Ammonia and nitrate problem persisting

[brandon429]

That's a good plan so far and ill add a small recap just in case I missed anything in your plan.

K dog your thread is coming in handy ~

removing those prized items out of the sand needs to come after the take apart, so that no cloud of detritus and possible ammonia stirs in the tank. OM we haven't seen tank pics and really don't need to, but considering the ones here from KD see the live rock that needs cleaning. Opinions range greatly on if detritus should be cleared from live rock, or if that causes a cycle, but I will hold course that any detritus you xport into new system is the sole, singular and immediate cause of any ammonia that we must assess from a non API test kit, if that kind of double checking is warranted at all. I do these flips/cleans with zero testing, as I permit no ammonia, and I never rinse less than massively. a full on attack is no cycle, a partial attack with API is a mini cycle simple as that.

Would you mind posting your full tank shot OM just to see variables, sandbed cleanliness etc?

Your take apart needs to be fish, shrimp and corals in one container, live rock in another so you can clean and inspect it for mass waste not in the presence of your delicates, and this leaves only the live sand in the empty tank for you to try and fish out your ideal sandbed animals we want to xfer over.


Your new tank simply needs zero detritus, and all the bac is on the new wet pack live sand you'll use, or your rinsed current sand, and on the rocks. **the rocks have massive surface area that functions better, not less, as a filter when you truly blast clean it** this is a rule, rinsing is never antibacterial even though opinions vary on the matter, and the opinions typically come from someone who doesn't plate, count and enumerate bacteria in their dreams from having done it for income as long


B

 

[Nano sapiens]

I ran 2 29G biocubes for a while and they are a ton of work to keep stable if you overstock. The sand is a huge mistake IMO unless you are keeping your livestock to a pair of clowns and 1 nem. For the 14G, you've got it overloaded IMO, especially with the amount of sand you have. What you just did will need to be done every quarter at least, even with a happy middle filter chamber. You should have just enough substrate to cover the glass. If you need depth, get egg crate, fix your rock and frags and use a thin layer of crushed aragonite as fill around them. Water flow, hermits and shrimp can then help keep the detritus from taking over your tank. I had to use a Cobalt HOT gravel cleaner to clean my sand monthly, just to keep the GHA from advancing. I left the tank running, put filter felt (200-micro) on the filter tray, and ran a second HOT filter to catch as much of the solid stuff as I could. I got tired of the maintenance on 2 tanks and upgraded to a 90 with a 30G sump. LOL

The arguments for/against a sand bed are many. I personally prefer having a sand bed and I treat as a big living organism that needs feeding (carbon/etc. for the bacterial processes) and waste products (detritus, etc.) that need to be removed. Others would rather not have it to deal with it and rely on live rock/other substrates for the nitrogen cycle.

To keep pico/nano tanks in great shape for many years the maintenance can be more than people expect/like, especially when multiple tanks are involved.

 

[brandon429]

agreed. I only keep a 6 inch dsb because a vase looks dum with the rocks not raised up into the globe part. I don't like the cleaning it requires. but when its cleaning time I put on a Hannibal lector mask and go to town on it

ill have that detritus with some fava beans and cold chain breakers

th th th th th th th th

 

[Nano sapiens]

...but when its cleaning time I put on a Hannibal lector mask and go to town on it

What an image!

 

[Ryengoth]

The arguments for/against a sand bed are many. I personally prefer having a sand bed and I treat as a big living organism that needs feeding (carbon/etc. for the bacterial processes) and waste products (detritus, etc.) that need to be removed. Others would rather not have it to deal with it and rely on live rock/other substrates for the nitrogen cycle.

To keep pico/nano tanks in great shape for many years the maintenance can be more than people expect/like, especially when multiple tanks are involved.

Well, the issue with the sugar sand(extremely fine stuff), as I experienced it, is the tight compaction over weeks of time and the generation of numerous nitrogen gas pockets in the bed and massive ones under the rock sitting on the sand. No amount of bacterial dosing, carbon dosing or filter setup would help that. I had to manually remove much of that and treat the tank to restart the nitrogen cycling after each cleaning. Just something to keep in mind when choosing a substrate type and grain size.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Well, the issue with the sugar sand(extremely fine stuff), as I experienced it, is the tight compaction over weeks of time and the generation of numerous nitrogen gas pockets in the bed and massive ones under the rock sitting on the sand. No amount of bacterial dosing, carbon dosing or filter setup would help that. I had to manually remove much of that and treat the tank to restart the nitrogen cycling after each cleaning. Just something to keep in mind when choosing a substrate type and grain size.

I agree, compaction can be an issue and the typical increase of nitrates/phosphates. I have a small 12g and I vacuum substrate once a week and clean under the base rock structure every month or two (one base rock each cleaning session). This type of routine prevents substrate compaction and controls detrital buildup. Not everyone would be willing to do this type of maintenance year-after-year, but I've found it very beneficial for a small system.

 

[Ryengoth]

A water-change vacuum system would be awesome for sand cleaning. Supply new water as it sucks up the same volume with the sand and tumbles it and dumps the nasty water into a bucket. Too many ideas, never enough free time.

 

[k_dog345]

A water-change vacuum system would be awesome for sand cleaning. Supply new water as it sucks up the same volume with the sand and tumbles it and dumps the nasty water into a bucket. Too many ideas, never enough free time.

Actually, a good way to solve this issue would be to suck up all the poo, and just have the water be pouring into your sump. The tank just reuses the water, and all the fish crap is caught in the sump. My issue is that I have no sump, so if I wanted to reuse the water id have to have another bucket with a filter anyway