Continuous Nitrate increase

[Treefer32]

What's the water change schedule on that size of a tank ??

Heh. None. :) No, I do a 40-50% water change every 4-6 months. Primarily to reset any imbalances in trace nutrients and try to reset nitrates back to reasonable levels, if only for a week.
40-50% is 140-150 gallons, which is pretty much an entire bucket of Reef Crystals. I probably should do that monthly, but I'm trying to find ways to streamline my time and improve the habitat. It's somewhat working. No hair algae in the display (Huge win for me!).

However, the glass is covered within a day and it takes me 45 minutes to clean all 4 sides since no one makes a 6-8" wide scraper (would love that) It's built into the wall, so, Getting to the sides from the outside is not possible. The sides must be done from the front and rear of the tank. So, guess how many days a week my glass is clean? --- Hint: 1. . .

 

[brandon429]

one of the biggest impacts you could make to the tank positively would be to reduce places that store up particulate waste/detritus

if you have a sandbed, and it's removed, I bet that window cleaning work goes down in scale a good bit.

 

[Treefer32]

one of the biggest impacts you could make to the tank positively would be to reduce places that store up particulate waste/detritus

if you have a sandbed, and it's removed, I bet that window cleaning work goes down in scale a good bit.

That's a good point. I used to have fish that stirred up the sand bed - daily. It was about October I removed the fish that would cause constant sand storms and relocate my rocks (my Dragon Wrasse). Since removing that fish, nitrates became unstable.

I don't know why stirring the sand bed constantly vs. not stirring it at all would cause nitrates to rise. I always thought the opposite. But that fish had been in the tank for 3 years. Since removing him, things have changed.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

the fish was keeping waste suspended for the skimmer and other medias to keep tank clean. i had a diamond goby that kept mine clean now i do not i still stir it here and there but with no water changes you need other equipment to keep things stable