Serious help needed.

[samksy]

My tank is going downhill. Everything is low except nirate ~40. Tried everything to fix nitrate level, but still no luck. I cut down on feeding so much, put on a MR2 skimmer. Did water changes constantly, nirate don't seem to drop at all. Thought it was the test kit. I tested on fresh mix saltwater, nitrate is 0 and tested my tank water, it's ~40. Most of my stuff is soft coral and lps. The corals, shrimps, snail, and etc is still alive. I lost two sps and my blue hippo is getting ich. What would be the reason that cause the nitrate to stay so high, I have realize the problem for more than 3 weeks and been trying to fix the problem with a bigger skimmer (MR2) but don't see any improvement at all. Anyone could offer me some adivce, thanks in advance.

 

[Josh]

Any recent deaths in the tank?

What kind of sandbed do you have?

What water changes are you doing?

 

[samksy]

15-20 gallon water changes for 3 times last week, so far i haven't lost a fish or invertibrate. Just lost two, three sps. Everything looking fine except that i see my blue hippo got ick and one of my candycane is dying.

I have a 3 inche sandbed in my display tank. First i thought it was my refugium and fuge, they were sort of dirty, so i removed both of them and add a bigger skimmer, it's been a week already, but didn't see any improvement.

 

[jhale]

how old is the tank?

if nothing has died, my best guess is there is a bunch of stuff the sand bed is not breaking down.

more water changes would not hurt, at this point the only way to get rid of the nitrates seems to be by diluting them.

have you tried one of the nitrate absorbing media's?
I know sea-chem makes some. they may be a good patch until you figure out what the source is.

 

[alrha]

Would you try this:
http://marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=CP2151

 

[samksy]

jhale,

The tank is ~1.1 years old, never had such problem. Does the nitrate absorbing media had any negative effects? I guess i'll keep up with the water changes and try to dilute the nitrate and do some research on nitrate media absorber. Thanks

 

[alrha]

they should not have any bad side effects.

but the main thing should be to try to figure out what led to the spike.
try growing some macro alage in your fuge to suck it up as well.

 

[spykes]

sam, you can build a coil denitrator. if you like i can build it after the skimmers and stuff we are suppose to build. the denitrator will bring your No3 to 5PPm or lower.

 

[Josh]

Kent Nitrate Sponge is good, you just dump it in a media bag and stick it in your sump.

On that note, why did you remove the sump?

Also, what is your temp and SG at?

 

[samksy]

they should not have any bad side effects.

but the main thing should be to try to figure out what led to the spike.
try growing some macro alage in your fuge to suck it up as well.

I have a separate refugium for macro, but seems didn't help much and i see lots of detrius that had settle down there so i took it off and replumb everything. I have no idea what cost the spike, i'll do some more water change and see. Hope it's gonna drop soon.

 

[samksy]

sam, you can build a coil denitrator. if you like i can build it after the skimmers and stuff we are suppose to build. the denitrator will bring your No3 to 5PPm or lower.

Thanks man, i'll see if i can fix the problem without adding more equipment into the system. Reefing is costly

 

[alrha]

I have a separate refugium for macro, but seems didn't help much.

was it growing a lot? you should be able to remove a nice amount every week or so, and that would be effectivly removing nutrients from the system.

 

[samksy]

Kent Nitrate Sponge is good, you just dump it in a media bag and stick it in your sump.

On that note, why did you remove the sump?

Also, what is your temp and SG at?

I see there's tons of built up in the sump and refugium so i removed, and took out the sump and replace kasie's sump and MR2. Everything had to be replumb. I use to have sand in sump which accumulate a lots of detrius, now there's nothing. The regufium part is gone as well. I thought that's part of the problem but......it's not

Temperature wise is a little high ~85. I couldn't afford for a chiller and that's how i past last summer. I have fan blowing at the water in display tank and in sump hoping i can cool it off a little.

I'll head over to the LFS to check out nitrate reducer and see what i can afford, hopefully they won't charge me an arm and a leg.

 

[samksy]

was it growing a lot? you should be able to remove a nice amount every week or so, and that would be effectivly removing nutrients from the system.

It grow pretty slow, but i do see more, i hardly had to prune them. I got some of those from you. and i see lots of stuff grown on them, little shrimp, pods, starts, worms and stuff. Now it's totally disconnect from my main system, because i thought it was part of the problem and i had to replumb it to fit Kasie MR2 skimmer.

 

[alrha]

Temperature wise is a little high ~85. I couldn't afford for a chiller and that's how i past last summer. I have fan blowing at the water in display tank and in sump hoping i can cool it off a little.

for the summer try running your lights overnight when its cooler.
get ur fuge back up, it will help.

 

[alrha]

It grow pretty slow, but i do see more, i hardly had to prune them. I got some of those from you.

mine grow real fast. are they getting enough light? keep them thinned out.

 

[samksy]

Temperature wise is a little high ~85. I couldn't afford for a chiller and that's how i past last summer. I have fan blowing at the water in display tank and in sump hoping i can cool it off a little.

for the summer try running your lights overnight when its cooler.
get ur fuge back up, it will help.

I got no more space to plumb the refugium back, the space is stolen by the MR2, but i'lll definetly switch the light to overnight. I have VHO'S and metal halide, and at this time i only run the VHO'S. The skimmer pump and return pump heats up the tank by at least 3-4 degrees, which i have to run, or else they'll be off.

 

[alrha]

do you have an air conditioner in that room?

i run my lights overnight (7pm-9am) and it makes a big difference. the lights may heat the water by say 3-4 degrees, but the room temp will probably be that much cooler, so it helps to balance it out.

are you going to never have a fuge again?

 

[jackson6745]

Sam, 85 is VERY high. You're on border line death to the tank. You may have a lot of die off from the high temp causing your buildup of Nitrates. Freeze a 2liter bottle of soda (filled with water) and drop it in the sump or tank in the afternoon, as well as a fan on the sump and canopy.......put fans all over

The MR2 is a tricky skimmer to use. How much skimmate per day are you getting from it? Dry or wet foam? Do you have a pic of it skimming?

 

[samksy]

do you have an air conditioner in that room?

i run my lights overnight (7pm-9am) and it makes a big difference. the lights may heat the water by say 3-4 degrees, but the room temp will probably be that much cooler, so it helps to balance it out.

are you going to never have a fuge again?

Nope, no AC in that room. The living would required a big AC and with it on, the circuit is most like to jump, other than that, i would also have to convince my brother to install the AC. So didn't install one yet. I probably won't connect the fuge back to the sump, unless i can find a space to put it, which i don't have right now. The fuge is running by itself right now with two tiny cleaner shrimp in it that's gonna go into the display tank once they get bigger .