[MilanoMami24]

I have decided to start putting live rock in my 75 gallon tank. I am going with a DSB and i currently have a Fluval 405, no protein skimmer yet, but hopefully i will be getting one soon. So my question is what is the most effective way to utilize my canister filter (ie taking out carbon?) so that my Nitrates will stay low until i get a protein skimmer and abundant live rock. Oh also i only have about 10 lbs of live rock in there, it was $60!!! So im going to just add rock slowly over time.

[leebca]

Adding live rock slowly can be problematic and something I don't recommend. There is nothing wrong with not being able to afford all the LR you need at once, but instead of buying it slowly, I'd suggest saving up the money until you can buy all that you need.

I really recommend you look into the problems that can be caused by continually adding LR to the aquarium system. For one thing, the system doesn't ever get a change to mature and settle down until all the LR has been in place for several months.

The post is in the Fish Only Aquariums Forum here at Reefland, so if the concern is about nitrates, then most fishes won't care about medium levels of that nitrification product. Water changes should handle it well enough.

If however your goal is to include in the system some nitrate sensitive marine life then you either want to turn to the appropriate live rock quantity OR perform chemical filtration to remove it, in addition to water changes. There are nitrate removing substances, and there are nitrate reactors of sorts that provide a low-oxygen environment for denitrification (turning nitrates in nitrogen and other compounds). The latter will function like a DSB to some extent; the former is a chemical filter.

The canister filter can be used for the nitrate reactor, up to a point, if it is packed properly. I myself am unable to take you further than this, since I have never set one up.

I further encourage you to save your money to buy the proper equipment at the outset rather than try to piecemeal the system part-by-part.

[melancthon]

Kent Marine makes a decent Nitrate Sponge, but I think, if you're set on getting a piece of equipment as soon as you're able, you should go with the protein skimmer first; not only was it suggested to me elsewhere (thanks LEE) but it will help the whole thing later as well when you do put in the live rock and wait for it to settle down a bit.