High phosphates and nitrates

Well if it were me after reading all this and seeing sand won't be the total solution, I'd still be thinking about a big refugium. Maybe a 30 - 40 gallon one packed - and I mean packed - with caluerpa or some kind of macro algae and a good light. It has to help right? :-/

 

There is no way I can go with a 30 -40 gl fuge. Just don't have the room. My tank and stand is only 4ft across and can only hold so much. I'm fixing to talk to someone about making me a combo fuge and sump together. I'll let him determine how large I can go. The one I have now only holds about 12 gls of water. Anyway, it would be better than what I have. As it is now the little 5 gl tank, that is my fuge, has to go thru the skimmer so I don't get any pods in my tank. I was told to just take one of the rocks out of my fuge to put in my main tank to supply it with pods and take out the previous rock from the tank and put it back into the fuge to repopulate. Don't think so. That wasn't what I had in mind, however, that was the only way to set up what I had. At least it holds my cheato.

My husband is still set on having a few inches of sand. I've been talking about the bare bottom but he just shakes his head. He's pretty bull headed so that is probably what we will do.

Trying to decide on a chiller that we can put outside.
Also need to get a Tunze PH 3100 with controller.
And I guess I'll go ahead and get a Phosphate reactor.
Also another Gen-x 4 external pump in case this one goes out. A mak 7 for the skimmer, again in case it goes out.

This is where I stand for now. I really like hearing all of the different opinions although it does get me confused at times. I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat!

Thanks, Cindy

 

Thanks Mike, awesome information as always!

 

Cindy you can go with sand in the tank if you want no problem, What i am trying to telly is that relying on it for total filtration with out your help is not going to work. The biological filtration will just not be anywhre close to what you need for that bioload. You can help the sand out by doing the same type of syphoning its just a little harder to do.
Thier is another fella out here that has a huge tank, 800 gallons I believe. His name is Steve Wiese. He has sand in his tank, about 4 inches on all exposed bottom surfaces. he syphons the sand every week or so and replaces it every three months. the replacement seems a tad much to me but just to give you an idea.


Mike

 

Wow, replacing the sand evey three months would be way pricey, eh?

 

Yea Craig it seemed a little excessive to me to, but to each thier own, you cant knock his tank


mike

 

I do understand what you are saying now and you have been very patient with me and I greatly appreciate it. After everything you have said I don't think I would have a problem going bare bottom, but my husband wants sand. I keep telling him to log on and read this thread so that he can understand better. But you know how men are--bull headed. ;D. I won't be doing anything immediately so once we decide for sure I'll let you know.
Thanks for all of the good info,

Cindy