amahler
Aquarium Advice Activist
I've not been active in the forums for several months... life has been busy and the tank has been plodding along fine in the meantime. No new problems I haven't always had... no new real developments, either. I'd say I've just been "maintaining" things while I've been absent and not making any kind of progress. I'm starting to get time, though, to turn attention back to some issues and goals. The problem I never resolved in the past was high nitrate levels. pH, ammonia and nitrites are and have always been perfect...
So I checked my nitrates today for the first time in a while and discovered that they are still as high as ever... though my fish, shrimp, hermit crabs and various little snails (hitchikers from past LR purchases) all continue to seem perfectly happy.
Whatever the case... I want to get the levels down to zero if at all possible. This was an established system when it was given to me about a year ago. The original owner had some LR (I added about another 50 pounds myself bringing it to about maybe 80 pounds worth). Some of it is in my sump as rubble and last year I started removing the bio-balls in an attempt to make a transition that might reduce the nitrates.
I had only a fraction of the bio-balls in there as today and have just removed the remainder. Again, nitrites and ammonia are nil... but nitrates are as bad as ever.
The substrate is CC... that has always bothered me. I'm thinking of moving to sand and am currently on the hunt at my local stores for the Old Castle (or other) non-silicate tropical sand. If I get lucky, I'll buy a bunch and start working on a transition... That is not today's topic, though.
I got to thinking about the various types of pads that exist in the tank. I've cleaned the few blocks of porous foam that exist in parts of the sump and am doing so again today.
--- Major question number one: the big ugly overflow box pad:
What really got me wondering, though, was the "out of sight, out of mind" roll of padding that's in the overflow box wrapped around the standpipe that connects to the sump. It got moved with the system when it was given to me and I've never touched it... nor am I aware of the original owner ever touching it.
I decided to pull it out today and it's rather nasty... as one might expect.
My question here is: can this thing be a major contributor to my nitrate problem? If so... do I really need it? Is it best to rip it out entirely or leave it in place but clean or replace it with regularity?
To help... I've taken some photos of it and of the now naked standpipe that is normally hidden behind a removable baffle (which I took out of the way so I could get the picture).
The pad:
The pad end:
One key thing I've found is that removing the pad lowers the water level in the overflow box and I found that the pipe has holes in it that I never knew existed. Because of this, the water is draining into the sump from only the lower portion of the pipe rather than gushing down the top of it like normal. I gather this is due to altering the displacement in the box from all the bulk of the pad being missing.
So... with the pad out (for now... maybe forever depending on the answers I get here), I think I've reduced my flow rate slightly. Maybe not... but I can't imagine the few holes in the lower part of this pipe can compete with the drain I was getting through the top of the pipe when the outbox water level was higher. I also say this because the level in my sump has gone up slightly since doing this... and that is despite pulling some other foam pieces and other things that would have created displacement out of the sump. I'm also getting a micro-bubble problem... but I think I can work that out since it's related to the outflow of the skimmer with the water level now higher... etc., etc...
Any thoughts on this overall? Keep the pad or not?
I also took out one of the pads from the sump. Does this kind of pad present nitrate problems?
-- Major question number two: bio-balls out... filter sock in:
Having removed the final bio-balls today, that side of my sump now just has the LR rubble that I've had under the bio-balls for about eight months. I figured this means I can now ditch the plate with holes in it that showered water over the bio-balls. This certainly makes things quieter now since I can put the hose down below the water level on top of the rubble and leave the top of the sump open.
I also added a 100-micron filter sock to the end of the hose. So, in a nutshell, the overflow box is now feeding down the original flexible tube to the sump but going through a filter sock first with the end of the tube resting on top of the LR rubble below the water line of the sump.
Any issues here? How often do I clean the sock? Do I clean it or replace it? I've seen mention of people tossing the sock in the wash... but wouldn't that introduce some funky chemicals from the cleaning agents? How do others handle this?
