kelipalmer
Premium Member
I recently had to change out some of our sand bed in our well established 100 gal mixed reef setup. I also replaced the caulerpa macro algae in our refugium with chaeto because we understood the caulerpa could be problematic. Both of these changes were made slowly and at different times over this past year. Everything has been relatively stable during the transition but our Nitrates have crept up (currently between 20-30ppm). Prior to these changes, we had never measured them higher than 0.
I have two questions: 1) the chaeto is not growing remotely as well as the caulerpa and I suspect that it has effected our nutrient reduction (thus contributing to our nitrate problem). I'm not sure what to do about it because I really don't want to go back to the caulerpa. 2) what should I do to reduce the nitrates? I'd rather not do many massive water changes. I've read about dosing sugar, etc. Other ideas?
Other helpful data: 100 gal mixed reef (established 3+ years), 30 gal sump w/ refugium, DAS skimmer, T5 lighting, phosban reactor, purigen, carbon. We do a 10% water change once a week. No changes in feeding, circulation, light cycle, etc. have been made. Ammonia & nitrites = 0, Ca = 400, dKH = 7.
Thanks
I have two questions: 1) the chaeto is not growing remotely as well as the caulerpa and I suspect that it has effected our nutrient reduction (thus contributing to our nitrate problem). I'm not sure what to do about it because I really don't want to go back to the caulerpa. 2) what should I do to reduce the nitrates? I'd rather not do many massive water changes. I've read about dosing sugar, etc. Other ideas?
Other helpful data: 100 gal mixed reef (established 3+ years), 30 gal sump w/ refugium, DAS skimmer, T5 lighting, phosban reactor, purigen, carbon. We do a 10% water change once a week. No changes in feeding, circulation, light cycle, etc. have been made. Ammonia & nitrites = 0, Ca = 400, dKH = 7.
Thanks