High nitrate question....help!

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LOL bavass we are a little OCD about our tanks. I think your rock is fine if you where having a problem with ammonia I might question your rock but since its high nitrates I would think that your cycle is working. BUT if it will make you feel better IMO adding the rubble rock to the sump wont hurt anything AS LONG AS ITS FULLY CURED.

AND do you have a DSB in your tank or sump? Ive read that it will convert the nitrates to nitrogen gas wich bubbles up and out of your tank.
 
OMG what happened to my tank over the weekend? I did a 10g water change on Thursday like I have been doing for awhile. The sand, rock and glass is covered with algae. If you look at the pic there is a sheet of algae standing up, waving and laughing in the flow. I did change out my 2 week old SeaGel Carbon. Cleaned some of the algae up. Dont have any water made up doing that tonight for the water change tomorrow. Now what? This is killing me. How can I be patient with this? My whole tank looks like this. The only thing that has been added since I did the water change Thursday was top of RO/DI water.

876557149_xXZQw-M.jpg
 
DEEP BREATHS, Try to calm down. Looks like an outbreak of cyano. Not a good thing and can be troublesome to get rid of.
1 Cut back on feeding. Cyano like most problems comes from too many nutirents in the tank.

2 Siphon out as much as can from the substrate when you do a PWC.

3 Try to get some additional flow on the substrate in those areas. A little bit of flow will help alot.

Quoting an old Lando post:
"Basically, it is the result of too much
nutrients in the water. Ussually it is a PO4 issue. The first step should be getting a PO4 test kit and testing both your aquarium water and the water you do top-offs and changes with (source water).
What is your souce water?
You have two goals here...
1) to identify and eliminate the souce of cycno and
2) get rid of the exsisitng cyno from your tank.
You should begin doing water changes using high quality RO/DI water. You can try to vaccum up as much of the cyno as you can. Be careful not to break it up too much as it can spread. Check the age of your bulbs, as they get older they loose some spectrum and this can be a cause. Evalute your feeding and lighting schedules. Cut back on both. Add more flow to your tank. Cyno tends to get a hold in places of little or no water movement. Adding one or two more PH will help this. Chemi-! clean by Boyd Enterprises, INC is a great product. It will remove any exsisitng cyno from your tank but it will NOT keep it from coming back.
This is why it is so important to identify the cause of your outbreak. "

FYI, I used the Boyd's prodcut a few years ago. It will make the skimmer go nuts, so you need to shut that down for a bit if you use it.

Best bet is to find the source and eliminate it.
 
I feed every third day. I only use RO/DI water it tested 0 for nitrates, phosphates and TDS. I have a Mag Drive 7 main return pump, 2 hydor 2's on a wavemaker a 3rd running all the time across the back glass. The Cyano is standing up and flapping in the flow. I have a Phosban Reactor running was running SeaGel in it but changed that out and went back to phosban yesterday. The light fixture I have is only 2-3 months old. I don't understand where it is coming from. I did order 15lbs of rubble rock to put in sump after it cures.
 
I should also add that when I feed I use frozen food most of the time I do have pellet food if I am in a hurry. They get a pinch. When I use the Frozen food, Mysis, and Brine shrimp I use a glass with a coffee filter and run RO/DI over the food to thaw and let the water run thru the filter to wash off phosphates.
 
You are correct in that I did not go back and re-read the entire post. But this post is now 29 pages long.

Get some Boyd's to help cure the cyano for now. Re-read my post. If there is adequate flow then cyano canNOT establish a foothold. Siphon out as much as you can. Then add the Boyd's.

Stop making any other changes that could affect water chemistry.

Do you have detectable PO4 or is it low enough that the algae is consuming it?
 
I am making no changes the only thing I am doing is water changes. My PO4 is 0. Will it hurt anything to add more snails to CUC?
 
cmor1701d said:
You are correct in that I did not go back and re-read the entire post. But this post is now 29 pages long.

Get some Boyd's to help cure the cyano for now. Re-read my post. If there is adequate flow then cyano canNOT establish a foothold. Siphon out as much as you can. Then add the Boyd's.

