Tips on keeping trates low?

what are some tips you guys can give me to keep my trates below 10ppm? they run about 25ppm-30ppm now, i dont like running them that high but cant seem to get them below that..I am doing a weekly 5g water change and i am running a oceanic biocube skimmer, i have 35pounds of LR, about 25lbs of sand, im running carbon, and thats it for the filtration. I have 5 fish, i am going to remove 2 tonight if possible and put them in my 14g. I have alot of LPS and softies.

 

Feed less, increase flow so that food can not settle into crevasses, blow off your rocks with a turkey baster, change filter media every two weeks, clean the sump area thoroughly when you change water, use RODI water add a refugium, skim wet so the skimmate is straw colored not coffee colored.

 

for me my tank had always between 20 and 30 nitrates. what i did is i got an automatic feeder to regulate the amount of food going in the tank and adjusted it to the minimum amount 2 times/day. then i got some chaeto and placed it in a breeding container in the tank. mind you my tank is 75g. i still feed frozen couple of times in a week. this cut down my trates to lower than 10. they are now around 5ppm. another thing im doing differently then b4 is im adding pods for mandarin to eat and the algae drops for the pods to have something to eat i donno if that is affecting anything.

 

I am blowing off rocks, i have a 29g biocube, so i dont have a sump :/. I feed 3 times a week, i change out carbon every 3 weeks i wash the filter pad every 2 weeks and skim yet.

I am running a koralia 1 and the stock return pump for the biocube is that enough flow? i am using RODI water for water changes. Does that sound all good? and How would I add a fuge to the biocube?

 

Thanks for the tip, i feed the corals twice a week with mysis..But i dont think that would have a major effect on it, since i am doing weekly water changes.

 

Do you siphon out the filtration area when you change filter media?

 

No i never have done that, i didnt eve nthink of that! which ones to I filter out? like which chambers?

 

Changing larger amounts of water will drop nitrates more proficiently than smaller frequent water changes. There are some great graphs out there that document this.

I feed my fish what they need. I'm not into feeding them less to lower nutrients. It's a husbandry or stocking issue that keeps your trates high. Removing a couple of your stock should help nutrients down coupled with larger water changes.

 

Thanks, but a 5g is 25% correct? of 29g? I thought that was correct to do a week?

 

Yes most definitely, you might have a great nitrate factor going.