Lots of questions need some help!

1. My 125 is recently cycled. The nitrates have soared and have held steady around 30-40ppm. I have a refugium with both cheato and calurpera that seem to be growing well. I have a 100 watt cfl 6500 k over it. I leave the light on 24 hours a day. Any suggestions on lowering the nitrates? Any adjustments I could make?

2. I have been losing the battle against micro bubbles. I have a 30 gallon sump that is fed by twin 1 inch durso standpipes. This alone creates a huge amount of bubbles. Then I have the reef oct skimmer adding to the bubbles. I have tried sponges between baffles, filter floss, etc etc. I still cannot stop them. Any advice? By the way I am running a 1300 gph return pump that splits for 2 return pipes. Maybe lowering the flow through the sump? Any advice is appreciated!

3. I have a qt up and running. I was at the lfs the other day and found this large yellow tang that I couldnt pass up. He was eating from day 1. Eats anything and everything I throw at him. Yesterday I noticed the start of ich on him. Today the ich is completely covering him. I did the first dose of cupramine then fed him. Still eating well. Instructions say to wait 48 hours before bringing the copper up to full concentration but I am afraid to wait since he seems to have a really bad infection. I dont want him to stop eating etc. Should I bring it up to full dose tomorrow? Any advice here would be great! Thanks

 

for lowering nitrates do some water changes. as for the ick, how big is your QT? you might be able to pull off hyposalinity

 

20 gallon qt. I tried hypo once....it ended bad and I dont have a refractometer. I lowered the salinity too quickly I think and killed my fish.

 

Water changes on the nitrates.
Can't help you on the micro bubbles.
I'd follow the instructions on the medication you're using.

 

Steve - dont exceed the dose rate or frequency thats written on the bottle, you may end up doing more harm than good by trying to rush treatment
providing the fish is eating and behaving normally, allow the treatment to run its course

Good luck with it, and I hope it makes it for you

Steve

 

I guess maybe I am confused. I would guess my flow through my sump is around 800-900 gph. This is where all of my filter media is located. My refugium has a much lower rate though. I was under the belief you should have about 10x your total aquarium volume flowing through your sump. Correct?

I have no fish in the tank. There is only some snails and a few small corals. The fuge is roughly 10 gallons on the end of the sump and has its own feed from the tank. I have about an inch of sand in it, a bunch of live rock rubble, cheato, and calurpera.

 

bump

 

turnover of 10 x per hour for sump sounds right
but your skimmer size and ability to process that amount of water turnover is equaly important to many people that way all the water gets skimmed in one pass rather
for example - sending water through skimmer at twice the rate it can process so it takes 2 cycles to complete the work it could have done 1st time

check out Powermans thread on Sumps , fuges etc - in the reef aquarium articles section


you might want to reduce flow through fuge though as that may account for some of your nitrate level being high

what media do you have in the sump - Bio balls, live rock, or just water?

 

Actually it should be 10x the sump volume and less through the fuge side. Your flow in the DT should come primarily from powerheads/wavemakers. So as Steve said no more than 200gph thru the sump in your tank with a valve controlling flow to the fuge reduced to no more than 100gph. JMHO

Edit: Steve was quicker than I.

 

I see. I was confused then on the flow through a sump. I thought 10x the total aquarium volume was the target rate. I would guess I am around 600 gph too high! Also my skimmer pumps around 600 gph.