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Post by lindsey1984 on Mar 3, 2013 8:46:11 GMT -5
Sooo I'm still battling my nitrate issue. Grrr anyways, I bought some carbon last night and I'm gonna put some in the sump but I don't know what else to do. I've been doing weekly water changes but I've done one every couple days this week, I Turkey baster the rocks off when I do a water change. I've added am quel, pretty much the only thing I haven't done is add sugar or vodka. I'm getting frusterated as I've been battling the nitrates since I got the tank. I was told I should try doing a 50 percent water change but if I do that there won't be enough water in the tank to cover the live rock and the coral. IDK at this point and I'm just getting stressed. Please give me ideas cause I'm running out of them
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Post by Cowdogz on Mar 3, 2013 9:44:03 GMT -5
Two 25% water changes are the same as a 44% water change. Three 25% water changes are the same as a 58% water change.
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Post by jess on Mar 3, 2013 10:11:48 GMT -5
It won't hurt your rock or anything to be exposed while you do a water change. You have a skimmer? Have you cut back feeding? Your using ro water? I use tap water , (horrible I know) which is where my nitrates come from but they aren't as high as yours. Do you have chaeto in your fuge? Most algae helps keep nitrates in check.
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Post by lindsey1984 on Mar 3, 2013 10:36:39 GMT -5
I do have a skimmer that's built into my sump system. It's a rapids pro. I do use RODI water to do water changes and I've tested the water before adding just to make sure but thats fine. I have some algae that rob gave me and its in my tank right now, not really sure what kind,. He's told me but I always forget, it looks like little pieces of seaweed.
I'm gonna try to do a 20 gal water change tonight when my holding tank fills to where it needs to be but I only have two buckets right now so im gonna have to do 10 gal out, 10gal new water in... then 10 more gal out again then ten more of the new water in.
Does anyone know of the sugar and vodka tricks? Do they work?
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Post by jess on Mar 3, 2013 10:47:29 GMT -5
Do you have it skimming on the higher side? I would blast your rocks then immediately do the biggest water change (not over 50%) before all that settles again. Skim high, if you just added carbon then should see some improvement in a few days. After your water change dose amquel, limit feedings to twice a week, don't over feed!! Poly filters work good, avoid stirring up your sand bed and moving rock work.
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Post by lindsey1984 on Mar 3, 2013 10:50:18 GMT -5
What is a polyfilter? I believe my skimmer is on high, the intake gate is all the way up. Thanks so much Jess, you're always so quick to respond and very helpful. I appreciate it!
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Post by jess on Mar 3, 2013 10:52:34 GMT -5
If I'm understanding it right, you have one 10 bucket for ro water and one to fill for water change? I would drain 20glns, add your 10 of ro and add the other 10 when it fills again, rather than doing 10 now and 10 later, that way all the stuff you blasted up doesn't have time to settle again. Get as much out as you can at once.
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Post by Cowdogz on Mar 3, 2013 10:52:57 GMT -5
I've used vodka. It can work well, but you will still be addressing symptoms rather than the actual problem. Start here: reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.phpI had a nitrate sink that I treated successfully with vodka for months. Then I wasn't happy with the little bit of algae I still had, and tried increasing the vodka dose. Big mistake. Wound up with a whole new weird bunch of algae. Too much carbon can cause you another set of headaches. |
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Post by jess on Mar 3, 2013 10:57:14 GMT -5
Polyfilter is good at removing the tiny micro stuff from the water column and toxins like ammonia. I got a big sheet from eBay for $8.
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Post by lindsey1984 on Mar 3, 2013 11:40:06 GMT -5
I have two 5 gal buckets so I COULD take two buckets worth out, dump them, then take 10 more gal out so all together 20 gal would be out. Then i can take those two buckets, mix the salt in and put those into the tank, then fill the empty buckets back up with 10 more gal then put that in. All together that would be 20 gal and I could suck out the crap as fast as possible.
Christian, what is puragen? I do have a dsb, its prob 4 or 5 inches. The grain is pretty big however there are nitrogen bubbles in the sand bed.
I went to petco last night and asked about a polyfilter and she didnt know what I was talking about and I didnt know enough to explain it.
I did just change my filter today as well and added the carbon. The filter hasnt been changed since I got the sump and it was a used system so maybe that'll help too?
Thanks Cowdogz, ill look into that
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Post by jess on Mar 3, 2013 12:05:25 GMT -5
www.reefgeek.com/filtration/filter-media/poly-filter.htmlIf you have eBay tho would definitely get it from there versus in store. When your mixing up your new salt water make sure it's dissolved pretty well, also freshly mixed salt water is going to read lower on your refractometer, and get higher as it dissolves. You want to be careful adding freshly mixed salt water as the salt can burn corals (I'm guilty of fresh mixing every time :/) Sent from my SCH-I535 using ProBoards
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Post by Cowdogz on Mar 3, 2013 13:27:16 GMT -5
What exact substrate are you using?
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Post by lindsey1984 on Mar 3, 2013 14:05:33 GMT -5
Substrate? You mean salt? If thats what you mean I use instant ocean
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Post by Jordan Emery on Mar 3, 2013 14:28:40 GMT -5
I have been dosing vodka/vinegar for a while now. I have it all set up on dosing pumps and hooked to my apex... works tremendously great... nitrates were at 5ppm for a while but then dropped down to 0 and have stayed there. I have quite a large list of livestock and have not had any issues!!!!!!!! I also have a deep sand bed and a bunch of LR... The amount of vodka and vinegar i dose is quite minimal - doesn't take much at all! i think i am at 0.045ml/gallon of water per day... so it is not much at all... I started at an even smaller dose and worked my way up... did a few very large water changes to reduce nitrates as low as i could and then found out my maintenance dose and settled on that.... If at any point during the vodka or vinegar dosing i started to see algae i cut the dose in half and it went away... Now i have no algae and 0 nitrates  |
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Post by Cowdogz on Mar 3, 2013 14:38:31 GMT -5
Substrate? You mean salt? If thats what you mean I use instant ocean Sent from my Desire HD using proboards The sand bed. What brand/type is it? |
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