sand up grade...

[iliriano]

Happy Holliday, well I have a shallow sand bed in my display 90g tank about 1.5" of it. and a high nitrate(no3) problem, I have try water changes 15g every 2week so twice a month and they come down and right back up. I have mangrove, cheato, and two other type of macros that I can't remember they name. I also have a 4" sandbed in my refugium 15"*11"*15 I also have a bubble tower about 5"*5"*15" bubbletower full of dead sps pieces and biopellets in my pb150. My stock is vlamini tang, yellow tang, purple tang, blue hippo tang, and a atias. My feeding is mysis shrimp and squid and nori, I don't feed everyday but I do nori every day.

So solutions, add more sand to the sand that all ready there slowly or just change the sandbed and add a total of 5"about 150lbs. In hope that the sandbed will help the the dinitratefication..

Thks to troywalker, he had done some water testing for me in the past.
Also MR store has done some with ellos and they where high as hell is hot.

 

[KathyC]

If your nitrates are super high, your sand bed may not be your only issue, your LR can have also adsorbed a bunch of nitrates and are leaching them back out into your water column.


Are you running any GFO & carbon? If not, you might want to


I wouldn't add more sand, I'd slowly replace it.
The 4" sandbed in your fuge..is that means to be a DSB? If so it should be at least 6 inches deep to be effective. If that isn't what you are aiming for then keep it less than 2 " when you replace it.

 

[iliriano]

Thks for the reply, kathyc .
Not running carbon or gfo, why I ask about the adding of sand is that my LFS advice me to but in small quantities. Yes the 4" was meant as a deep sand bed. Also what can I do to stop the leaching of no3 from my live rock.

 

[KathyC]

It is always best to remove a sand bed in smaller increments..say 15 or 20% a week as there is a good deal of beneficial bacteria in there that you don't want to remove from your tank all at once. You also don't want to drag the process out for a long time as you are on the edge of polluting the new sand bed the longer the old one stays in there (know what I mean?)


You can't stop the rock from leaching the nitrates, you need to capture them..until they are gone..through water changes and running carbon & GFO (to make sure you phosphates are kept in check ..or the combination of high nitrates & high phosphates = major algae issues
That process will take a while to complete. DO be sure to change the carbon & GFO every 2-3 weeks.

 

[iliriano]

No alge issues lol, thks for input will try as you advise.thks