Cant control nitrates

Discussion in 'Water Chemistry' started by kutsujutc, Oct 26, 2012.

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  1. ccreviston74

    ccreviston74 Astrea Snail

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    At 250 gallons nominal system volume, minus live rock displacement (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 gallon per 11 lbs) you're still only looking at about a 20% change - not that extreme. Won't dilute your nitrates that much, but a start. A few of these changes , absorption resin, increased refugium growth, and maybe carbon dosing down the road and you'll get it under control. Watch your feeding. Make the fish fast every few days - they can handle it.
     
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  3. kutsujutc

    kutsujutc Spaghetti Worm

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    I've been told that a problem could be that my sump is to small. Could this be possible? It's a 40G sump which includes my refugium.
     
  4. ccreviston74

    ccreviston74 Astrea Snail

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    Not really. You can run a perfectly successful tank with no sump are all. Sounds like you've got plenty of water volume and live rock. More room for more chaeto and thus more nutrient export would help, but that problem could also be addressed with bio pellets or another form of liquid carbon dosing.
    You might also consider a bacterial supplement like Microbacter 7 or Microbe lift to supplement denitrifying bacteria.
     
  5. kutsujutc

    kutsujutc Spaghetti Worm

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    Ok thanks. What about this, my return pump and my skimmer are in the same chamber. I was told that this could lead to dirty water being brought back into the tank. I'm just throwing ideas out there. It's confusing because I'm doing everything by the book.
     
  6. ccreviston74

    ccreviston74 Astrea Snail

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    Skimmer should be in the first chamber where your overflow dumps in. You want that dirty water skimmed from the surface to feed into the skimmer. Ideally, then you would have your refugium, then your return. That way your water has passed through the skimmer and fuge to be cleaned before returning to tank. Probably not the root of your problem, but no doubt your skimmer isn't running at peak. With that powerful return pump next to it, a lot of the dirty water is probably getting diverted straight past the skimmer and back to the tank.
     
  7. kutsujutc

    kutsujutc Spaghetti Worm

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    Hmmm, I know its not the root of problem but something that need's attention and should be fixed. I really have no idea what the root of this problem is. I'm completely stumped. I'm going to continue with water changes in the time being.

    I have a Fluval FX5 that im thinking about setting up to help in the mean time.
     
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  9. ccreviston74

    ccreviston74 Astrea Snail

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    If you use the fluval, don't use it for any bio media - that'll just make more nitrates. Just use it for your nitrate resin, carbon, pellets, gfo, etc. Your rock is more than enough for standard bio filtration (nitrification). What you need is denitrification.
     
  10. Kevin_E

    Kevin_E Giant Squid

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    When did you set up your tank? How many fish? Any ammonia or nitrites registering?
     
  11. kutsujutc

    kutsujutc Spaghetti Worm

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    Tank is 11 months old
    10 Fish
    No signs of nitrite/ammonia



    Stopped at my LFS store and he tested my water and it registered at 20. My test strips and test bottles are reading 160. I'm about to pull my hair out!!!!
     
  12. ccreviston74

    ccreviston74 Astrea Snail

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    What test kit brand are you using? How old is it?

    Are you having major algae, cyano, or glass slime problems? Still thinking about false test results.