Nitrates / Cyano

[tweaver03]

First I should provide a little history and specs on my setup. I have
a 58 oceanic w/ a 20 high sump/fuge. The tank has about a 1-2" bed of
crushed coral and about 60-70lbs of LR. The sump has about a 4" DSB
and is full of macro. My skimmer is a remora w/ pre-skimmer. I do
have pretty good surface agitation. I have a reasonable bio-load; 2
ocellaris, a coral beauty, a mandarin, and a cleaner shrimp. As far
as corals go I have five ricordea, 20 various shrooms, a few zoos,
green star polyps, xenia, three different tree corals, two candy
canes, an encrusting montipora, and a sebae anenome. (Didn't realize
how much I had until writing this post, although many are only frag
size) The tank has been setup gradually over the last six months.
The first 3-4 months I was doing bi-monthly 10 gallon water changes.
In the last couple of months I have been doing weekly 5 gallon water
changes. All make-up water and top-off water is RO/DI.

Ok now to the problem, I have been fighting high nitrates and
occasionally red slime since the tank started. My nitrates were at 80
when I first started measuring. (about a month after setting up) I
was able to quickly bring the trates down to about 20, but have not
been able get them any lower than that in the last 4 months. I feel
like I have been miticulous about maintenace but without success.
Does anybody have any suggestions to help lower my nitrates? I think
my bio-load is light, am I wrong? Don't get me wrong my tank does
really look very nice, but it would be alot nicer if I knew the
nitrates were say, less than 10 and w/out the red slime. I really
don't have much in terms of other problem algae mostly because of my
coral beauty and astrea snails.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Thanks,

Todd

[Marc Levenson]

Hi Todd,

Take a look at this article to see if anything in it may help you.

http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html

Marc


tweaver03 wrote:

> First I should provide a little history and specs on my setup. I have
> a 58 oceanic w/ a 20 high sump/fuge. The tank has about a 1-2" bed of
> crushed coral and about 60-70lbs of LR. The sump has about a 4" DSB
> and is full of macro. My skimmer is a remora w/ pre-skimmer. I do
> have pretty good surface agitation. I have a reasonable bio-load; 2
> ocellaris, a coral beauty, a mandarin, and a cleaner shrimp. As far
> as corals go I have five ricordea, 20 various shrooms, a few zoos,
> green star polyps, xenia, three different tree corals, two candy
> canes, an encrusting montipora, and a sebae anenome. (Didn't realize
> how much I had until writing this post, although many are only frag
> size) The tank has been setup gradually over the last six months.
> The first 3-4 months I was doing bi-monthly 10 gallon water changes.
> In the last couple of months I have been doing weekly 5 gallon water
> changes. All make-up water and top-off water is RO/DI.
>
> Ok now to the problem, I have been fighting high nitrates and
> occasionally red slime since the tank started. My nitrates were at 80
> when I first started measuring. (about a month after setting up) I
> was able to quickly bring the trates down to about 20, but have not
> been able get them any lower than that in the last 4 months. I feel
> like I have been miticulous about maintenace but without success.
> Does anybody have any suggestions to help lower my nitrates? I think
> my bio-load is light, am I wrong? Don't get me wrong my tank does
> really look very nice, but it would be alot nicer if I knew the
> nitrates were say, less than 10 and w/out the red slime. I really
> don't have much in terms of other problem algae mostly because of my
> coral beauty and astrea snails.
>
> PLEASE HELP!!!!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Todd

--
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Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[tweaver03]

Marc Levenson > wrote in message >...
> Hi Todd,
>
> Take a look at this article to see if anything in it may help you.
>
> http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html
>
> Marc
>
>
Ok Well I tried that...none of very little (5ppm??) difference. I
think that probably would work really well if someone has really high
nitrates like was described in that article, however for a small
nitrate problem (if there is such a thing) it didn't seem to help
much. Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Todd

[wolfhedd]

sounds like you may have a problem feediing fish too much? meaning some of
the food is hitting the bottom and your sssuming your cleanup crew will get
it? if this is the case, then problem solved, gither get rid of all 3 fish
until your system settles then feed them more carefully, or stop feeding
them so much. fish can be fed every other day, once a day for about a year
or two before you will start to notice that theyre actually not any bigger
than when you first got them, unless they were babies. i would make drn
sure your only feeding those fish at most once day one cube brine shrimp, or
twice day half cube brine shrimp each.

now the water changes, you could do about a 20 gallon right now safely
sounds like, then move to about 10 galllons per week until nitrates drop to
good, then stay with 5-10 weekly, not monthjly. meaning average 7.5 gals
week.

nitrates should go down to about 2.5ppm. get a low range test kit once you
show 10 or you will never know what it really is.

wolfhedd.

r u in Apple Valley by coincidence todd?

"tweaver03" > wrote in message
m...
> First I should provide a little history and specs on my setup. I have
> a 58 oceanic w/ a 20 high sump/fuge. The tank has about a 1-2" bed of
> crushed coral and about 60-70lbs of LR. The sump has about a 4" DSB
> and is full of macro. My skimmer is a remora w/ pre-skimmer. I do
> have pretty good surface agitation. I have a reasonable bio-load; 2
> ocellaris, a coral beauty, a mandarin, and a cleaner shrimp. As far
> as corals go I have five ricordea, 20 various shrooms, a few zoos,
> green star polyps, xenia, three different tree corals, two candy
> canes, an encrusting montipora, and a sebae anenome. (Didn't realize
> how much I had until writing this post, although many are only frag
> size) The tank has been setup gradually over the last six months.
> The first 3-4 months I was doing bi-monthly 10 gallon water changes.
> In the last couple of months I have been doing weekly 5 gallon water
> changes. All make-up water and top-off water is RO/DI.
>
> Ok now to the problem, I have been fighting high nitrates and
> occasionally red slime since the tank started. My nitrates were at 80
> when I first started measuring. (about a month after setting up) I
> was able to quickly bring the trates down to about 20, but have not
> been able get them any lower than that in the last 4 months. I feel
> like I have been miticulous about maintenace but without success.
> Does anybody have any suggestions to help lower my nitrates? I think
> my bio-load is light, am I wrong? Don't get me wrong my tank does
> really look very nice, but it would be alot nicer if I knew the
> nitrates were say, less than 10 and w/out the red slime. I really
> don't have much in terms of other problem algae mostly because of my
> coral beauty and astrea snails.
>
> PLEASE HELP!!!!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Todd