What should I do?

[petcrazy213]

I have been battleing High Nitrates lately (for the past couple months). I have looked in the tank for an obvious sign, dead fish or something but everyone is accounted for except for the occasional snail. Anyway, I have done numberous water changes ... sometimes even several per week but while the nitrates go down a bit after the initial change they always jump back up. Now when I talk about high I'm getting readings around 160 ... almost out of measurable range. However the fish don't seem terribly bothered by this ... are they just good at hiding how they really feel?

Anyway, I was reading the other post below about high nitrates and am planning on removing the crushed coral from the top of my sand bed and adding some more sand. Here are my other concerns about doing this ...

1) I know I have a lot of pods swimming around in my tank (which my scooter blennies LOVE) and I was wondering if taking out the crushed coral will effect the pods as I know they like to hide out amungst the coral now. If it won't effect them then what would be a good way of taking out the crushed coral without capturing tons of pods in the process? I was thinking of using a net but I know it will also get the pods how do I keep them fron getting scooped and tossed?

2) Once I remove the coral I will be needing to add somemore sand ... what would be best? (playsand or Live Sand from the store) Any recommendations as to how to safely add the extra sand without disturbing too much or should I just plan on completely breaking down the tank and putting the LR and fish in a plastic tub for a day (with an airstone) while I redo the substrate and let it resettle?

Ok, I think that's it for now. Thanks guys!

[Guy W]

I think removing the CC will probably disturb the pod population a little, but I think it will bounce back fairly quickly. Probably within a months time.

As for what type. I lot of people use playsand from home depot, aragonite playside if you can find it. Southdown or New Kastle are 2 types. But regular playsand should be fine. I however don't like the stuff myself, and wouldn't use it for reasons more related to vainity than functionality, unfounded reasons none the less so use whatever you like.

as for how to add it. I would take out 25% of your water as if you were doing a water change, and slowly pour the sand in. I pulled out my live rock and put it in a bucket when I added more to my tank, but that probably isn't necessary... however I wanted to rearrange my rock at the time.

And as for how to take the CC out. You'll probably have to pull out any rock to do that anyway. But I'd just get a small plastic (CLEAN) bucket, and scoop it up. It's going to be a pain in the a$$ I would think, but doable. Do invest in some arm length gloves, no sense in risking injury or sickness if your going to spend that much time in your tank.

Guy

[petcrazy213]

Thanks guy,

do you know where a good place to get arm length gloves would be?

[OldVamp]

I'd say you could find them at the grocery or drug store with the cleaning supplies.

[mogurnda]

Although my NO3 never got that high, I did notice that my live rock didn't start to do a decent job of reducing it for about 6 months. Then a slow, gradual decline to near 0.

You might think about an in-tank (or external) refugium with macroalgae. Also, make sure the skimmer is working optimally. Finally, keep a close eye on your feeding. Food is the major source of NO3 and phosphate.

One thing I would also suggest is getting some good live sand (not the bagged stuff at the LFS) to put on top of the playsand. The florida stuff I got from TBS is fairly coarse, and the 'pods, bristleworms and microstars love it.

[petcrazy213]

Thanks for the advice!

I don't yet have a skimmer, actually considering now getting one. Have been looking on ebay and will also check with the LFS. Any suggestions as to good brands. I was looking at a Visi-Jet-PS Protein Skimmer ... is this a good model for a 40 L tank?

I was also thinking about the crushed coral in my tank. It's not the only substrate as I started out with about 30-35 lbs of playsand when I set up my tank 8 months ago. The crushed coral was something I put in to make the tank look nicer as it looked more ocean-ish than the sand. (which I felt was too dark) Anyways, since there is only a thin layeron top of the sand that I already have do you think it would be ok to just mix it into the substrate and add more sand and mix somemore? I thought that if I do that my coepods will be somewhat ok and it would cut out a bit of the labor involved, at least the removal of the coral part. Does this idea sound like it would work or would it cause any problems?

Thanks again all! I'm really not trying to be difficult, just want to get those dang nitrates down!