I need help....Still..

[joseserrano]

In the complete tank tear down, all the rock went into a Rubbermaid stock tank and had 6PH for flow with a 2 150g HOB filters to get as much stuff out of the rock as possible. The rock was turned and rotated daily. The sand was vacuumed 7 times in a week and I was running fine filter socks and it pulled a lot out. I am feeding just frozen brine and mysis. I feed one, one day and the other the rest. I have a Bubble Magus NAC3.5 and it does wonders. Pulls out sludge. About a milk gallon every 3-5weeks.

A whole cube? that's a lot of food for a tank that size, and the amount of livestock.

 

[steallife904]

yes 1 a day seems like a lot.

 

[Zack K]

Have you purchased anything new since the major water change and massive water change ? Do you let any of the water from the bag of the new purchase into the aquarium ? I ask because years ago I had very high nitrate problem and doing all you already did , I tested the bag water from a new purchased frag and the nitrates were off the charts! I couldn't believe it , the tank at the fish store was spotless and the coral all looked beautiful . I thought no way could this water be bad , it will be fine if some goes in my tank.......WRONG !
Just something to consider , but yes it could definitely be trapped in your rock also.

I have put nothing new in the tank after I had a Velvet outbreak around Christmas time. And no. I do not add the bag water.

 

[Zack K]

A whole cube? that's a lot of food for a tank that size, and the amount of livestock.

yes 1 a day seems like a lot.

No. beetween my 2 tanks, I feed 1/2 cube per day

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No. beetween my 2 tanks, I feed 1/2 cube per day

Any idea how your going to treat it?
What's the goal, coral?

 

[Zack K]

Any idea how your going to treat it?
What's the goal, coral?

I want a LPS Dominate tank at some point. This issue is killing me. Nothing likes the 160ppm Nitrates.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I want a LPS Dominate tank at some point. This issue is killing me. Nothing likes the 160ppm Nitrates.

you should see PaulBs tank.

 

[Zack K]

you should see PaulBs tank.

I went and read through his 46yr old tank thread. What exactly am I looking for? He has a beautiful tank don't eat me wrong. I think I have run into his thread once before. But how is this going to help me with the Nitrate problem? Is their a certain thread I should read? I know he writes dang good threads

 

[jsker]

Reading through, what is driving your nutrients so high?
What is the mechanical setup of your system, sump, canister or HOB?
What kind of media are you running?
There are all kinds of good suggestions.
What needs to happen, is your phosphates need to be around .02 and your nitrates need to be around 3 to 5 ppm.
My suggestions to get your Po4's down are , GFO, a product with lanthanum chloride, or phosban in a reactor.
With water changes I would suggest vacuuming the sand bed to pull the garbage out of the substrate. Hence to refer to @Paul B thread, Paul stirs up the sand bed to filter out all the waste and filters it. The same thing can be done with vacuuming, 10% weekly water changes, and running carbon.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I went and read through his 46yr old tank thread. What exactly am I looking for? He has a beautiful tank don't eat me wrong. I think I have run into his thread once before. But how is this going to help me with the Nitrate problem? Is their a certain thread I should read? I know he writes dang good threads

No his nitrates are like 700,000 billion and po4 is infinity x pie. Nice corals though.

Reading through, what is driving your nutrients so high?

Think it may just be really old dirty rock. It weird.

 

[joseserrano]

fast solution would be get new rock cured, do large water change before adding the rock, and follow up ones if it is still higher than desired. Keep in mind, water changes, even large will take a while to drop nitrates. if you did a 50% water change, that would bump your numbers to 80, that assuming you are using optimal water. Also, half a cube a day for a tank that size is still a lot. I has very little livestock, and honestly an undersized skimmer.

 

[Zack K]

fast solution would be get new rock cured, do large water change before adding the rock, and follow up ones if it is still higher than desired. Keep in mind, water changes, even large will take a while to drop nitrates. if you did a 50% water change, that would bump your numbers to 80, that assuming you are using optimal water. Also, half a cube a day for a tank that size is still a lot. I has very little livestock, and honestly an undersized skimmer.

I have done massive water changes and they only take it down temporarily. I will try new rock if I can't read up on Paul's tank a little more. And I use 1/2 total beetween 2 tanks. Only about 1/4 go to the fish and the other goes to the 3 nems.

 

[Paul B]

My corals laugh at 160 nitrates. Ha Ha Ha , I can hear them laughing now. "SHUT UP CORALS". I can't stand their yelling. They want me to increase the nitrates but that would involve me dosing pork chops and M&Ms even "more" than I do now. I don't know what to do. :mad: