[angelfury]

Hello everyone and hello to all you moderators. You have what seems to be a very informative site.

I have a 55 gal that has been running for 7 months with a 5" DSB, 50 lbs live rock, 30 gal sump with no skimmer, and a Fluval 404 packed to the gill with
Eheim Ehfisubstrat.
I have 1 yellow tang, 1 flame hawk, 2 starfish, 10 LARGE snails, and the live rock was LOADED with life when I bought it (baby urchins, baby starfish, baby crabs, all kinds of worms ????, little bugs????, and tons of little anemones.

My water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia = 0.0
Nitrite = 0.0
Nitrate = 1.5
pH = 8.2-8.5
dKh = 9-11
Salinity = 1.025
Temp = 80*

Up until this point, I havent had a loss of life and all my fish and critters look and behave healthy and happy.

What I am now worried about is today I totally disconnected my fluval 404 that was probably loaded with beneficial bacteria and put it on a 20 gal quarantine tank that I have (I have also use copper in the quarantine tank from time to time) So now I couldnt connect it to my display even if I wanted to.

I am worried that the live rock wont be able to handle the bio-load all by itself and a bunch of my animals might die (I sure hope not) I got my live rock from LiveRocks and it is spectacular, I just dont know how much beneficial bacteria it contains.

Did I make a right decision, or am I in for a ugly surprise?

[Peterock]

You will be fine with that because the rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon of water but you have a 3" sand bed and a 30 gallon sump that should be fine but I was now get a skimmer and probley add some LR to you sump just for more filteration.

[middlemark]

I'd maybe change water a little more often, maybe a couple times within the first week or so - just to play it safe.

I tend to rely on my skimmer to help out this - but don't see why you should have a problem provided the tank has been stable and stocked at this level for the last months.

FWIW, I run a big skimmer and slightly over 1#/gallon of live rock in my 58g sps tank [no substrate, no mech filtration, nothing more than the rock and skimmer for biofiltration] ... and haven't had any problems.

Do be wary of overfeeding or letting maintenance slack for the next while - IMO that if you keep things nice and stable ... you should be fine.

[and good idea with a QT, highly recommended and something I know had to get `burned' with even despite `knowing better' to really do it every time now ... I'd suggest avoiding the removing-fish-hassle and sad, sad day losing a couple of my oldest fish ... and QT like you are]

[The R/C Man]

angelfury,

Welcome to RL!!!!

Well the live rock is the biological filtration and the canistor filter can be a serious problem if not cleaned constantly. They typically become nitrate traps and actually raise the levels in your tank. The best thing would be to remove the canistor and invest in a good skimmer. The skimmer will remove the dissolved organics in the tank before they can be converted to nitrates.

I am still reading about the different processes involved and how exactly it works. It is somewhat complicated for us non biology majors but it is interesting.

Randy Holmes-Farley has plenty of articals about marine chemistry.....Here is a link for you. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm
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[angelfury]

Hello again,

Thank you guys for being helpful, it has been a couple of days since I removed the Fluval and all the water parameters are the same as before (even nitrate which I thought would go down some) and the entire family seems happy. Would I have noticed any changes in the water chemistry by now, or is it too soon?

[The R/C Man]

You probably won't notice any change for a week or so I would think. The test kits are only so accurate.

I was wondering if you have macro algae in your sump. If not you should add some and install a clip on light. They will help reduce nitrates in the tank...