nitrate help please!

[Ninong]

You can identify your sand bed a lot easier than we can from photos. Just check out the links I put up to the Carib-Sea website. I'm beginning to think that you do not have crushed coral. There's really a big difference between crushed coral and sand. I think you can tell without us having to tell you, even if you have no idea what we're talking about. Just look at those pics on the Carib-Sea website.



P.S. -- Put the new pics up anyway. The problem I have with the present pic is that the sand bed is sort of all whited out. I really can't make out very much at all.

[callahans4]

here are some photos of the sand, the rocks and 24hours of the skimmer.

[Ninong]

Okay, the live rock doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. In any case, as I said before, it will recover over time. I would still add some more to it.

I'm afraid I can't help you on the sand bed. The new picture just makes it even more difficult for me. I have no idea what the magnification is in that photo. If there is not much magnification, then maybe you do have a certain type of crushed coral. Or maybe not.

If you were holding it in your hand, would it feels like beach sand or not? If it would feel like beach sand, then it's aragonite sand and not crushed coral. If the particle sizes are obviously larger than ordinary beach sand or building sand or sand box sand, then it's probably not aragonite sand. Unless it's some of that Carib-Sea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand (1.0-2.0mm particle sizes). Maybe that's what it is??? If so, then that's aragonite "sand" but it's just larger than most other aragonite sand.

If that's what it is, then I don't think I would add sugar-sized aragonite sand on top of that. If you do decide to increase the depth of the sand bed later on (which I still think would be a good idea), I would suggest going with exactly the same stuff. Just bring it up to about 2.0-2.5". You might want to hold off on doing anything about the sand bed right now. You still might want to figure out first if the sand bed is part of your problem. If it is, then you don't want to put anything else on top of it because that may not help any.

A 2.5" sand bed, whether it is sugar-sized aragonite or Special Grade Reef Sand, would provide a lot of denitrification benefits. A 1" sand bed isn't deep enough to provide denitrification. Both live rock and a healthy live sand bed provide beneficial biological filtration.

[callahans4]

more photos

[Ninong]

I think I see some Ventricaria ventricosa algae in that last live rock picture. It's a nuisance alga that looks like shiny green grapes. Not cool. You will want to remove all of that stuff by hand.

How large is your foxface rabbitfish? It should eat that V. ventricosa. Rabbitfish eat just about any algae.

[twisted]

the bed to me looks like argonite. i picked up some stuff the other day that was that size. it doesnt look like crushed coral to me. of the 4 bags i got, one had slighly larger stuff in it than the others. when i get home from work, ill try to put a pic up of it to compare if its still in question

[Parrothead]

I think it might be the special grade reef floor sand as Ninong said, the rock does look pretty good and will improve over time once all water parameters are correct

[callahans4]

i checked carib sea and i think it is that. i will be adding some to increase the depth. i also will be adding some new live rock. as of right now everything looks happy. now if i can just keep it that way.

[PhysG]

Nice looking tank. One thing that happened to me while I thought I was fighting Nitrates, was that my phosphates went high. I had green hair algae, and thought it was the nitrates. It most likely was the nitrates and phosphates. I would keep an eye on your phosphates. Phosphates may have killed my GBT anemone as well. I noticed you have an anemone as well.

On a side note, my tank once looked like yours. You could see all the tubes in the back. One LFS suggested to buy a can of spray paint, i.e permentant. I finally found an LFS that sold black or blue vinyl that sticks on the back. It totally adds to the astetic value of your tank. The vinyl install just like car window tint.

[callahans4]

found the source of my nitrates. everything has been great since the changes, including the skimmer. had to add 10 gallons the other day for evaportation. went down to my local ro water factory at the forcery store and topped off the tank. the next day checked the water and whata ya know, nitrates in the 50's. gonna invest into my own ro/di system for the house.