established tank high nitrates and ?'s

[tryin2make63]

okay i have had my tank up for well over a year. i originally bought 25lbd live rock and placed another 20 in that was lace rock. all of it now has coraling growing on it one place or another. i have 90 lbs black live sand and 3 fish. it is 58gal with a sump that was custom made by me. the sump has bio balls, sand for an refuge.i also added a purple,pink zoa last week.

here are my questions.....

1. how long does it take for a regular rock placed in an tank to be concidered a "live rock"

2. i have absolutely 0 nitrites and always have high nitrates. y. i do weekly water changes and it spikes back up within days. I DO NOT OVERFEED. please help.

3. i have a really wierd snail that i believe came out of my liverock. it has a flatsoft shell. any clue of name?

 

[yohann976]

I'm not sure about your nitrates, but I might be able to help you with your snail ID. Look up stomatella. If you have these, I believe they are beneficial. I have a bunch of them in my tank and they seem to only eat algae.

 

[tryin2make63]

ill check that out. thx i heard that my bio balls may be keeping my nitrates up. ill try to get some pics up

 

[thincat]

I believe that your bio-balls are a major part of your high nitrates. I would slowly remove them.
LR means that the rock has live bacteria in it. The extent of the bacteria is in proportion to how porous your rock is and the length of time it's been in your DT.

 

[tryin2make63]

the rock that i used as base was lace rock. dont know a lot about it. what type of rock is recommended to add. the rock has been in my tank every since i cycled it... over 16 months

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

After 16 months, all your rock and sand are now "live". As thincat mentioned, it just means it is populated with bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate.

Which also answers the question of why you don't see any nitrites - you obviously have enough bacteria to convert the nitrites to nitrates quick enough that you can't see any.

Regarding your nitrates... what kind of water are you using for your water changes and top offs? Tap water? RO/DI water? Have you tested your newly made salt water for nitrates? If you're using tap water, the nitrates could be coming in with every water change.

When you say "high" nitrates, what kind of levels are we talking about? 5 ppm? 20 ppm? 100 ppm?

 

[tryin2make63]

talking it has been a long long time since i have seen below 20. testing my water now... get back to you in a sec on that

 

[tryin2make63]

0ppm in my pwc

 

[Tank2379]

Just like Kurt mention are you using Tap water? If not how deep is your Sand Bed?

 

[tryin2make63]

yes tap water but like i said i already tested. it.it has 0 ppm. am i missing the whole concept behind the water? sand bed is 2"

 

[cmor1701d]

Your tap tested at 9ppm for what? Nitrates?
How about PO4?
Do you have a tds meter?
My tap measures 185-220 ppm on the TDS meter and 0 after RODI unit. That's the reason for using RODI water.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

What is the Nitrate level in the tank? If it's too high to tell (API over 40 is hard to differentiate) then use some freshly mixed SW and use 50% that and 50% tank water and double the result. If that's too high, do 25% tank water 75% newly mixed. If that's too high, you're in trouble.

 

[austinsdad]

First step to replace those bio-balls might help. Are you using a protein skimmer? Still waiting for the tank nitrate test readings. 20ppm and below is totally acceptable, but you say yours haven't been south of 20 for some time, right?

Also, are you using a clean up crew/CUC and if so, what and how many. Also, describe your feeding. What and how often?

 

[tryin2make63]

my nitrates are inbetween 40 and 50 ppm. my pwc tested 0 on nitrates and nitrites. i am going to start removing my bio balls slowly and adding live rock rubble to it. my protein skimmer is a pos and im in the process of buying a new one. everyone has their own openion on which ones to use.any sugestions. 58 gal with custom 20 long sump. far as cuc goes, i have several snails,blue leg hermits. i recently found what i think to be feather dusters. (filter feeders right) i feed every other day. would go longer but my cinaminon clown tries to pick on my green chromis. i feed 2 types of food. 1 is flakes the other on is the frozen seafood squares for fish.(marine quizene and stuff) one square will last me 3 feedings. the flakes all i use is a pinch.

sorry for my ignorance but what is an tds meter and what is its specific uses?

thank all of you for your imput.

 

[austinsdad]

Flakes and frozen food are notorious for adding nitrates to your system. The water that the frozen food is in is loaded with the stuff allegedly. I've never tested it though. Anyone up for a "homework assignment"??

Total disolved solids = TDS. It tells you how much dissolved junk is in your water basically.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I maintain a 125 reef tank w/200+ lbs LR and after battling the nitrates down from over 200 to under 20, they went down all the way on their own and are staying there, and he feeds frozen brine shrimp daily, so I think it all has to do with the brand maybe and how you rinse before feeding, and the amount of LR in the system.

I wouldn't add LR rubble in place of bio-balls, it's essentially the same thing from what I've read. I would just add more large pieces to the display tank, or even get some base rock (dried out LR) if you can't afford to go buy that much LR at once. If you go buy LR make sure to only add 10% of your system water every other week and test for ammonia/nitrite spikes. Get enough so you have at a minimum 1 lb per gallon, preferably 2lb/gal and over time, it should denitrify naturally.

I like the Reef Octopus needlewheel skimmer. I have only used that one and an AquaC though. Plenty of good ones out there at reasonable prices, but get a good one for sure, don't go cheap.

 

[austinsdad]

Right Floyd. Need to be clear that rinsing the frozen food helps.

 

[cmor1701d]

Some good advice here. RINSE all frozen before using (though I use Rod's Food which states it is made with RODI so I don't rinse it).
The difference between bioballs and LR rubble is that LR (rubble or not) IF it is porous (pretty much any Indo Pacific rock) has holes and crevices where denitrification can occur because these areas are anoxic (devoid of oxygen). Bioballs don't have many those areas, though I'm led to believe that some of the newer materials do. Regardless of the material used you must forget about the wet/dry concept and go to a WET concept IMO. That simply means that whatever material you use for bacterial growth, all of it should be under water. The Wet/Dry concept has water splashing onto a material that is not submerged therefore it is always oxygenated. By submerging it there will be some areas of lower flow that can go anoxic and help with dentrification

Of course, PWC's done often enough and in large enough volume can prevent all of the buying of this or that (just salt mix).

I have a custom made skimmer but if I had to buy a new one today Octopus would be my number once choice from other member's recommendations.

 

[tryin2make63]

I have a custom made skimmer but if I had to buy a new one today Octopus would be my number once choice from other member's recommendations.

was wondering if snyone know what a good decent model of this octopus skimmer is. does anyone have one. what is so special about them. any real changes in water spec? need one big enough for 58 tank and custom 20 long sump... id say and additional 10 gal or so

 

[cmor1701d]

They are based on a well known good design and are inexpensive compared to similar models.
Reef Octopus NWB 110 or Reef Octopus DNWB 110 would be my choice.