Some background. Started the hobby with a 72 gallon tank with 75 pounds of live sand and maybe 35 pounds of live rock. Some of the sand and all the rock, along with about 35 gallons of water were from a buddies tank. He needed to tear his down for a move, and needed somewhere to place his pair of eels and his big volitan lion. I adopted them and they have been healthy and fine since. Now, 2 weeks ago I did my first water change due to the nitrates creeping up to about 40PPM. It was about 50%. Now in the last two weeks my ammonia has gone down to 0 as has have the nitrites but the nitrates have skyrocketed to somewhere between 80-160 PPM, I can't tell the difference in the shade of red. In addition, I picked up about 80 pounds of (dead) live rock and maybe 90 pounds of sand 2 weeks ago and have been letting them cycle in a seperate 80 gallon I have. That tank is now at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites with nitrates at 40PPM. So, I potentially have 165 pounds of live sand now and a 80 pounds of live rock to put into the 72 gallon. Being water changes are quite expensive to be doing 50+ percent every week or so, could I keep the nitrate levels down by dumping a lot of sand into the tank and making a DSB? Are there any disadvantages to a DSB? My sump also has bio balls, I've been reaidng a lot of conflicing info on them. What should I do about them? Get rid of them? Thanks...
Nitrate problem, DSB.
- Thread starter FLYNLOW
- Start date
you need to do alot of water changes to get your ammonia and nitrates down. you have a huge bio load. you dont have to do 50% water change. Try to do 15% every week. do the 50% until your nitrates come down then go to the 15%. what kind of filter do you have?
Yeah, the nitrate probably has more to do with having 3 large, dirty fish in a 72 gallon tank than the bioballs.
Sorry to pop in,
What makes high nitrate? Okay, maybe uneaten food, fishes waste are the cause of high nitrate.
Can a powerful protein help? My tank is 80 gallon with 9 fishes (7 about 4" and 2 about 2" ) I know is alot of fish but will plan to upgrade to a larger tank later. Critisise me later. But base on my existing setup with rocks on tank and lots of CC in the sump, the actual water volume is about 50 gallons. Presently my skimmer capacity is 500 liters. Do you think,base on this load, need a bigger capacity skimmer? If yes, what capacity?
Thanks once again for the help.
What makes high nitrate? Okay, maybe uneaten food, fishes waste are the cause of high nitrate.
Can a powerful protein help? My tank is 80 gallon with 9 fishes (7 about 4" and 2 about 2" ) I know is alot of fish but will plan to upgrade to a larger tank later. Critisise me later. But base on my existing setup with rocks on tank and lots of CC in the sump, the actual water volume is about 50 gallons. Presently my skimmer capacity is 500 liters. Do you think,base on this load, need a bigger capacity skimmer? If yes, what capacity?
Thanks once again for the help.
bemyself
Along with the waste from uneaten food there will be a great deal of waste added to your tank from your fishes metabolism. What goes in must come out and in s.w. fish and inverts that ,"other than the obvious of course", is ammonia . The well obvious will also eventually become ammonia one way or another. The friendly bacteria in your tank," do you have l.r. or a dsb?" will convert ammonia into atmospheric nitrogen .
There is a limit to what a skimmer can do it removes protiens from the water mostly. Your fish produce quite a few wastes that your skimmer won't be able to remove from the water. If you increase the size it will help but, there is a limit to what it can do. I don't know what kind of fish you have or how much l.r. that will also have a bearing on the equation. You're going to have to do frequent large water changes until you correct the housing situation.
hth
Along with the waste from uneaten food there will be a great deal of waste added to your tank from your fishes metabolism. What goes in must come out and in s.w. fish and inverts that ,"other than the obvious of course", is ammonia . The well obvious will also eventually become ammonia one way or another. The friendly bacteria in your tank," do you have l.r. or a dsb?" will convert ammonia into atmospheric nitrogen .
There is a limit to what a skimmer can do it removes protiens from the water mostly. Your fish produce quite a few wastes that your skimmer won't be able to remove from the water. If you increase the size it will help but, there is a limit to what it can do. I don't know what kind of fish you have or how much l.r. that will also have a bearing on the equation. You're going to have to do frequent large water changes until you correct the housing situation.
hth
Maxilaria,
Thanks for your advice. I do have live rocks ( i think it should be live cos it's been in my tank for 2 years) and a 3" sand bed on the main tank.
My fishes are : 1. Blue Tang -- 4"
2. Yellow Tang -- 4"
3. sohal Tang --- 4"
4. Naso Tang ---4"
5. Emperor Angel --- 4"
6. Asfur angel --- 4"
7. Blue face angel --- 4"
8. Bi color --- 2"
9. Beauty coral ---2"
I know it's overloaded and are planning a bigger tank soon. But all this fishes are with me for the past 2 years and without problem. I only found a recent surge in Nitrate lately and I'm suspecting my CC in the sump as it might have accumulated high debris in the past 2 years and now the beneficial bacteria are not able to contain it. This is just my thought and I'll intent to clean my CC this weekend and see if situation improves. After this clean up, I might think of getting a bigger capacity skimmer. Can you please let me have your thoughts on this.
Thanks for your advice. I do have live rocks ( i think it should be live cos it's been in my tank for 2 years) and a 3" sand bed on the main tank.
My fishes are : 1. Blue Tang -- 4"
2. Yellow Tang -- 4"
3. sohal Tang --- 4"
4. Naso Tang ---4"
5. Emperor Angel --- 4"
6. Asfur angel --- 4"
7. Blue face angel --- 4"
8. Bi color --- 2"
9. Beauty coral ---2"
I know it's overloaded and are planning a bigger tank soon. But all this fishes are with me for the past 2 years and without problem. I only found a recent surge in Nitrate lately and I'm suspecting my CC in the sump as it might have accumulated high debris in the past 2 years and now the beneficial bacteria are not able to contain it. This is just my thought and I'll intent to clean my CC this weekend and see if situation improves. After this clean up, I might think of getting a bigger capacity skimmer. Can you please let me have your thoughts on this.