"Ajay Malkani" wrote in message
news:1110390956.a10dcf7a9c97f9976170e20735a6dfa5@t eranews...
I have a 200 G fish with live rock fr about 10 months now and want to
shift
completely to a reef setup. All the required equipment is there. Lights,
Eheim Wet/Dry, Eheim canister, powerheads, Uv, Skimmer, Chiller etc.

Problem is the nitrates keep increasing till I water chnage. Is there any
way to keep nitrates stable at the bare minimum? Do i need to add a
denitrifying filter? Add Live rocks? Add Live Sand? What shld i basically
do
to make sure the nitrates dont rise? Ive been reading and I actually even
read somewhere that a wet/dry will even enhance nitrate production! So do
I
dump it ? and substitute with what?

Looking fr a simple and longterm solution and I know the best advice will
be
here!

Thanks,

Ajay


Ajay

My experience is this:

I have a 6*2*2 tank and a large sump / refugium -- total volume about 900
litres (240 US gallons).

The tank has been running for about 10 months, and has the following:

10-12 fish (nothing really large) See
http://community.webshots.com/album/149890982jXnxRs for some old pictures
About 180 lbs of live rock
About 25 corals, mostly soft and LPS
Water circulation is by 2 Rio pumps (20 HF and 17 HF)
A Berlin HO skimmer
A very light cover of sand in the display tank and about 3 inches of sand in
the refugium
A mix of algaes and "critters" in the refugium
Usually a bag of activated carbon hanging in the sump
Sometimes I use some Phosban
A UV steriliser (used only occasionally)
Chiller -- water temp 25 - 26 deg C
Fish are fed every other day
Corals are not fed
The biosystem is fed with 1 teaspoon of sugar once per week (when I started
doing this, there seemed to be a step change down in nitrate levels from
around 5 ppm to around 2 ppm)
Additives are Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium and Reef Builder

Nitrates are virtually undetectable - but it took a long time (months) to
get there.
I used to do regular water changes, but now I maybe change 5% every two
months or so (and probably don't need to do that)
Our water (Sydney Australia) is quite good, so I have stopped (with no
problems) using RO for top off water and just use tap water with a big dose
of Prime.

Hope the above is helpful.

Phil