.

 

[ClaptonsGhost]

Wow, I only got one notification that there was a response. So much to respond to.
First off, Peg, if ANYTHING I'm probably overfeeding, but I've cut down starting this week and my already clear water is looking even better. Secondly, I would blame their test kit. For two reasons. One, as I said, they said my nitrates were high a day after I did a 40 gallon water change, after being only slightly elevated the day before the change. Second, they once told me my nitrates were at .40 and that I should either do a vodka dose or use that bacteria stuff of theirs. I told them I would vodka dose, but did not, and the next day my water tested excellent. 'Nuff said about that.

I have more than adequate water flow through my live rock. Bang guy, you really don't know what a bacteria bed is?

jay0705, not only are the fish (and mushrooms, and invertebrates like my carpet anemone, Fire Shrimp, etc.) all doing great, but, except for the Queen Angel which is going through a bout of cauliflower, all of my fish are flawless, perfect pectoral fins, no tail damage, nothing. Even my Blue Face, who was terrorized and torn up by my old Queen Angel, is completely healed now. All eating like the wild animals that they are, and all swimming. No flashing, no hovering in corners, all acting naturally. I know (as well as you do) that you should test on occasion.

Anyway, aside from all that, my original question, which only beaselbob really answered, was what do you dose your tanks with, if anything? And, again, I have a FOWLR +mushrooms, no other corals. Or, to be more specific, do you do anything to boost your biological filtration? Back in the 80's I had a 140 gallon tank with over 50 fish in it. My filtration consisted of, believe it or not, dolomite over an undergravel filter with 2 powerheads, plus a HOB 600gph filter with 2 bags of chemipure in it. Never did water changes, and topped off with Houston tap water, some of the crappiest water on earth. You can't even make ice cubes with that stuff, it just crumbled. So I tend to think sometimes that modern LFS's are just looking to boost their bottom line. Still I'd like your allz's input.

Here is my tank as of a week ago. As you'll notice, no cyano anywhere

 

[bang guy]

I have more than adequate water flow through my live rock. Bang guy, you really don't know what a bacteria bed is?

If you mean your sand bed then yeah... I think I know what that is.

If it's something else then no, not sure what that is.

If your sand bed and live rock has good waterflow in an established tank then there really is just no way you have detectable Nitrite. Someone is pulling your leg.

A sand bed with good flow is all of the biology you require to convert Ammonia and Nitrite.

That leaves Nitrate. The bacteria that can convert Nitrate to Nitrogen gas (so it can escape the tank) cannot live in a high oxygen environment. So no amount of added bacteria is going to make a difference with Nitrate without low oxygen areas in your system. The larger live rocks and a deep sand bed will supply this type of environment but even in a large rock the low oxygen area is going to be small.

I would not consider any additive for Nitrate reduction. I would consider an algae scrubber combined with less feeding and larger water changes.

 

[ClaptonsGhost]

Yes, my sand bed! I trust you guys' word over my LFS any day. Gonna return that garbage tomorrow and save $30 bucks. Thanks again!

 

[snakeblitz33]

To answer the original question, I drip kalkwasser on a regular basis. The kalk I bought is from Brightwell aquatics and contains calcium, carbonate, magnesium and strontium.

I feed my fish algae sheets and new life spectrum pellets with garlic. That's an additive I guess.

My top off is automated, but I make sure the TDS is zero for top offs.

When I start adding corals that feed and have guts, instead of molecular absorption, I'll dose a little oyster feast and phyto once or twice a week.

That's about all the additives I use.

 

[ClaptonsGhost]

ok so in other words, you do NOTHING to supplement your biological filter, just like everybody else here. Thanks!

 

[bang guy]

The kalk I bought is from Brightwell aquatics and contains calcium, carbonate, magnesium and strontium.

This is interesting to me. Without thinking too hard about it I would have thought that the Magnesium and Strontium would precipitate out of solution due to the high PH of limewater.

Now I'm on a mission to prove my instincts wrong.

Thanks for the mission Snake.

BTW there is no carbonate in limewater just Calcium, Hydroxide, and Dihydrogen oxide. The carbonate isn't formed until the Hydroxide is mixed with saltwater that contains plenty of Carbon dioxide.

 

[ClaptonsGhost]

You should be thanking me! I started this thread

 

[snakeblitz33]

Lol. I know bang, I was taking the lazy route.

 

[seecrabrun]

I say use that $30 you saved to get a test kit of your own, hehe.

My nitrates using API were at 90 once. I overfeed and don't have any filtration, skimmer, etc outside of the sand and rocks.

It's a fish only tank so the only problem I had was cloudy water, didn't even have any algae issues. And the cloudiness was only visible when looking from one side to the other.

I'd slacked off on water changes for way too long, hadn't been feeling well.

 

[ClaptonsGhost]

You overfeed, don't have any filtration, and slack off on water changes, yet you have a test kit. I'll bet if you wipe down the inside glass you'll get rid of that cloudy water problem too

 

[seecrabrun]

I just use the mag float to clean it. There's a lot of random debris floating around like loose pineapple sponges and pieces of molts that no one got to.

That was months ago when I was going through some depression. I didn't test the water then either. No one died, nothing weird happened, the tank probably just felt bleh like I did.

I do weekly water changes now and have a HOB filter to capture the floating stuff.

I've put some mushrooms in the tank now.

This is my easy tank. Always been pretty self maintaining. I have another that makes up for it, is a pain in the butt. Even with perfect husbandry it has GHA and cyano. I've been chasing phosphates and am about ready to just let the tank run its coarse.

 

[flower]

API test kits are not reliable, that is the test kits my LFS uses. I would purchase my own tests kits, master kits are cheaper then individually. You shouldn't have any nitrites, if you do then you do have ammonia someplace, and if you know you are overfeeding...LOL.. Stop it, stop it right now. Live rock is loaded with tasty treats for your fish to hunt and eat, including algae bits to graze on.

Established tanks can take a little neglect, but over time it will bite you in the butt if you don't address the smaller issues cropping up, before bad things add up and builds into a huge snowball.

Seecrabrun: If you have fish only, try adding macroalgae...there are some nice decorative stuff that fish don't find very tasty, that stuff will absorb and eat up all the nitrates and phosphates right up and out.