Resolved nitrates out of control! BC14 - day 2

50% water change completed. chemi-pure elite flushed in RO/DI water till the blackness stopped coming out and put that into the center chamber in the biocube.

she has one of these: Biocube 14 Media Basket

with a light. from top to bottom of the three racks, the top rack is 2 mangroves, the middle is now the chemipure and the bottom is the chaeto.

i removed the nasty filterfloss.

so far after a quick test 5 min after the water change im down to 40ppm...

ill wait another hour and retest. mixing up more water now, i had the 30gal of RO ready but it didnt have salt mixed in i thought it did. i tested the SG and it was not registering

 

50% water change completed. chemi-pure elite flushed in RO/DI water till the blackness stopped coming out and put that into the center chamber in the biocube.

she has one of these: Biocube 14 Media Basket

with a light. from top to bottom of the three racks, the top rack is 2 mangroves, the middle is now the chemipure and the bottom is the chaeto.

i removed the nasty filterfloss.

so far after a quick test 5 min after the water change im down to 40ppm...

ill wait another hour and retest. mixing up more water now, i had the 30gal of RO ready but it didnt have salt mixed in i thought it did. i tested the SG and it was not registering

 

lol. nice. Salt does help. Sounds like you have got it under conrol. DO that next WC when you can.

 

You are an awesome fish sitter and I wish someone as caring as you could watch my tank when I leave town! K+ to you!

 

thanks! im not going to let someones stuff die if i can help it. id feel so bad... testing water now, ~5gal of new RO water made up. mixing salt in it.

 

i might have to move rocks around or something to find detritrus, i dunno its back up to 80ppm already.

tested source water at 0ppm to confirm. wtf

 

Live rock is leaching them back in...

 

theres only a few pieces of actual LR the rest was marco base rock. total of 18lbs from what im told.

80ppm this morning after testing. doing another 50% water change today. i brought a 10gal tank i had sitting around with me. i may fill it with saltwater and use that to put her rock in so i can fully clean the top layer of her sand.

the sand used was 1 20lb bag of carib-sea indo-pacific black/white aragonite.

ive already shut the tank down for an hour last night and did the following:

- pulled skimmer and cleaned (was caked in algae and other things)
- replaced the wooden airstone in the skimmer
- siphoned and wiped down all three chambers as best i could
- pulled out the in-tank 3compartment rack and cleaned it up
- added in chemi-pure elite
- removed, disassembled, and cleaned with vinegar and water the pump
- took a K1 powerhead and blew off all the LR to make sure there wasnt any buildup on the rocks
- did the 50% water change

(this threads now kind of becoming a log for what was done, ill send her the link when she gets back )

 

I'm just saying any rock in there is going to leach them for a little bit. All that rock is porous, and it'll take a few days/water changes for them to balance back out. If your gonna take them out and put them in a bucket with fresh saltwater, you might as well give them a little *swoosh* in the bucket to help rinse them out a bit.

 

that was kinda the point of moving them, well two fold actually because i intend to siphon the sand too.

i also blew a powerhead at them to hopefully stir up before i did the 50% water change to get as much as i could into the water column...

so after todays 50% water change we'll see....