Any thoughts from this long and rambling post would be appreciated. My goal is to eliminate the nitrate problem, so I'm going after every possible culprit. With the tank being well established and a decent amount of LR combined with a fairly light bio-load and a functional skimmer, all I can think to do now is tackle the CC substrate by replacing it with sand and remove these pads if people think they are also a problem.
Thanks!
- Aaron
So I checked my nitrates today for the first time in a while and discovered that they are still as high as ever... though my fish, shrimp, hermit crabs and various little snails (hitchikers from past LR purchases) all continue to seem perfectly happy.
Whatever the case... I want to get the levels down to zero if at all possible. This was an established system when it was given to me about a year ago. The original owner had some LR (I added about another 50 pounds myself bringing it to about maybe 80 pounds worth). Some of it is in my sump as rubble and last year I started removing the bio-balls in an attempt to make a transition that might reduce the nitrates.
I had only a fraction of the bio-balls in there as today and have just removed the remainder. Again, nitrites and ammonia are nil... but nitrates are as bad as ever.
The substrate is CC... that has always bothered me. I'm thinking of moving to sand and am currently on the hunt at my local stores for the Old Castle (or other) non-silicate tropical sand. If I get lucky, I'll buy a bunch and start working on a transition... That is not today's topic, though.
I got to thinking about the various types of pads that exist in the tank. I've cleaned the few blocks of porous foam that exist in parts of the sump and am doing so again today.
--- Major question number one: the big ugly overflow box pad:
What really got me wondering, though, was the "out of sight, out of mind" roll of padding that's in the overflow box wrapped around the standpipe that connects to the sump. It got moved with the system when it was given to me and I've never touched it... nor am I aware of the original owner ever touching it.
I decided to pull it out today and it's rather nasty... as one might expect.
My question here is: can this thing be a major contributor to my nitrate problem? If so... do I really need it? Is it best to rip it out entirely or leave it in place but clean or replace it with regularity?
To help... I've taken some photos of it and of the now naked standpipe that is normally hidden behind a removable baffle (which I took out of the way so I could get the picture).
The pad:
The pad end:
One key thing I've found is that removing the pad lowers the water level in the overflow box and I found that the pipe has holes in it that I never knew existed. Because of this, the water is draining into the sump from only the lower portion of the pipe rather than gushing down the top of it like normal. I gather this is due to altering the displacement in the box from all the bulk of the pad being missing.
So... with the pad out (for now... maybe forever depending on the answers I get here), I think I've reduced my flow rate slightly. Maybe not... but I can't imagine the few holes in the lower part of this pipe can compete with the drain I was getting through the top of the pipe when the outbox water level was higher. I also say this because the level in my sump has gone up slightly since doing this... and that is despite pulling some other foam pieces and other things that would have created displacement out of the sump. I'm also getting a micro-bubble problem... but I think I can work that out since it's related to the outflow of the skimmer with the water level now higher... etc., etc...
Any thoughts on this overall? Keep the pad or not?
I also took out one of the pads from the sump. Does this kind of pad present nitrate problems?
-- Major question number two: bio-balls out... filter sock in:
Having removed the final bio-balls today, that side of my sump now just has the LR rubble that I've had under the bio-balls for about eight months. I figured this means I can now ditch the plate with holes in it that showered water over the bio-balls. This certainly makes things quieter now since I can put the hose down below the water level on top of the rubble and leave the top of the sump open.
I also added a 100-micron filter sock to the end of the hose. So, in a nutshell, the overflow box is now feeding down the original flexible tube to the sump but going through a filter sock first with the end of the tube resting on top of the LR rubble below the water line of the sump.
Any issues here? How often do I clean the sock? Do I clean it or replace it? I've seen mention of people tossing the sock in the wash... but wouldn't that introduce some funky chemicals from the cleaning agents? How do others handle this?
Any thoughts from this long and rambling post would be appreciated. My goal is to eliminate the nitrate problem, so I'm going after every possible culprit. With the tank being well established and a decent amount of LR combined with a fairly light bio-load and a functional skimmer, all I can think to do now is tackle the CC substrate by replacing it with sand and remove these pads if people think they are also a problem.
Thanks!
- Aaron