KurtG wrote:


Has anybody tried these? I've been reading up on them and they sound
interesting as I have persistently high nitrate levels.

--Kurt

Might want to start with something simpler such as a deep sand bed -
simply have 6 inches oir so of sand depth on the bottom of your tank,
and arrange the live rock so that most of it is NOT in direct contact
with the sand (ie: build lots of rock "bridges" so most of the rocks are
not directly on the sand) - you also need to have good turbulent water
flow - I aim for about 15 times turnover of tank volume per hour. Use
more little powerheads rather that 1 or two big ones. Aim them at the
back of the rocks, or even at each other, so that the flow is turbulent.
DON'T aim them straight into open spaces in the tank.

Works quite well for me. Oh, and also don't use anything like a wet dry
or trickle filter - it creates nitrates to fast. In fact, just use the
circulation over your live rock as your biological filtration (assuming
you have enough - at least 1/4 total volume of the tank IMO)

Doing what I describe above, I consistently have 0/0/0
ammonia/nitrite/nitrate in my tank.