sump questions

[attempt]

Ok guys, need your brain power again, as im getting yelled at, at home because of all the money im spending for this "needed expensive equipment"!!!
I convinced my girlfriend into letting me buy a turbofloater multi skimmer as it would be much better than the prizm skimmer i had. Well i got the new skimmer, and found it was a little to big to fit behind my tank, so i decided to but a simple sump. (thanks again to everyone and their great advice) and place the skimmer in there.
I bought a 10 gal tank, a mag 7 and a U-tube overflow.
Everything work perfectly. Now my problem.
Ever since i got this new equipment, my nitrates have been slowly increasing. thus ive doubled my water changes, yet they still continue to increase. my gf is mad about this as my reasoning was, well if i buy all this equipment, i can backoff a little, and rather than make weekly water changes, i can do them every few weeks. sadly this is not the case.
I have not changed anything i do, i feed the same, i actually am doing about 50% water change weekly as opposed to 25% etc...
i think what is happening is when i feed (1x daily) it gets sucked down to my sump very quickly and decays there. i do not have any type of filter media at the end of the flextube where it enters my sump. so everything gets dumped directly in there.
I have added some mexican redlegs to assist with eating the excess food that ends up there. but that is not working.
can someone please help!!!!!
SPECS
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 25 ppm (this is my prob)
ph 8.2
calc 450
alk 4.5
sal 1.024

29gal main tank
10 gal sump (approx 8 gal water)
4.5 gal refugium

FISH:
2 banggai cardinals
2 cinnimon clowns
1 coral beauty
1 sally lightfoot
1 serpent star
1 bristle star
assorted hermits

CORALS:
devils hand
speckled tonga
frogspawn
hammer coral
blue tip tongue coral
plate coral
toadstool
colt coral
blue button polyps
pulsing xenia
assorted shrooms

 

[Will C1]

place a sponge on the inlet of the over flow box, the part that the fleix hose atatches too. this will trap the food before it can enter the sump just clean it after feeding. dident one come with the u tube kit?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, not being familiar with how long you've been set up I'm kind of shooting in the dark, here. But, what I'm thinking is that the 'fuge may be a bit undersized. I'm assuming you have a good, deep sand bed, either in the tank or in the 'fuge, and it'll take several weeks before you've got a good culture of the denitriying bacteria.

You may also have a wee bit of a high fishload, but it appears it's not terribly so.

Now, if the problem was rotting food, the logical conclusion would be that you would FIRST get the ammonia/nitrite spikes, but you haven't mentioned that. This causes me to wonder, then, if you might not also have nitrates in your source water. I suggest testing it as well.

I'm sorry I can't help you more, as a former gf I know full well how difficult we can be! :lol:

 

[attempt]

my tank has been operational since july 02
the fuge is a hangon CPR aquafuge, it is the 19" model which is actually rated for larger tanks. as far as my sand bed, in the main tank its approx 3.5 " and in the fuge its over 4"
in the sump itself there is nothing but a few pieces of base rock that i have my flex tube tied to with plastic wire ties
I do have a sponge in my overflow box but the water manages to eventully come up over the top of it and down the tube
what i think i need to do is cut some slits in the tube that is in the overflow so that the water goes directly though the sponge into the slits rather than over the top.
like i said though, i had not had any problems with my nitrates before adding the extras.
also i buy my water premixed at the LFS. it is RO/DI with instant ocean mixed at 1.024 SG

 

[Will C1]

test their water just to be sure...the sponge should be cleaned before it goes over it. i clean mine daily and some times twice.

 

[Anonymous]

i shut my return pumps, and wait for the tank to stop draining into the sump-before i feed

just don't forget to turn the pump back on when you're done :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

and: the water should not be bypassing the sponge-it may be clogged

if you cut slits in it, may as well remove it :wink:

i think that cleaning it once or twice a week should be enough to keep it unblocked, and relatively non-nitrate producing :wink:

 

[Leopardshark]

I think youhave a pretty big bioload for a 29 gal tank.
You have 5 fish in a 29, which equals if I had 50 in my 300 gal tank, I think it is too much and I only have about 13 fish in my tank.
I reallydon´t think it is the ref or other equipment, I think it was a coincidence that you bought the skimmer and the trates level went up.
I would stay with 2 fish and keep the corals.
And be sure to tune your skimmer so it´s working ok.
Marco

 

[attempt]

well i have had these fish in here since august and i have never had a problem with nitrates until now.
as far as the skimmer, there are no adjustments to be made to it. plug it in and go.

 

[Anonymous]

my guess is your getting a rise in bioactivity, due to the increased water quality, and O2 saturation from the skimmer, leading to a higher, though probably temporay, NO3 level.

it should fall back in a month or two, as more denitrifying bacteria grow in your rock, and sb, to compensate :wink: