[ShaunW]

How old is your sand bed? since with an active DSB your nitrates should be lower not higher.

BTW what corals are you going to keep in your BB system, since a BB tank is not easier than a DSB, nor does it reduce nitrates directly! The nitrate reduction occurs from constant vigilence in remove dendritis from the tank and having huge flow and a powerful skimmer present in the system. SPS tanks benefit most from BB systems.

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

[tangerine]

Quote: Originally Posted by PVsPlayhouse Yes, Trunover sorry about that. You take the amont of flow in your tank and dived it by tank size. EX. GPH/Tank size. So if you have 3000GPH in a 100gl tank you are getting 30 turnover in a hour. I made a mistake in my last post it is 30 to 50 turns per hour.

that's what i thought you meant but was kind off puzzle by the turns per min. so was wondering how to achieve that kind of turnover.

[pEEshEE]

When we moved the tank over from my friend's place, we removed the sand from the tank and placed them in buckets... and then put the sand back in when we got everything over to my place. Do you think that may have caused such a high nitrate reading?

I checked nitrates again today, and it still reads 20, which is still alot better than 40, so I'm going to do another 30 gallon water change in a few days.

As far as coral, I only have a few polyps, mushrooms, pagoda, & kenya tree for now. If I can get my nitrates down, I plan on upgrading to metal halides and increasing the flow in hopes of keeping some colorful SPS.

Hopefully after siphoning out some more sand during my next water change this week, the nitrates will go down to maybe 10? Fingers are crossed... but I'm in no hurry. I'm kinda broke right now after spending a fortune on my sump, but hopefully in a months time, I'll be ready for some good stuff.

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

[PVsPlayhouse]

There probably was a lot of die off in the sand when you transferred it over. but I would leave the sand, A DSB helps get ride of Nitrates not raise them. If you are haveing that bad of a problem get a nitrate sponge to help bring it down. You still need to do the water changes but at least it will lessen the stress on the corals.

[drunktank]

how long was the sand in the bucket. When removing a sand bed you should have washed it out. What probably happened was his DSB was full of life, once disturbed the gasess and die off producted large amounts of trates which you transfered to ur tank.

[pEEshEE]

Quote: Originally Posted by drunktank how long was the sand in the bucket. When removing a sand bed you should have washed it out. What probably happened was his DSB was full of life, once disturbed the gasess and die off producted large amounts of trates which you transfered to ur tank.

Thanks for the reply. I believe you're correct. After about a month of having this 90 gallon setup, and weekly water changes of about 25 gallons, I seemed to have gotten my Nitrates down to 10ppm. My two previous water changes, I siphoned out some sand, and although the nitrates went down to 20 from 40 the first time I siphoned sand out, the second time around, it did nothing, keeping the Nitrates at 20.

Today, I did another water change without taking out any sand, and I rechecked, 10! So it looks like I'm slowly getting there. It probably was all the die off from the sand and rocks. I think I may keep the rest of the sand... we'll see.

Here are some before and after pix for everyone's viewing pleasure.

First week:


Second week:


Third week, after siphoning out some more sand:




I'll post one that I took today with the metal halide upgrade after I resize the image.

Thanks all.

[pEEshEE]

and the best fishy in the entire universe... for now.

[remy109]

congrads on the setup, thanks for the miracle mud btw.
Did you get your powerhead/pump yet?
I just setup the Seio M1500 into my 70Gal. I would actually recommend it.
Keep me updated on the trigger's mood. I'm still in the process of setting up the fish only tank filled with various types of triggers =)

[deelucky]

man looking nice. maybe after x-mas i might get ready to upgrade

[pEEshEE]

Thanks guys. I actually had this Clown trigger in with a Niger and Rectangle all about the same size for about a month, and it didn't work out... I mean, they were in a 20, so space probably had a lot to do with it.

I know that the Clown trigger is supposed to be pretty tough, but he was the most passive one out of the 3 triggers.

Even now, in the 90 gallon, we backs off when the Saddleback Clownfish steps up! Most would be pretty upset that they got a submissive Clown trigger, but I'm hoping he stays this way for a long time.