Can you have too much filtration??

[sauce-n-tank]

ok most reefers tell me its ok to have some nitrates and others dont but wouldnt having more filtration lower the nitrate levels??

[paulg]

Not in all cases......every tank is different. LR, water changes and skimming is the way to go, your filter media if not cleaned can produce nitrates as well as others i`m sure you have read upon.

[sauce-n-tank]

ok ok i see.. thanks everyone i will try upgrading to a skimmer instead of doing as many water changes and wich one do you recomend for a 30gal (hang on)???

[paulg]

Hmmmmm, well all depends on preference I guess. Read up on the pros and cons of a Venturi as opposed to a counter current. I used a counter current on my 30 for a long time with great success, just have to have a good air pump and buy limewood air blocks. As with anything with this great hobby, all depends on what you wanna spend and if your going to upgrade to a bigger tank in the near future.

[Bogie]

I have the coralife 125 superskimmer working great HOB my 55 gal. If their 65 model works comparatively as good as this one, I'd say get that.

[sauce-n-tank]

ok what about the aqua c remora???

[paulg]

cant say never had one.....i believe it may be a decent skimmer though

[sauce-n-tank]

ok i have to do more research im just on a bujget though>

[amcarrig]

Originally Posted by wildreef

2, If you hold all of your water parameters like nitrate,phos,etc. @0.0 ?
How is that your 180 is out of (or currently) still in LHA,bryposis,etc.
(algae none the less) over whelmed the tank ?.
When ya had loaded to the gills with every known coral.

When he shattered his ankle last year, the last thing on our minds was the fishtank so it had been neglected until recently. Bryopsis is gone now but thanks for asking

[Tangster]

Originally Posted by wildreef

2, If you hold all of your water parameters like nitrate,phos,etc. @0.0 ?
How is that your 180 is out of (or currently) still in LHA,bryposis,etc.
(algae none the less) over whelmed the tank ?.
When ya had loaded to the gills with every known coral.

Thanks for making my point. When I was down for 5 months, I couldn't get to the basement to maintain the calcium reactor and filtration systems. My wife was too busy working full time and taking care of me to maintain it and most of the equipment was over her head anyway. The nitrate coil had inadvertently cut off as had the phosphate reactor, the calcium reactor media became exhausted and the CO2 was bubbling directly into the sump not being neutralized by the media, the ORP had dropped down to 200 from 400 and carbon had not been changed in months. So, all that being said, the nitrates and phosphates had crept up a little and there was nothing to be done about it. Now that I can get back into the basement, everything is back in working order and after only 4 weeks, the bryopsis is gone and we're ready to start repopulating the tank with corals.

So, like I said, anybody who allows nitrates and phosphates to take hold in their systems is asking for trouble and our tank is living proof of that. I'm not saying that nitrates and/or phosphates will have any adverse affects on soft corals themselves as some of them will use them as a food source, I'm saying that nitrates and phosphates will feed algae which can and will kill the corals. There's plenty of studies on the net that show that runoff of phosphates and nitrates from fertilizers are the main cause of algae and bleaching on wild reefs. Google it.