Trying to bring it back... little help?

[majakarot]

OK, so I used to have a beautiful reef tank but due to several things, not the least of which being getting married and building a house, my tank has found itself in ill-repair. I have found the cause of my massive coral death to be extremely high nitrates (80+) and have purchased an RO system for the source water (nitrates 0). I have been doing 30 gal changes about every week in my 75gal tank with 20gal sump--- after i completed the last change the trates were down around 20---a week later, back up to 40. The only thing i can come up with is that they are leaching out of the dsb? Suggestions? Do i just keep doing the water changes or do i need to do something about the sand? I only have 2clowns, 1 blenny, 1 banggai and 1 hippo... so it isn't overstocked. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[saltfan]

I think you killed off more than just your corals in that trate jump. Lot of things in that tank died, and it appears you are going through another cycle. I would keep up with the water changes, should help. How is your ammonia? You may need to do more frequent water changes of less than 30g.

 

[majakarot]

A little more info:
nitrites and ammonia are 0
the tank went virtually unattended for over a year while it was at my parents house, nitrates were also introduces from the top-off water. It has now been in my house for about 6 months but i finally got serious about bringing it back, it probably did recycle, but it has been stable for the few months i've been checking it. It just seems that the nitrates want to stay around 40.
thanks for the response

 

[pfitz44]

what do you have for livestock? just corals? is anyhting still alive in the tank?

 

[majakarot]

here is what is still in the tank:
2 ocellaris clowns
1 banggai cardinal
1 hippo tang
1 bicolor blenny
1 frogspawn
1 greenstripe mushroom
1 purple mushroom
1 ??leather coral
a decent amount of halimeda
6-ish hermit crabs
and hundreds of tiny starfish, snail-like critters, bristleworms and various unknown creatures
(about 100lbs of fiji liverock and dsb for filtration)
thanks again

 

[pfitz44]

the DSB will help reduce your nitrates... so i don thtink that is your problem. Are you running any mechinacal filteration?? more specifically, a proteen skimmer? What about a fuge with some macro algee?
try trimming your halimeda back... that might help the situation as well.
HTH

 

[majakarot]

my protein skimmer is the Seaclone 100 (i know it isn't very good)
the only media i'm using is phosX which i just added b/c it said it reduced nitrates, but this is a new addition
i know the nitrates came from bad water i was using (i didn't know it was bad at the time)
The nitrates have come way down, but they seem to have leveled off around 40.
I pull out any halimeda that turns white, i leave it if it is green.
I used to grow caleurpa but it kept getting in my pumps so i now only have the halimeda.
I don't think the sand is creating the nitrates, i was just wondering if the bad water was trapped in it and leeching back into the new water.
I was wondering about doing an even larger change, but i'm afraid of causing another cycle.
Also-the few corals left are looking much better now that i've been doing the water changes, so i think things will be ok if i can just get rid of the remaining nitrates.
thanks again

 

[pfitz44]

a 75 with 100# of LR i wouldnt be to worried about another cycle. its just going to ake water changes to bring it down. try doing a 10-15 gal everyother day