Nitrate levels through the roof!

[Yellow Jobber]

Yeah but theres fish in there. Is the sand I will be adding just regular sand or should it have bacteria in it like my cc had or so I was told. Additionally, is it safe if LR leans against the aquarium glass?

[h8z2luze]

No you have to get Aragonite sand as reef keeper said and i would try not to lean the LR against the glass.

[lReef lKeeper]

oh, i didnt know you had fish. hmmm ... can you put the fish in a bare bottom 10 gallon tank or another tank you have sitting around ??

you COULD use live sand, but i really dont think it is very alive. i would just go with 1 bag of live sand and 1 50# bag of aragonite from a LFS that knows what they are talking about. sounds like a lot of sand, but you want to make about a 4" sand bed in there.

[Kurt_Nelson]

You are also EXTREMELY overloaded with fish. 3 clowns and a yellow tang in a 29 gallon is just a disaster waiting to happen. All the things previously noted by the others will help in getting those nitrates down, but you're still going to struggle with water quality with that much fish in there. I'd start thinking about a larger tank, or finding that tang a new home.

[lReef lKeeper]

GREAT catch Kurt !! i cant believe that i missed that !! dude, that tang has got to go, or you NEED a much bigger tank !! that is also a huge part of the problem.

that fish needs at the very minimum ... 75 gallons, but would do even better in a 6' tank.

[h8z2luze]

I was thinking the same thing but i didnt say anything cause i figured it was a very small tang and he was going to move it into a bigger tank. But yes that is to many fish for a 29G

[lReef lKeeper]

Originally Posted by h8z2luze

I was thinking the same thing but i didnt say anything cause i figured it was a very small tang and he was going to move it into a bigger tank. But yes that is to many fish for a 29G

even small tangs cover hundreds of miles or reef in the wild on a daily basis. so even a small tang IMHO, is to big for a small tank.

[Yellow Jobber]

I know, LFS screwed me over once again. I told them what I had and they sold it to me anyway. I've had this set up for about 3 years with these fish and am seriously considering a larger tank.

[roka64]

I removed my CC substrate and replaced it with sand, with fish in the tank. I did about 1/3rd of the substrate at a time, over about a three week period. I had no casualties, but I did have extra PWC in the event of my water spiking. Also, carbon starts to leech what it has absorbed after 1-2 weeks. I would look into purigen, great stuff!

[cmor1701d]

Change out the CC like Scott did; over a 3 week period, replacing about a third at a time. You'll want to create a barrier between the sand and the gravel part to keep too much from getting mixed together. A small piece of plexiglass is great for that.

New dry sand will cloud the water for days. You could use the wet bagged sand from the lfs that supposedly is LS, or you could just buy play sand (kids sandbox) from a hardware store (Home Depot/Lowes, etc.). You can mix batches in a 5 gallon pail with a cup of your gravel and fresh sw mix. Keep it heated and keep stirring it so that all the sand get's coated with bacteria. It should take about a week.

When placing the sand into the tank, first clear an area and section it off. Then you can fill some gallon plastic bags from the bucket, lower them in the tank and slowly release the contents. You could also use a section of large diameter pvc (3" or 4") that reaches the tank bottom. Drop the sand into that and then slowly raise it.

Once sand has been coated by bacteria it will settle to the bottom within minutes of being disturbed.

The sand does NOT need to argonite. It can be any sand that has sugar sized granules. It should be a high quality sand like the sand that is fit for children to play in. All metals and toxic elements have been removed/screened out.

You want more ROCK. You should have 1½ - 2 pounds of LR for every gallon of tank capacity. You can get more base rock to save money. It will become LR over the course a few months.

I would not lean any rock directly against the side glass. It should rest on the bottom glass though.