What best for straightening out my red zones?

[mfinn]

If you find detritus in your sand at all, I would slowly remove the existing sand bed vs trying to clean it. When you are done (a few weeks), replacement is optional and inexpensive.

-Matt

There is no reason to replace the sand.
All he has to do is at every water change use some sort of a gravel vac and use it and clean part of it each time.
If you haven't ever done it before, I'd only do about 1/2 at a time.

I find detritus all the time in my sand. Detritus happens.

 

[mcarroll]

EXPERIENCES
I'm not saying your experience is different than you say MrFinn, and nobody said he had to remove his sand. So we're ok! :bigsmile: Plus, it's all theoretical until (if) the OP checks and posts back.

But there's a reason I suggested replacement vs cleaning iff the OP finds a detritus issue.

DIRTY SAND: REPLACE OR REMOVE?
For many people it's quite easy to spend MORE money and effort on water changes and other "solutions" trying to clean your sand (and never getting it completely clean) than would be spent just taking out the offending sand and either going without sand ($0) or replacing it with new (<$50; probably a lot less).

Sand is cheaper than salt, after all. And it's a lot cheaper than salt+reactors+GFO+carbon dosing regime+etc that so many people do.

Plus, ideally for a healthy sand bed, you don't disturb it. At all. Ever. The sand fauna (worms, pods, et al.) do that. Almost 100% of the unique critters that live there are soft-boddied and will not survive a gravel vacuuming..if they survived the fouling with detritus. If you find yourself having to vacuum, that's basically starting over anyway in terms of the sand bed fauna. I figure it may as well be a reboot that actually starts with clean sand.

To recap, nobody said just take the sand out....it's just probably smart to take it out (because of the above factors) if someone finds that it's already fouled with detritus.

DON'T REPEAT YOUR MISTAKES, RIGHT?
It's also worth saying that if you have detritus accumulating to the point that it's problematic - you have to do something to fix why that's happening, or you'll be repeating the same effort in the near future.

Rearranging rock work or removing some rock could be required to eliminate prominent dead spots. Rearranging or adding flow is possible. Also in some cases a wavebox or other wave action could be required to eliminate dead spots.

$0.02 :angel:

-Matt

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I personally believe running a GFO in your case is just masking the problem. Your nitrates and phosphates are pretty up there so we must find the problem instead of putting a bandaid over it.

I believe you are over-feeding which is a common problem we all had at one time. What are your feeding schedule(s) and how much are you feeding?

A good skimmer, good flow, less feeding = better water params.

 

[EvoReef]

I used to feed allot and stopped here recently. I would feed a whole block of micis shrimp to four fish. After introducing flakes to them I can tell that they like the flakes way better. I now feed about 3 small pinches of flake in four minute increments. I really just wait until there are no more flakes visible in the tank until I add the next pinch. but now that i have reduced feeding i have bin able to tell that things are allot better.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I used to feed allot and stopped here recently. I would feed a whole block of micis shrimp to four fish. After introducing flakes to them I can tell that they like the flakes way better. I now feed about 3 small pinches of flake in four minute increments. I really just wait until there are no more flakes visible in the tank until I add the next pinch. but now that i have reduced feeding i have bin able to tell that things are allot better.

Glad to hear! Continue weekly or bi-weekly water changes and you will see a 180 change. You do not need a GFO and all that. If we resolve the issue, we do not have to bandaid the problems.

 

[EvoReef]

I know I do not need all that extra stuff. I have bin running this system for about 13 months with only a Reef Octopus BH-1000 H.o.b skimmer and a aquaclear 100 H.o.b filter full of live rock. Not filter in it at all.

 

[SloppyJ]

High nitrate does not mean that you are above your bioload limit. It will not get taken up in your tank. Nitrate is the final step in the nitrification process. It will get taken up in small amount by coral, but not enough to talk about here. The only way to remove it is dilution through water changes, some sort of carbon dosing, or biopellets.

 

[EvoReef]

High nitrate does not mean that you are above your bioload limit. It will not get taken up in your tank. Nitrate is the final step in the nitrification process. It will get taken up in small amount by coral, but not enough to talk about here. The only way to remove it is dilution through water changes, some sort of carbon dosing, or biopellets.

Understood. I'm going to go with the watter change salution. I try and do a 20% change every Sunday but sometimes am to busy to get to it. I'm going to get focused and do it every Sunday like I have bin planning to from the start.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Understood. I'm going to go with the watter change salution. I try and do a 20% change every Sunday but sometimes am to busy to get to it. I'm going to get focused and do it every Sunday like I have bin planning to from the start.

You may have to do more to really make a dent in those nitrates. Doing a large water change initially will get you back on track to where you only have to do 20% water changes every other week or so. Of course every tank responds differently .

Microbacter7 would also help eat those up.

 

[EvoReef]

You may have to do more to really make a dent in those nitrates. Doing a large water change initially will get you back on track to where you only have to do 20% water changes every other week or so. Of course every tank responds differently .

