Very High nitrates please help
- Thread starter kissman
- Start date
FOWLR, 55g, 60lbs of liive rock, one clarkii clown and a carpet anemone, 2 powerheads in tank, a turbofloater 1000 skimmer in sump, with a mag drive 5 return pump, and a tetratec 500 for more circulation in tank, a 110w pc flourecent light, and a 3 month old 20g long tank made into a refugium with alot calupra, 4-5 inch deep sand bed in refugium. let me know if there is anything else you wanna know that will help
KM, a few more Q's:
1. Have you verified the readings with another kit or LFS kit?
2. Do you have any substrate in the display, if so please decribe.
3. How long has system been running?
4. How long have you had the carpet?
1. Have you verified the readings with another kit or LFS kit?
2. Do you have any substrate in the display, if so please decribe.
3. How long has system been running?
4. How long have you had the carpet?
the substrate is about 1 inch thick fine and coarse mix, teh carpet anemone is about 3 1/2 years along with clarkii clown, the system has been up and running about 5 years, yes i have verified the readings. if you are on the forum reeftank.com there is a pic on there of my tank
kissman said:
Maybe you should disasemble the whole thing and get a fresh start? But that is gonna suck, alot of work too. Or get a different nitrate test kit like the other poster said.
KM, I think you are on the right track with the refugium/DSB but you may need some serious water changes to help it out, and even then, a 20 gal fuge may be too small to impact those nitrates in a serious way. Most of these fuges I have seen are actually only utilizing a small portion of their volume. So what is being thought of as a 20 gal fuge can be more like a 10 gal. You may need a larger algae filter here; a big spnning ball of chaetomorpha in an oversized sump comes to mind, reversed photo period, etc. Calfo has an article somewhere online with pics.
Considering the time you've had the carpet, you must be doing something right... how big is that carpet, I know they can exceed three feet in the wild. Nitrates that high usually go hand in hand with other problems... I would be equally/perhaps more concerned with the PH/alkaline reserve here. What negative effects are you seeing on the animals?
Considering the time you've had the carpet, you must be doing something right... how big is that carpet, I know they can exceed three feet in the wild. Nitrates that high usually go hand in hand with other problems... I would be equally/perhaps more concerned with the PH/alkaline reserve here. What negative effects are you seeing on the animals?
the carpet anemone used to be about 8 inch wide, but know it is more like, I am changing 15 gallons tonight, got the water mix setup last night just letting it sit for 24 hours. Should I increase the sand bed to a DSb in the tank. Its only abou1-1 1/2 inches now?
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Just my opinion here, but I would be vary cautious about disturbing that old substrate, could be disastrous. You could (over a period of months) slowly replace it with new arogonite. Do this in small sections, no more than 1/5 at a time, and make sure you vacuum/remove the sand out of the system (do not stir it). This chore can be combined with a water change and vacuum of the live rock to remove detritus. You can also order some fresh live detritivores which will start sifting/cleaning it for you. As I have said before; substrates can either make or break your system, proceed with caution and seek other opinions. Carpets are a shame to lose; you may want to move it asap to a better environment while you sort this out... you will likely be saving its life. Did you check the PH?
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