Any Suggestions re: high nitrates

[bronxer]

I have a 55 gallon tank with a few fish (2 engineer gobies, a large yellow tang, brittle star, small lobster), live rock, some soft coral, and a refugium with plants that has lights at night.

I feed them twice a day - very little in the a.m (Hikari Marine A pellets) and frozen food in the evening.My lighting is compact fluorescents, and my protein skimmer is a Sea Clone 100.

I've always had high nitrates, so I built the refugium, but that didn't help. I then added more live rock and took out the bio-balls, but that hasn't helped either. My test kit only goes up to 100, and the level is at least that.

Any suggestions?

 

[LeslieS]

How often do you do water changes and how much?

 

[Craig]

Can you provide more details on your setup?

Definately reccomend ditching the seaclone and getting a more powerful skimmer.

 

[bronxer]

I do not perform water changes very often - the last one was 5 gallons and it was 2 weeks ago - I am afraid that I will lose tons of microorganisms if I do frequent water changes. The prior water change was 3 months ago - 20 gallons. Directly after the change I tested the nitrates and it was still above 100.

 

[bronxer]

Craig, I'm not sure what more details you need. As for ditching the SeaClone, what do you recommend?

 

[DevIouS]

Defintely need more water changes than that...dude.

Seaclone is pretty much useless.
You need to upgrade skimmers. Brand will depend on your space issues.


What kind of substrate do you have?

 

[jhale]

more water changes for sure!

don't worry you won't loose anything in the water column.
the bacteria you need lives in the rock and sand.

do a few large 50% changes to get a handle on the nitrates, then keep up with smaller changes.

 

[yeahcheetah]

Definitely more frequent water change. Twice a week, start with a 50% one.
Get a Remora, someone is selling it right now for $100. Or more expensive ones. Make sure you see those nasty skimmates.

 

[SaltWaterN00b]

Nitrex will help, Someone recommended it to me a year ago and I have never stopped using it, nitrates are minimal and i feed like crazy. I also dont do water changes as much as i should....

 

[charile1]

Also get rid of the wet dry.

This guy is selling a remora skimmer and a rodi if you do not have one.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/sale-trade/29010-fs-45g-tank-set-up.html

 

[DevIouS]

Nitrex will help, Someone recommended it to me a year ago and I have never stopped using it, nitrates are minimal and i feed like crazy. I also dont do water changes as much as i should....

Can you post a pic of your tank?

 

[jackson6745]

Any suggestions?

2 choices.

1) Keep up with the "band-aids" such as frequent water changes, carbon changes, phosban media in a reactor. Reduce your feeding drastically! I would cut down to 3 times per week, once per day. Your water quality is more likely to kill your livestock rather than shortage of food

2)Tear down you reef and start over, better.

I know that this seems extreme but your tanks filtration system or "nutrient export" system is a complete failure. You need a better way to remove the wastes from your tank. A filtration system needs to be pretty efficient to remove all the food + crap that backs up in our glass boxes. There are MANY ways to do this. I would start by looking at tanks that you admire.

 

[bronxer]

I have the wet/dry under my tank with a return pump in the wet/dry. That doesn't leave all that much space. Available space is: 9" x 6" with a height of max 20". Any suggestions. Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[bronxer]

I think I can make more space in the wet/dry by moving the return pump to a different location in the wet/dry. That makes the space 9"x9" with a max height of 20".

 

[DevIouS]

Take out the wet/dry & put in a sump.


First on the list though.....do a water change!


Also:

What kind of substrate do you have?

 

[Awibrandy]

Are you using the wet/dry as a wet/dry(bioballs), or as a sump(no bioballs)? If you still have the bioballs in it you need to do 1 of 2 things. Rinse out the bioballs weekly in aquarium water in a bucket, or get rid of them(hence turning the wet/dry into a sump).

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You have to remove the bio balls a little at a time not all at once. And yes do a water change and get a skimmer in there.Get any sponges out of the wet dry too and you will have a sump then you can do a few things, leave it as a sump only or make is a fuge by adding some sand and some macro algae and a light.

 

[DevIouS]

I then added more live rock and took out the bio-balls, but that hasn't helped either.

 

[bronxer]

I do not have any bio balls in my wet/dry. I took them out in 3 steps over 6 months ago. I"ll be sending pix of my tank asap.

 

[bronxer]

That was my wet/dry that I converted to a sump.

And that's my tank (my daughter dumped in snails from the beach - haven't cleaned the glass lately to help feed the them) as well as my refugium