OK, is it just me?

ok, I'm ready for a makeover.....it is a 54 corner tank with a few hardy corals, 6 fish, 4 T5 lights half actinic, the other half daylights I guess....I have a fluval 405 canister that I run phosguard and carbon in and one sponge.....I have a reefoctupus 1000 hang on skimmer and 3 powerheads....I have about I would guess is 70 lbs of rock...and a TLF converted to biopellet reactor using ecobak pellets- I have been running pellets for almost 3 months now and nitrates still too high....I have 1-2 inches of very live sand...rock and sand are about 10-15 years old....very little coralline but also not much of nuisance algae.....I'm thinking the concept of the fuge is what I need to help take my tank to the next step of nitrate reduction and maintenance of that reduction.....please help me do a makeover

 

When was the last time you changed the bulbs?

Old Tank Syndrome, sorry no pun intended. It is a debatable syndrome but I do believe in it.

Can you vacuum the sand bed in sections, small sections? Perhaps even remove some sand and add new aragonite. Even moderate disturbance of a sand bed that age could be detrimental so you need to proceed slowly.

Is your scape cemented together after a decade or can you remove some and replace with dry base rock or fully cured live rock.

How high are the nitrates?

Lets work on getting rid of the canister first and building up the biological filter in the display.

Disclaimer: I know some have canisters that work efficiently. With that said they are in no way essential to a marine tank if a skimmer and adequate rock is in place.

Cue member m2434 to address Old Tank Syndrome.

 

I'll help, I'll donate my medium hob fuge to you, you pay only shipping, you will need to re silicon the input from the pump and its not real pretty, but then again, its behind your tank and even a new one gets ugly asap. it grows all the ugly algae you don't want in your tank. PM me your address and I'll ship it out when i ship out som3 3 reefers led light

hopefully I still have the pump you can run the outlet from your reactor or skimmer thru it though so you don't have another pump in the tank.

 

I did bring up old tank syndrome on here once.....had interesting replies. I have tried vacuuming small sections of sand but I really mean it, there is no dirt that comes out of it, I know that is hard to believe but it is really that alive....My rock is not cemented together, I can pull anything out...I did take out a bunch a while back (probably about 30 pounds or so that is all dry rock now, are you thinking I should switch out some live with the dried base? When you say cured, you mean run it for a while back in water to start the biological process? I would not want to buy any new live because I really have no yucky hitchhikers and don't want to acquire any....

Bulbs are only 3 months old.....Nitrates have been testing at 50 to between 50 and 100 according to the salifert kit. Alk and calcium are in line and I dose kalkwasser by drip about two times per week. I just tested my mag at the LFS today and it's at 1500....

 

Ok basically I just wanted to bulk up the biological filter before you took the canister off line.

Seems like nitrates would be under control with the bio-pellets.

IMO you could take them off line as well and try MB7 since you have a skimmer.

Get the canister off line and continue to measure nitrates, do the dreaded water changes. If you do not see a drop in nitrates then the bio-pellets are not working for what ever reason (very odd).

IME I have had many tanks, many of those did not run skimmers, reactors, never run a canister.

You can get the tank under control without all those things if you do the routine water changes.

I would hate my tank if I had all those gizmos and gadgets hanging off it.

Think Berlin System: Flow/Skimmer/Lights/Rock and addition of the big three via Kalk nothing more (well you need mag too).

 

do u want the ho fuge for shipping or no? have another bidder

 

Cosmo-I appreciate the offer very much but I think I'm still thinking this through...I would hate to hold up another bidder.....