Fowler to reef.. nitrate question ..

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 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?
No. Although I think a refugium (vegetable filter) would be nice.
Add Live rocks?
Yes, if you are under the 1-2 pounds per gallon mark.

Add Live Sand?
A deep sand bed (DSB) will increase denitrification. at least 3" is the
rule, but more can be better.

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 ?
Yes I would get rid of the wet/dry

and substitute with what?
Live rock, live sand.


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

Thanks,

Ajay

"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

As Chris already stated....
I would assumed the Wet/Dry maybe the cause of your nitrate. Adding DSB /
LR might reduce your nitrate. You can also try adding microalgae or refugium
to uptake nitrate. I would suggest to slowly remove the Wet/Dry to see if
nitrate will be reduce as other filteration like LR / DSB can take over the
job of Wet/Dry.

CapFusion,...

"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

Hi Ajay,

Your problem is you are using a filtration system that is suited
to fresh water but unsuitable for salt water. First of you must use
RO/DI or distilled water NOT tap water, get about 250 to 300 lbs of
live rock, then a deep sand bed, I would add a sump/fug. under your
tank about 50 gall or more ( the more water you have in the system the
more stable it will be )and put the deep sand bed in the fug, about 6"
or more of live sand then you can have about 2 or 3" in the display
tank, the deep sand bed can be made up of 75% aragonite play sand and
25% live sand, It will soon all be live, When this system has cycled
and matured ( can take a few months ) you should have no more water
problems and little if any need for water changes. You do need a good
skimmer and power heads, your water flow rate needs to be about
4000galls per hour calculated by adding the flow rates of all the pumps
either circulating water from your sump to tank to sump plus all power
heads plus flow through the skimmer if it returns to the tank, the
chiller is optional but you need to maintain your water temp. at 27C to
29C as most natural reef ( some run quite a bit higher than this ) All
that other gear I would sell to finance a proper system including the
U/V they do more harm than good.
regards,
unclenorm.
P.S. the system I have described I have been running for many years
with no problems what so ever.


Ajay Malkani wrote:
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

"unclenorm" wrote in message
oups.com...

snip

All that other gear I would sell to finance a proper
system including the U/V they do more harm than good.

/snip

If you don't sell the U/V I would at least unhook it so it doesn't run all
the time. Maybe just put it in the system when you have need of it.

Thanks a lot guys..I read up a bit also and basically understood that
wet/dry needs to go and I need to rely on either Berlin or Jaubert. I guess
that means either LR or DSB based setups. I am adding LR ..have disconnected
the Wet/Dry and UV..also now looking into water circulation of 4k litres an
hour! That seems too much though..

Ajay
"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

Hi Ajay,
LR and DSB isn't an either or, you need both, and 4000
litres per hour is way to low for flow, I said 4000 gall per hour not
litres, in litres it would be 18000 or more. The normal recommendation
for most good reefs is 20 times the volume of the tank per hour. some
people would use a good bit more than that. A low flow will inhibit the
functioning of the live rock, having said that the flow through the
refugium needs to be on the slow side for the DSB to work efficiently.
regards,
unclenorm.

Unclenorm,

Please tell me your kidding with "needing" both LR and a DSB... if so that
is just plain garbage! Ajay can have almost whatever setup he chooses
provided he understands how it will function and is willing to deal with
it's pro's and con's.
U.V. isn't evil either, but has it's place, certainly hang on to it. I
agree with the assessment on the "wet/dry" process though unless your
running one with no media. That might make a decent sump out of it. The
canister filter may come in handy for cleaning the tank so don't just hurl
it into the trash bin or something.

--
--



"unclenorm" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Ajay,
LR and DSB isn't an either or, you need both, and 4000
litres per hour is way to low for flow, I said 4000 gall per hour not
litres, in litres it would be 18000 or more. The normal recommendation
for most good reefs is 20 times the volume of the tank per hour. some
people would use a good bit more than that. A low flow will inhibit the
functioning of the live rock, having said that the flow through the
refugium needs to be on the slow side for the DSB to work efficiently.
regards,
unclenorm.

Hi Benjamin,
I don't talk garbage I talk from very many years
of experience and I wasn't kidding to have a successful reef in your
tank replicating nature you need both as nature has, if you research
the whys and wherefores of DSB's and what they accomplish maybe you
will agree with me.
Certainly Ajay or anyone else for that matter can
have whatever set-up they choose and it may work after a fashion.
My recommendations are for a pretty much self
sustaining system that will just require the replenishment of some
essential elements now and again when they have been depleted by your
corals etc. Not one that requires regular water changes and multiple
chemicals all the while to try to correct problems
I didn't mention 'trash bin' nor did I call UV
evil, I said it did more harm than good and I stand by that statement.
I do advocate the use of a good protein skimmer,
by good I don't mean expensive, there are plenty of cheap one that work
perfectly well if properly set up.
regards
unclenorm.