nitrates...

twistedimage92

twistedimage92

Large Fish
#1
Aug 23, 2005
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Cocoa Beach
www.tiecc.net
#1
i have been reading a lot about how to lower your nitrates, but, i have many perdicaments:

1: no room for refrigerium
2: my protine skimmer doesnt skim very much, although the bubbles are spinning around. is there a way to make more air go in there? i guess the bubbles are not getting high enough maybe.
3:bio balls: how many should i have? what do they even do? i have like 1.5 or 2 gal worth of them.



also, nitrates are formed from fish waste and over feeding. what is the brown on bottom of the sump from? should i suck that stuff out? could that be my whole problem?
 

M

Mushroomman

MFT Staff
#2
Jan 16, 2004
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Syracuse, NY
#2
How old is the tank? usually there is a cycle in young tanks where your parameters will rise and fall.

Your protein skimmer should have an adjustment somewhere on it, what kind is it?

Bio balls on the contrary actually become nitrate traps over time.

Brown on the bottom of the sump could be diatoms, common in newer tanks and tanks without purified water. You could clean it off but it shouldnt be causing your nitrate problem.

The best way honestly is weekly water changes and when you feed the fish, feed them light, maybe even every other day depending on what you have. Most fish can handle less feedings, they find things to eat in the tank.
 

Last edited:
KahluaZzZ

KahluaZzZ

Superstar Fish
#4
Jun 12, 2004
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Montreal, Quebec
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#4
no take 'em out slow..10% each day like..don't wanna shock your system 2 fast.
If you're thinking about a sponge..then take the bio-marine polyfilter pad..the other...well i don't think they might do much except entrap nutrients and bottom line you'll have nitrates.
Wet/dry is a excellent nitrate factory. I mean this is the purpose...ok you'll have a superb ammonia/nitrite filter but..again..nitrate. Ok for hardy fishies that crap a lot with no corals but nothing really that will help you get nitrogen at the end.
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#6
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
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NE Indiana
#6
You haven't mentioned whether you have any live rock or live sand????? these will replace the biological filtration your bioballs are supplying.......
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#8
Feb 20, 2005
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ft. lauderdale
#8
so im confused are we talking about the 46 or the 80?? what have you had in the tank stocking wise the past year? how often do u do water changes?? btw a combination of crushed coral + bioballs usually = high nitrates ;)
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#10
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
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ft. lauderdale
#10
one thing i can say is that puffers are very messy fish and as long as i had my porcupine puffer i could never seem to keep my nitrates in check... btw how often do you changes yur water??
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#12
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
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NE Indiana
#12
well I would suggest that you remove the bioballs gradually and replace your skimmer with a higher quality one, then do more frequent water changes and possibly convert that wet/dry into a sump refugeium.....and put some cheato macro algae into it to help reduce nitrates and phosphates even further.
 

T

TheFool

Large Fish
#13
Apr 19, 2006
323
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#13
Live rock is not especially good at reducing nitrate, so if you want to get nitrates down you need to create them slower or get rid of them faster. I'd turn the wetdry into an algae sump.
 

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