BB To DSB

E

elinder

I'm running a bare bottom now and my nitrates are off the chart. My question is has anyone ever changed? Would this maybe solve some of the problem? Would this harm my fish or corals in the process of switching over?

I just tried using all gone and it didn't seem to help. I'm doing a huge water change this weekend and searching for something else to buy to help with the nitrates. Anybody know of a good product?
 
I made the change. However my nitrates were already 0.

I would be concerned about them getting higher with a DSB. Most ppl find it easier to keep nitrates down in a bare bottom tank then they do with sand.
 
I have a g4x skimmer and a sump built by marc. My refugium has alot of macro but that looks kind of mushy at the ends. I've been changing about 30 to 50 gallons every other week. I havn't cleaned the detritus from the bottom of the tank in a while. I didn't really think it was enough to worry about. I feed a sheet of seeweed everynight along with flake food. I feed frozen every weekend. I have 3 tangs and 3 chromis. The total galons are about 240 I think.
 
If you really want to see what's sitting on the bottom of the tank. Take a free maxi-jet and a long cord plugged into a gfci. Stand on a stool or something, using the power on maxi-jet go back and forth a few times blowing underneath your rockwork. Make sure you get back in the corners on the ends of the tank.
 
A sheet of nori a night is adding a ton of nutrients, as is the flake food. I would cut down to feeding ever other day for a while if it was me. And I probably wouldnt use flakes
 
I've tried to feed less often but my wife starts griping saying that its cruel to not feed them everyday. She says how would you like for me to feed you every other day.

This is when it becomes a pain in the rear having a in wall tank. Its almost impossible to get this tank cleaned.
 
i think I'll do a 80 gal. water change. i'm not sure about my nitrate test. I work for an Environmental company and we have all the cool toys to test for anything you want in your water. I think I'll bring one home next week.
 
Lets look at your mechanical filtration. Do you have sponges for removal of large pieces of detritus? How about a fluval or some other type of cannister filter with floss or a sponge in it? Bioballs someplace in the sump? Any mechanical filtration device will work very efficiently to break down proteins thru the cycle to Nitrate but have no ability to break Nitrate down to Nitrogen gas and allow it to escape the aquarium since that is an anaerobic process.

If you have Nitrates with a fuge, I would guess you have some sponges which are a Nitrate factoryplus your fuge aint working well.

What are you keeping in your fuge? Are you harvesting it down regularly? And the lighting on the fuge is crucial. Marc has a bulb recommendation on his webpage that is the bomb. It grows algae and is like 20 watts fluorescent spotlight. You can get from A to T lighting here in town.

If you have nitrates you probably have phosphates too, especially with that flake food you are feeding.
 
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