Live Sand?

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usafmatt

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 14, 2011
Messages
1
Hello,

I have a 46 gallon fish only tank with about 3-4 inches on sand and about 40lbs of rock. The sand and rock were once live, but I moved and took a few years off from running my aquarium. I have it going for about a year and all is pretty well, but my nitrates are starting to creep between 40-80. I've done four 10-15% water changes in the last 2 weeks, but the nitrates are still above 40. I've reduced the amount of food i've been feeding them. Is there any additive I can use or is there a way to make my sand live again to help out? I'm running a protein skimmer and a HOT magnum filter with a bio wheel. I only have four fish in the tank. Thank you!
 
usafmatt said:
Hello,

I have a 46 gallon fish only tank with about 3-4 inches on sand and about 40lbs of rock. The sand and rock were once live, but I moved and took a few years off from running my aquarium. I have it going for about a year and all is pretty well, but my nitrates are starting to creep between 40-80. I've done four 10-15% water changes in the last 2 weeks, but the nitrates are still above 40. I've reduced the amount of food i've been feeding them. Is there any additive I can use or is there a way to make my sand live again to help out? I'm running a protein skimmer and a HOT magnum filter with a bio wheel. I only have four fish in the tank. Thank you!

You could add some fresh live rock to help, this will also seed your old rock and and to come back to life! 10% water change is too small, to reduce the nitrates that much then a couple of 50% changes would be better.
 
Hello,

I have a 46 gallon fish only tank with about 3-4 inches on sand and about 40lbs of rock. The sand and rock were once live, but I moved and took a few years off from running my aquarium. I have it going for about a year and all is pretty well, but my nitrates are starting to creep between 40-80. I've done four 10-15% water changes in the last 2 weeks, but the nitrates are still above 40. I've reduced the amount of food i've been feeding them. Is there any additive I can use or is there a way to make my sand live again to help out? I'm running a protein skimmer and a HOT magnum filter with a bio wheel. I only have four fish in the tank. Thank you!

Welcome to AA, As Henry stated, if the tank has been up and running for a year without issue, the sand is already alive.
 
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