Nitrates, need to lower!

[samsreef]

Hi Everyone,

I tested the Nitrates on my corner tank and my Dad's 400l and both are 100+

So I think I have found the problem with the hair algae (although its not growing as fast anymore)

We use RO water and both have LR and protein skimmers, I have good water circulation, the 400l doesn't

I was wondering whether it could be the fluvals? We only clean them out once a month and they still have all the media in it, soft sponges, corse sponges and ceramics.

I have read that the ceramic pieces are nitrate collectors, should we start to remove these?

None of the fish seem stressed in my tank and none have any diseases (my dad's 400l is a different story, thats heavily overstocked so all the fish are stressed and have problems. We are sorting that though.)

I will be getting a sump or hang on miracle mud system for the corner tank once I have my other one setup and cycled fully.

Could it be the protein skimmer? It is a standard prizm and I get less than a quarter of stuff a week. Does anyone know of a better hang on skimmer that will fit in a 4" gap?

We do weekly 10l water changes (a standard bucket).

Ammonia and Nitrite tested 0 on mine. Phosphate was 1.0 so I need to add some more phosphate remove, I hope I don't flood my room again!

(I used salifert test kits)

[zhenya]

Hi Sam,

I'm pretty sure that Fluvals are the culprits in both of your systems. if you have live rock and sand I would consider removing biological media from them, leaving carbon pads is OK but you need to be more dilligent in replacing them or cleaning. Such filters, like Fluval and other canister type filters, are very efficient at converting ammonia and nitrite into nitrates( hence why they are called nitrate factories) but have no way of removing NO3 out of the system.
You would be much better off implementing some other nutrient export mechanism into the system, like refugium with some macro algae to compete for nutrients. This algae can be partially removed together with accumulated nutrients. Anyway, I am sure you know all this by now. ;)

[samsreef]

Thanks for the advice Gene, it kind of confirmed what I thought.

Should we remove all the media in one go or remove it slowly? Will removing all the media all in one go cause the tank to have another cycle?

[zhenya]

Thanks for the advice Gene, it kind of confirmed what I thought.

Should we remove all the media in one go or remove it slowly? Will removing all the media all in one go cause the tank to have another cycle?

Well, I think if you have enough live rock in the tank it shouldn't cause another cycle. Just to be on the safe side I would remove portions at the time and discard it, wait a few days and see how your water parameters stand and then do it again.
When I started out I had a wet/dry filter with tons of bio balls in it, I had high NO3 levels no matter how often I did water changes( and I had about 250lbs of live rock int he 110g tank). So, on the advice from a friend who had similar experience I removed all bio balls, washed that filter clean and restarted it. The NO3 fell from around 25ppm to zero( or unreadable) in a week;s time.

[WHOSYOURDADDY]

I agree with zhenya make your changes slow and test after each change. This thought basicly goes with my electronics background when testing for problems.

Lets say you make all these changes at once and the problem goes away. Thats the good thing but what was it that caused the problem in the 1st place.

By making changes one at a time and testing you can better determine the source of the problem, correct it and in the future if the problem rears it's ugly head again you have a step up on what caused it in the 1st place and take corrective action.