Eggpaul
Aquarium Advice Activist
Okay, so I've had my barebottom biocube 29 for about 6 months, and up until mid July (last time I tested for Nitrates) Nitrates were at 0. I was all proud, because I always read how people had 20 nitrates all the time. Well, for a few days some of my corals haven't looked that great, so I check Nitrates and they were between 40-80!!! What happened? I added 1 fish and then another fish jumped out, so bioload is about the same. Did something accumulate somewhere?
Stock- 2 clowns, 1 flameback angel, 1 red flamehawk (new addition), and 1 purple firefish. And about 20 corals, and some crabs/snails.
I run a skimmer and have over 30 lbs of live rock. I don't run Carbon. I still have the bioballs in there, and I just was able to clean a handful of them a few days ago after noticing the problem and I saw that a lot of junk came off of them.
Is the problem with the bioballs? Lots of ditritus on them? I haven't vacuumed the bare bottom in a while, so I'm thinking lots of it accumulated on the floor.
I noticed in chamber 1 there is a lot of dirt and junk on the floor, so maybe I should vacuum that? Would Chaeto in the 2nd chamber help?
Stock- 2 clowns, 1 flameback angel, 1 red flamehawk (new addition), and 1 purple firefish. And about 20 corals, and some crabs/snails.
I run a skimmer and have over 30 lbs of live rock. I don't run Carbon. I still have the bioballs in there, and I just was able to clean a handful of them a few days ago after noticing the problem and I saw that a lot of junk came off of them.
Is the problem with the bioballs? Lots of ditritus on them? I haven't vacuumed the bare bottom in a while, so I'm thinking lots of it accumulated on the floor.
I noticed in chamber 1 there is a lot of dirt and junk on the floor, so maybe I should vacuum that? Would Chaeto in the 2nd chamber help?