LR
- Thread starter dory
- Start date
All the chemical filtration comes from the live rock but the protein skimmer removes the excess proteins in the water. If you have enough liverock and clean the detritus off your rocks you should be ok with Nitrates. I have seen high Nitrates come from overfeeding without a skimmer. Not blowing off the live rock with a turkey baster to suspend the detritus so it can be skimmed.
lol the live rock dose biological filtration NOT chemical!!!!! yes live rock will removes nitrate from the water!!! how ever you need high turn over(20x turn over an hour or more is normal now) and unless you have very low stock levels nitrate will billed up over time so water changes are needed!!! there is controversy over what a skimmer is class as but id say its chemical!!! a skimmer(or protein skimmer) its self dose not remove nitrate but removes proteins which should stop the proteins being turned into ammonia then nitrite and finely nitrate!!! so in this way it help stop nitrates!!! denitrifying bacteria are the ones which brake down nitrate however they are anaerobic meaning they don’t like oxygen and so live deep in the live rock and in the deep parts of a dsb(deep sand bed)!!! live rock, dsb's, large refugiums and water changes are the only ways of removing nitrate!!! a refugium removes it by the growth of marine plants!!!!
sprayin70;919881; said:
lol the live rock dose biological filtration NOT chemical!!!!! yes live rock will removes nitrate from the water!!! how ever you need high turn over(20x turn over an hour or more is normal now) and unless you have very low stock levels nitrate will billed up over time so water changes are needed!!! there is controversy over what a skimmer is class as but id say its chemical!!! a skimmer(or protein skimmer) its self dose not remove nitrate but removes proteins which should stop the proteins being turned into ammonia then nitrite and finely nitrate!!! so in this way it help stop nitrates!!! denitrifying bacteria are the ones which brake down nitrate however they are anaerobic meaning they dont like oxygen and so live deep in the live rock and in the deep parts of a dsb(deep sand bed)!!! live rock, dsb's, large refugiums and water changes are the only ways of removing nitrate!!! a refugium removes it by the growth of marine plants!!!!
bad badger is correct, a refugium is the most simple and overall balanced way to go. It will remove nitrates, provide a harvest of caulerpa and macroalgae and a breeding ground for amphipods and copepods(great continuous food source)
i have a 4" deep sand bed in my 150 gal refugium and lit only at night. my parameters are as follows: ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0 ppm and nitrate <25ppm. I feed 4-5 times daily to 3 tangs and 2 angels amongst others. i haven't done a water change in 3 or so months. Not that i encourage this, its just that i have found a good equalibrium. No skimmer is used!
i have a 4" deep sand bed in my 150 gal refugium and lit only at night. my parameters are as follows: ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0 ppm and nitrate <25ppm. I feed 4-5 times daily to 3 tangs and 2 angels amongst others. i haven't done a water change in 3 or so months. Not that i encourage this, its just that i have found a good equalibrium. No skimmer is used!
wow that’s a big refugium is it really 150 gallon? how big is your tank? i have to say i like the idea of massive refugium compared to tank size although if you don’t have a high bio load it could cause it to crash! in my new reef i pan a 25gallon tank with a 20 to 25 gallon sump with a 15 to 20 gallon refugium in it.
maybe of some use to you marine guys
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...=/images?q=refugium+&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...=/images?q=refugium+&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N
but 
