Call me crazy, but since you have given up the tank already... I am completely surprised that you haven't seen an algea bloom or 2 with cyno bacteria blooms to boot. (Though 40ppm nitrate is considered high, its the high end of acceptable for
FO) Also, get a second and third test kit to make sure your kit isn't g00bed up?
As for cutting down feedings. How often is 'cut down'? How much do you feed? frozen foods? Flake? Also, put some media in that, what was it an
HOB filter with no media? Put some carbon in it, filter media good, no filter bad, filter media good, no filter bad...; ). Also, it may be useful to purchase some Nitrate and Phos sponges. Load em up and try it. I have a de-nitrator and it works well (You can probably find some
DIY coil denitrators), mine keeps my tank at undetectable (Marineland) and I perfom 0, none, zilch, nadda water changes...ever. No detectable nitrates. Also, you mention you have 'some snails and hermits'. Got enough? 110G tank, you should have a boat load. I can attest to letting your clean up crew dwindle *will*, not might but *will* cause you issues. Also, 100lbs of
LR..I prolly got that much in my 75G.
LR is a large piece of the natural filtration process. You have to remember, that while you may not have this tank overstocked, it is a closed system and not having enough filtration can be just as big a porblem with 1 fish as with 20.
I am curious, you mention these fish and corals and that the tank is 2 yrs old..Have things been dying? Is there a reason your chasing this elusive lower nitrate level? Just asking, didn't see any info on it. Couple schools of thought if nothing else works. 1. there is a articel on instant nitrate reduction, never used it, if everything dies overnight as a result, you ate it. But heres the link..
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/nitratecontrol/l/aa091901.htm
2. If the Nitrates are running around 40ppm, then in theory your corals would already be showing signs of stress. (Less than 20ppm for inverts and such, some would say no more than 5ppm) Remember Algea consumes nitrates. Refugium maybe? Again, pointing to either a too shallow sand bed or just plain not enough
LR for the 110G tank.
All in all, if your tank looks healthy, but shows this high nitrate level, maybe your test kit is b00bied. Maybe thats as good as it gets, but if the tanks happy, whats the point of knocking yourself out.
Best of luck to you no matter what you decide.
GL
PS - Borrowed this from revhtree's tagline, look at the amount of
LR and clean up crew. Also, he has some good pics of his sand bed in his gallery. Remember, his tank is 35G *smaller* than yours. GL
"75g Saltwater Reef Tank | 155pds of
LR Gulf & Fiji |
CC substrate with 2" sand on top | 460w
pc | Tomato Clown | 2 Mated Percula Clowns | Royal Gramma | Yellow Tailed Damsel | Engineer Goby | 2 Serpant Starfish | 3 Peppermint Shrimp | Coral Banded Shrimp | 4 Rock/Flower Anemone | 1 Purple Tip Anemone | Flame Scallop | 30+ Hermit Crabs | 60+ Snails | Red Tree Sponge | Pulsating Xenia | Button Poylps | Zoos | Mushrooms | Cabbage Laether | 2 Finger Leather | Bubble Coral | Purple Gorgonia | Feather Dusters | Assorted Marine Plants"
