Hey folks. Got the Red sea up and running but I'm having a heck of a hard time getting the NO3 under control. It's the 35gal 130L model with about 80lbs of live rock and another 30-40lbs of sand. Everything in the tank came from well established sources but that NO3 refused to drop. Sitting at 50mg/l even after a 30% water change. Test kit is good, my shop ran it for me to be sure. We're feeding half a cube of mysis plus filter feeder chow every three days. The rest of the specs are perfect and I'm dosing with biofuel and recently cynobacteria by brightwell. Any thoughts?
Chemistry,
- Thread starter metalyx
- Start date
is it this??
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~BW01220.html
I always say, don't ever dose what you don't test for!!!
EVER!!!!
I dose kalk (calcium ) and mag only
I test every two weeks for ALK MAG and CAL I test for trAtes right befor a water change (once a month) and I get less than 5 everytime.
A SW tank will balance it's self if it's set up right and you do regular waterchanges..
with that much live rock (if it is cycled and truely live) will be all the bio-filtration you should need just add a skimmer and your locked in..
You need to find the source of trAtes...
Sounds like you are polluting your tank??
if you have fish only Nitrates are not as important to keep as low as a reef but a reading of 50 is really high..
Try to blow of the rocks and stir the very top layer (1/2 deep) a few minutes before water change.
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~BW01220.html
I always say, don't ever dose what you don't test for!!!
EVER!!!!
I dose kalk (calcium ) and mag only
I test every two weeks for ALK MAG and CAL I test for trAtes right befor a water change (once a month) and I get less than 5 everytime.
A SW tank will balance it's self if it's set up right and you do regular waterchanges..
with that much live rock (if it is cycled and truely live) will be all the bio-filtration you should need just add a skimmer and your locked in..
You need to find the source of trAtes...
Sounds like you are polluting your tank??
if you have fish only Nitrates are not as important to keep as low as a reef but a reading of 50 is really high..
Try to blow of the rocks and stir the very top layer (1/2 deep) a few minutes before water change.
you could make some new SW and dose it with your two additives then test the water for everything.. This could be your problem
Or you need a better skimmer...
Or you need a better skimmer...
My bad, i don't know where I pulled cyno from, I am dosing with the microbacter7. I have the stock Red Sea 130D skimmer in there but I'm planning to pull that out and add a ten gallon sump/refugium in the next week or two. That will open me up for the Excalibur skimmer I was using on my pred tank, and free up the back chamber of the tank for live rock rubble. As far as stocklist, here goes.
Two Perc clowns
1 yellow watchman goby
2 firefish
1 yasha goby
1 mandarin dragonet
1 scooter blenny
1 flame blenny
1 filter feeding cucumber
1 sand sifter cucumber
1 clam
1 flame scallop
1 slug
assorted snails, arrow crab, peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp, anemone,
+corals.
Certainly a heavy load but only two more fish that the 29gal, with much more sand, rock and water turnover. I have three directional pump outlets keeping most things from settling on the rocks. All of them aim to the bottom of the tank or between rocks for that reason. The overall flow moves from the bottom left and rises towards the overflow on the opposite side. With wate changes I have a python-like filter hose made for a much smaller system. It's small enough to fit between the rocks and drains slow enough for me to sift the sand effectively on water changes.
On the latter, the corals are my concern right now and are acting completely the opposite of expected. I'll throw pics up in the photo lounge later, but all of them are growing incredibly fast. The most prolific being the green birds nest that went from two stalks to almost a dozen in a month.
On care, I've been dosing with the biofuel for about two weeks and the bacter7 for the last three days. On the reading this morning NO3 isn't quite 50mg/l. Sitting between 30 and 50 on the color coded test.
Two Perc clowns
1 yellow watchman goby
2 firefish
1 yasha goby
1 mandarin dragonet
1 scooter blenny
1 flame blenny
1 filter feeding cucumber
1 sand sifter cucumber
1 clam
1 flame scallop
1 slug
assorted snails, arrow crab, peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp, anemone,
+corals.
Certainly a heavy load but only two more fish that the 29gal, with much more sand, rock and water turnover. I have three directional pump outlets keeping most things from settling on the rocks. All of them aim to the bottom of the tank or between rocks for that reason. The overall flow moves from the bottom left and rises towards the overflow on the opposite side. With wate changes I have a python-like filter hose made for a much smaller system. It's small enough to fit between the rocks and drains slow enough for me to sift the sand effectively on water changes.
On the latter, the corals are my concern right now and are acting completely the opposite of expected. I'll throw pics up in the photo lounge later, but all of them are growing incredibly fast. The most prolific being the green birds nest that went from two stalks to almost a dozen in a month.
On care, I've been dosing with the biofuel for about two weeks and the bacter7 for the last three days. On the reading this morning NO3 isn't quite 50mg/l. Sitting between 30 and 50 on the color coded test.
I got rid of my canister filter and added a sump on my 29 and my trates droped from 25-50 down to under ten in a few weeks..