algae blooms and nitrates

[s10469]

I know algae blooms come from a variety of things, so the process of elimination is what you do. On my tank it is coming down to nitrates....I think. I got new bulbs, cleaned my filter, and replaced the sponges, good water flow. I have no phosphates, but i am seeing 10 to 15ppm on nitrates. So now i wander how accurate my readings are. The algae lives on nitrates right? If i could take out all the algae, then test my water again would i have a higher reading then with the algae in it? It makes sense to me and becouse all i have is a canister filter with no nitrate absorbing stuff, and LR and sand then i dont have a way to get the nitrates out of mt tank besides PWCs right? If thats the case what would be the most effective Nitrate sbsorbing animal, as i have not got much floor space. I can get nitrate clams, and i think they are called flaming, or fire scallops. I dont want to put macro in my tank. Also how many would you need if your 45gal. tank always reads 10 to 15ppm of nitrates? I have a refugium(reef master 200) but its for my 90 gal. and it will be set up as soon as i get my lights for it, and its to big for a 45 gal. tank. Any ideas out there?

[Kurt_Nelson]

Are you using RO/DI water?

How often are you doing water changes?

What fish do you have in there... and are we talking about a 90g or a 45g?

Just a few questions to start things off...

[s10469]

yes i am using RO/DI water. I do a 10% weekly PWC , and its a 45 gal. hex. As for as fish, i have a tomato clown, a watchmen goby, another long little purple fish. All are pretty small. I also got a little horse shoe crab, a sand sifter starfish 3 turbo snails, and 6 blue/red hermits. What i got is like green diatoms on my sand and glass. I clean it but it comes back pretty quick. I have 60# of LR so i am sure thats enough for what i have, plus 3-4 inches of sand, which the horse shoe crab stirs up quite a bit and it burys the green stuff. Not real sure if thats part of the problem or not. Hope this helps becouse i am running out of ideas. Thanks

[melosu58]

How long has the tank been up and running? Do you use a skimmer?

[Kurt_Nelson]

I'm not familiar with them, but horseshoe crabs really REALLY turn over the sand bed... don't they? I'm wondering if you aren't getting excessive nitrates because the sand bed is being disturbed more than it should? Kind of like doing a deep vacuuming every other day - which is not a good thing.

Just floating that out there as an option.

I don't think you want to put flame scallops in your tank. They seem to have a dismal survival rate unless you are constantly feeding them - which would then drive up your nitrate levels!

[cmor1701d]

A horse shoe crab really doesn't belong in a home aquarium. They grow too big and disturb too much of the sandbed. A 4" sandbed is a DSB. A DSB should not be disturbed if it going to work. Otherwise you are just releasing nitrates back into the water column.

I also agree on the flame scallop. They really should not be sold as they jsut don't survive very long in a home aqarium.

[roka64]

I agree on the scallop and horse shoe crab. I have seen them up to 3 feet+ from head to tail tip!