Money can't buy you water quality

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Yazoo1970

Medium Fish
#1
Apr 29, 2005
63
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#1
Well i finally got my algae problem under control thanks for everyones help phosphates after about 4 treatments i am about 0 now and algae is gone even with heavy sunlight in the morning. Now i am having a little problem with nitrites there at abou 0.2 and amonia is at 0.2 and holding i have a 55 gallon tank with an emporer 300 bio filter, UV Sterilizer, Protein Skimmer, 3 power jets various sizes in the tank i have about 70 pounds of live rock 60 pounds of live sand 3 yellow tangs, 5 Misc damsals, 20 assorted hermits, 20 assorted snails, and a scooter blenie the tank has been running for about 6 months and i have learned that no matter how much money i spend the tank does not seem to care. Unfortunatly my LFS is about as helpful as tits on a boarhog and every time i go in there i just end up spending another 200 dollars. So will the nitrites and amonia come down on it's own or do i need more LR or filtration by the way nitrates are zero thanks for your help
 

Y

Yazoo1970

Medium Fish
#3
Apr 29, 2005
63
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#3
Just so everyone knows i realize the tangs will get to big however i am having a game room finished in my house and have purchased a 300 gallon tank that i plan to take saltwater so i can move them at a later time when they get to big they are small now about 2 inches but i was hoping to learn with this 55 gallon so when i put the big tank together it is not as difficult i hope i hope i hope
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#4
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#4
did you just add more LR to your tank? it sounds like you are still experiencing some sort of cycle...it could also be from something dying off

money can't buy you good water quality, but it can get you pretty dang close
 

Y

Yazoo1970

Medium Fish
#5
Apr 29, 2005
63
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#5
I have not added anything to the tank in about 3 months and it has been reading the same for about 3 months my LFS tells me not to worry that it is not high enough but after reading in here and books i see that it is possible to read 0
 

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Yazoo1970

Medium Fish
#10
Apr 29, 2005
63
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#10
I was under the impression from what i have read that filter media did not matter a whole lot when you have as much live rock and live sand in a tank as i have is this true. I have the standard cylinder style media in my filter and the bio wheels
 

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jammerz

Large Fish
#11
Feb 28, 2005
308
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45
Boise
#11
if you have that much LR and LS, you should ditch the emperor filter and bio wheels. After i ditched my canister filter and got a good skimmer my nitrates zeroed out.( i know you said yers were already at zero, but i bet it would help with nitrites/ammonia).
 

KahluaZzZ

KahluaZzZ

Superstar Fish
#13
Jun 12, 2004
2,778
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Montreal, Quebec
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#13
i you wanna reduce your ammonia/nitrites quickly ( and chemically ) without harming your inhabitants , you could try the bio-marine polyfilter pads and stick it in your hob filter.
Purigen also helps and last longer but is a little less efficient.
 

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wayne

Elite Fish
#14
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
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#14
I would check your test kits. Nitrite isn't toxic in saltwater, but if there really is ammonia that's a wee problem. I would also relax and not do anything unless the fish are obviously suffering, I tihnk you need to let the tank settle down a bit. Just try tweaking your skimmer so you're constantly getting some nice black skimmate out
 

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supahtim

Large Fish
#15
Jun 30, 2003
244
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Toronto
#15
too many fish. you shouldn't even have one tang in a 55. and your damsels are going to start harassing everything big time. usually people only have one damsel, and they still have enough trouble with that many.

take out the bio-wheel and cartridges in your filter.

and your live rock and sand bed are probably dead by now due to the fact that you're running a UV sterilizer. but don't worry, you can re-seed everything just by adding live sand from somebody else's tank.

what kind of protein skimmer do you have?

what kind of water are you using? tap water or RO?
 

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derajer

Large Fish
#16
Mar 16, 2005
136
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40
Ankeny, Iowa
#16
I noticed that you have a UV sterilizer, I'm not sure how exactly that works in Saltwater but in freshwater a UV sterilizer will often kill all of the bacteria that grow on the surfaces in the tank.
 

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Yazoo1970

Medium Fish
#17
Apr 29, 2005
63
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#17
Since i have installed the uv sterilizer my live rock as actually blossomed it is covered with purple and lots of growth so i am not sure why the uv sterilizer is bad but is seems to have helped my tank. I put all of the damsals and tangs in at the same time and they are not aggresive towards each other i think with all of the live rock they all have plenty of territory to claim for their home and i don't have any problems. I don't know how to tell if the live sand is still alive however
 

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wayne

Elite Fish
#18
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
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#18
A UV will not kill the bacteria on surfaces in your tank. It will kill things that get washed into it. It's powers do not extend out of the unit itself. Typically if you don't clean the things pretty frequently and change the bulb every six months or so they don't kill anything anyway.
 

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wayne

Elite Fish
#20
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
3
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#20
The presence or non presence of a UV is pretty much irrelevant to cycling.

I would like to hear why it's a big time no-no. It's not going to do anything to bacteria that aren't in the water column (and your filter bacteria aren't).
 

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