I am battling nitrates. I got it down to about 48ppm, but it's still a struggle even with constant water changes. My tank is a 32 gallon so I am going extreme now. I am going to pick up 30 gallons of ocean water today and am going to do a 50% water change today and tomorrow. I am also debating on replacing the sand. I went with a mixture of Caribsea Hawaiian black sand and Imaginarium black sand which looks great, but I feel it's part of my nitrate problem.
However, changing the sand I have concerns two fold. One, how I can do it without disturbing the fish too much. Two, am I risking the nitrite cycle getting messed up. For one, I may get a small 10 gallon tank or something to keep the fish in while I do it for the day. I am not sure which sand to get either.
So looking for advice on which sand to get, how can I swap my current sand out and how to avoid crashing my tank while I do it. Everything else is healthy minus the nitrates.
In the tank I am using Chemipure Blue and Seachem Purigen. I also installed a skimmer recently. I did try Seachem's DeNitrate, but I didn't notice any difference. I also have NoPox, but have not had the opportunity to use it past a couple of doses which did not seem to help.
However, changing the sand I have concerns two fold. One, how I can do it without disturbing the fish too much. Two, am I risking the nitrite cycle getting messed up. For one, I may get a small 10 gallon tank or something to keep the fish in while I do it for the day. I am not sure which sand to get either.
So looking for advice on which sand to get, how can I swap my current sand out and how to avoid crashing my tank while I do it. Everything else is healthy minus the nitrates.
In the tank I am using Chemipure Blue and Seachem Purigen. I also installed a skimmer recently. I did try Seachem's DeNitrate, but I didn't notice any difference. I also have NoPox, but have not had the opportunity to use it past a couple of doses which did not seem to help.