Stop making any other changes that could affect water chemistry.

Do you have detectable PO4 or is it low enough that the algae is consuming it?
Click to expand...

I was looking at the Boyds. I see it requires a air pump I only have a small air pump that I use when mixing my water. I wonder if it would be ok to just run the skimmer wide open with the collection cup off just for the air and run the small air pump? I hate to buy a $25 air pump to use once.
 
I am suspecting his RO/DI water and the TDS meter might have an issue. SOMETHING is feeding the algae in that tank. Maybe bad batch of salt? I do believe phosphates are what feed cyano, no? I think you ought to pull out all your contraptions and try things on a much more basic scale. I had the cyano thing too, and its been gone for 6 months now. I dont have anything more than a fluval 305 filter with clearmax in it, as well as some chaeto in the DT. Something in that tank isnt doing what its supposed to be doing. I suspect its one of your different toys.



This tank is going to go down in history for its imfamy alright...I will keep you in my prayers. I know how irritating it is! I have my own problem with scratches! They just appear on my acrylic tank! Dont see them happening, just notice them when I get close. Seems like a monster waits for me to go to bed and I wake up to find that crap. Makes me want to cry too!

Matt
 
I assume you are talking about the 2 reactors when you say toys? I just changed the media in the phosphate reactor. The reactor that has the de*nitrate in it has been cut off for a little over a to grow bacteria in then I will cut it back on with a slow drip. I never could get the bacteria to establish in it to were the nitrates stayed lower coming out of it. The new salt water mis always tests 0 for nitrates and phosphates. I test the RO/DI water every time I start to make new water. TDS meter is brand new only a week old. The water always tests 0 for nitrates, phosphates, TDS, and silicates.I think its one of two problems my rock just is not doing what it should. More snails should be here Wed to help clean and improve that. Second is the skimmer just is not doing what it should.
 
Oh and I did order 15lbs of rock rubble from Marcorocks to add to sump but that has to cure first so figure what 6 weeks before I can add that
 
mrg02d said:
I am suspecting his RO/DI water and the TDS meter might have an issue. SOMETHING is feeding the algae in that tank. Maybe bad batch of salt? I do believe phosphates are what feed cyano, no? I think you ought to pull out all your contraptions and try things on a much more basic scale. I had the cyano thing too, and its been gone for 6 months now. I dont have anything more than a fluval 305 filter with clearmax in it, as well as some chaeto in the DT. Something in that tank isnt doing what its supposed to be doing. I suspect its one of your different toys.



This tank is going to go down in history for its imfamy alright...I will keep you in my prayers. I know how irritating it is! I have my own problem with scratches! They just appear on my acrylic tank! Dont see them happening, just notice them when I get close. Seems like a monster waits for me to go to bed and I wake up to find that crap. Makes me want to cry too!

Matt
Click to expand...

Sorry meant to say thanks man, LOL! Yeah when I have something that is screwed up it really is!!!!! But, hopefully with everybodies help we will work it out and I will oneday sit back and enjoy the tank. :drinking:
 
" I know how irritating it is! I have my own problem with scratches! They just appear on my acrylic tank!"
Two things come to mind when you say scratches happening at night.
1) you have a "SEA URCHIN" and it comes out after lights out. They can scratch the heck out of an acrylic tank.
2) you have some "LIMPET SNAILS", They two can play heck with an acrylic tank.
 
Ok did my water change took a powerhead to the rocks cleaned them off good. I found alot of crap that had built up behind the skimmer in my sump so I stirred that up then did a 15g water change. I also took the reactors out of the sump and hung them on the side and placed a rio 800 in the sump blowing across the bottom and behind the skimmer to keep stuff stirred up. I almost put my extra Hydro 2 in the sump that will keep it moving, LOL!
 
just did a silicate test on my RO/DI water and Silicates are at 2ppm coming out of it last night they were at 0 ran the test again tonight they are at 2ppm did the test twice tonight. Must have had a bad test result last night
 
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