Microbacter7 would also help eat those up.

Alright. I try and stay away from additives. I haven't used any the whole time so I'm going to go the natural way.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Alright. I try and stay away from additives. I haven't used any the whole time so I'm going to go the natural way.

I respect that…but Microbacter7 is live bacteria It is not a fake additive.

From DR. Fosters:

Specially formulated MicroBacter7 rapidly reduces organic waste concentration. Select complex of extremely effective microbes and enzymes break down organic carbon, nitrogen, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate. The result is improved water quality, clarity, and increased dissolved oxygen content for a cleaner, healthier aquarium environment. Use MicroBacter7 to establish biological filtration in new aquarium setups and to enhance the rate of nitrification, de-nitrification, and organic waste degradation. For all marine and freshwater aquariums. 500 mL treats up to 5,000 gallons.

 

[SloppyJ]

I seriously doubt its abilities to reduce nitrate.

 

[DSP]

I seriously doubt its abilities to reduce nitrate.

I agree it didn't help me at all, The only thing that's worked for me is vineger dosing and water changes of course.

 

[EvoReef]

This is the firs time I have heard of dosing vinegar.

 

[DSP]

This is the firs time I have heard of dosing vinegar.

I have struggled with high nitrates in my last 2 systems, I tried so many things including biopellets but they didn't seem to work for me, Finally I decided to try vineger dosing because it's pretty much guaranteed to work as long as you do it right and now my nitrates stay right where I want them! I can dump tons of food in my tank and not worry at all, It's acually recommended to feed more when carbon dosing and that's another reason I wanted to do it so I can feed my anthias even more, More people seem to dose vodka but I chose vineger because it's cheap and I didn't want to keep vodka in my home lol.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I seriously doubt its abilities to reduce nitrate.

Everyone who uses MB7 knows it takes some time to stabilize a tank.

 

[mfinn]

EXPERIENCES
I'm not saying your experience is different than you say MrFinn, and nobody said he had to remove his sand. So we're ok! :bigsmile: Plus, it's all theoretical until (if) the OP checks and posts back.

But there's a reason I suggested replacement vs cleaning iff the OP finds a detritus issue.

-Matt

I must have misread it then.
That can happen.


Sometimes my answers are too short and I don't explain enough..................

 

[mcarroll]

I used to feed allot and stopped here recently. I would feed a whole block of micis shrimp to four fish. After introducing flakes to them I can tell that they like the flakes way better. I now feed about 3 small pinches of flake in four minute increments. I really just wait until there are no more flakes visible in the tank until I add the next pinch. but now that i have reduced feeding i have bin able to tell that things are allot better.

That certainly explains it, so at least you won't have a repeat! :thumb:

That still leaves the job of cleanup. I would still check your sand and rock (and sump) for deposits of detritus. Take a stick/your finger and swizzle the sand around at the bases of your rocks and beneath flow sources like sump returns and power heads. Also blow out your rocks with a powerhead to see what you get. Checking is easy. Getting rid of nitrates with little hidden waste piles in the system is not.

High nitrate does not mean that you are above your bioload limit.[...]

Yes it does. Live rock has a finite capacity to process nitrates into nitrogen gas - denitrification. It's automatic and the main reason we keep live rock in our tanks.

Once you're adding food beyond the live rocks' capacity to denitrify, you are over your tank's bio-limit.

What does "over limit" mean anyway?
It means that all nutrient removal beyond this level is totally on you. Your tank is no longer working for you - you are working for your tank.

You can use brute force and do lots of water changes to help.
You can get a skimmer to help - at least no disposable parts. But it only takes out a minimum of junk we'd want it to.
You can use GFO to help. Hope you like monitoring one more thing and spending on continual replacement.
You can carbon dose. Ditto on monitoring. At least it's cheap.
Et cetera.

These things are all band-aids - subject to human failure and mechanical breakdown.

Your live rock is subject to neither....but does have capacity limits.

For my own tanks, I live within what nutrient-processing limits the live rock plus water changes will allow...and I try hard not to be very dependent on the water changes.

A read.

-Matt

 

[ryecoon]

I have struggled with high nitrates in my last 2 systems, I tried so many things including biopellets but they didn't seem to work for me, Finally I decided to try vineger dosing because it's pretty much guaranteed to work as long as you do it right and now my nitrates stay right where I want them! I can dump tons of food in my tank and not worry at all, It's acually recommended to feed more when carbon dosing and that's another reason I wanted to do it so I can feed my anthias even more, More people seem to dose vodka but I chose vineger because it's cheap and I didn't want to keep vodka in my home lol.

Just following along. Im thinking of Vinegar dosing for the first time. How should i initiate considering i use a kalk reactor, Doser, And GFO?

 

[Bad Company]

I uh, have 12 fish In a 63 gallon cube. Yes I know I have a problem, even though most of them are small or benthic. My nitrates hover at 0. Always, and I do a 5% WC once a month or so. I have an algae scrubber which takes about 20 minutes a week to clean. Just a suggestion.