Lowering Nitrates in a Nano Cube 24 gal

[therzog]

I've had a 24 gal Nano Cube up for about 5 months now. From all observations it seems to be doing well. All my corals seem to be maintaining themselves well and others are thriving and growing. I have three small fish (2 gobies and an anthias), a dozen or more hermit crabs, 1 turbo snail, and a sea cucumber to maintain the sand bed. There are even some starfish that have spontaneously begun to appear (very small ones). I have had difficulty with a flame scallop, sea hare, and fire shrimp that were all short lived (1 month or less). I want to attribute it to a high Nitrate level. It seems to hover around the 40-60 ppm range, now matter what I do. I've religiously changed 25% of my water about every 3 weeks. I've even got a nitrate buffer in the sump, but I'm never able to get the nitrates any lower than 40ppm. Although things stable and coralline algae is forming well, I still am having a bit of trouble with some nuisance algea (bubble and hair) from time to time. Plus everything I read seems to indicate that I need to get the nitrates lower than they are. I also would like to add another shrimp but am dubious of its ability to survive at this with nitrates at the level they are. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Scottm]

do water changes every day until your nitrates are down. They WILL go down.

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

what water are you using for pwc? ro/di? tap?

water changes are goin to be your best friend. 20-50%, imo. the more you change, the more nitrate youll take out.

 

[austinsdad]

Anthias need to eat many times daily, right? How often are you feeding? PWC's for nitrate reduction may only work for a very short period of time if other things ain't right. Lighting (I use 10 hrs on) and excess nutrients from overfeeding could also contribute to the algae.

Existing livestock has prolly become used to the nitrates as they climbed. New stock will have a tuff time.