I whupped my tank! :)

[wontonflip]

That's a good thing...when I first started posting in October, I had just adopted my brother's tank, my nitrates were over 160ppm. I found my tap had nitrates.

Got the ro/di filter, but kept running out of salt (budget wouldn't allow me to purchase more than 1 small bag for 20 gallons at a time...not to mention wasted salt on my nitrate ridden tap!).

Got my sump, fuge, and skimmer up and running, increased flow around the tank with powerheads. Also put in a purigen pouch in the sump.

And tonight...I made a major water change of around 55% (sorry to the snails and crabs :shock: at least I warmed the water overnight with heaters before doing my change :mrgreen:)...tested my water, and I'm down to 15 ppm!!! Still not at zero, but imagine a tank being 80+ppm for 2 months!!! I ran around the house like a madwoman LOL Ammonia and nitrates are zero, PH is between 8.4-8.8, so yay!

Hopefully I can get it to zero by x'mas and buy me a pair of the clowns that my kids have been whining about, darn that Nemo :D So guys, should my nitrates be absolutely at zero before getting the clowns? Or is around 10-20ppm ok? I don't want to kill the fish after all these false starts LOL

 

[dustin_P74]

for fish anything under 25 is fine, its the corals and inverts that are sensitive to nitrates

 

[ccCapt]

Good Job!
You want to try to keep nitrates around 10 or lower and you'll be fine.

 

[Bifferwine]

Congrats Wonton! You've done a good job -- I'm sure it's paid off.

Nitrates under 20 are fine for fish and most inverts.

 

[yote]

Good work.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Great job. I would watch the water and make sure they stay down before you buy your nemos.

 

[Doc]

you should be good! congrats. Now, show us pics :-)

-Doc

 

[d.french]

you will hardly ever find a tank down to zero nitrates, but one way to keep them down is when you tank is mature enough add some clams i know people who had water problems and algae problems had some good size clams and tank cleared up quick 0 nitrates, clams filter feed and will lower nitrates, or buy expensive nitrate reactor, we have a guy in our club who can make anything and he has new design and makes his own.

 

[wontonflip]

Do clams require special lighting, or anything special? I'm going to check my nitrates in a bit, as well as do a small water changed with my remaining salt. Gotta get more salt...hehehe. Ah well. Maybe next paycheck I will get a large sack of salt (Tropic Marin).

I do the API test, and the orange I'm getting is iffy, based on their color card...the 2 oranges for 20 ppm and 40 ppm seem awfully close, and my orange could look like either depending on which way I look at it :shock: I'll probably do one more 40% water change in a few days just to make sure it's closer to yellow. Overkill?? Paranoid?? I think maybe I'm subconsciously not trying to get fish cuz i'm scared of the next step LOL!!

 

[dustin_P74]

clams need an enormous amount of light, if you dont have MH's or T-5's with IR then i wouldnt even look at them

 

[wontonflip]

Need help with the lighting terminology...I know the MH is for the metal halides, right? What are t5's? RIght now, the lighting I have is using marine glow flourescent lighting -- one is just the regular white, the other is blue (I guess "actinic blue spectrum"?)

 

[dustin_P74]

those sound like PC's (power compact) lights which isnt enough. and t-5's are very powerful florescent lights

 

[wontonflip]

Ah well. Next tank :) I am learning, guys!! Oddly, I got this tank free....I got the tank, wet/dry w/ bioballs, old pump...but guess what I ended up keeping...the TANK! LOL

 

[Piggy]

I'm the same way. I want my nitrates at zero. So I made a denitrator and they've been zero ever since.

 

[dustin_P74]

not to hijack, but piggy how did you make your denitrator

 

[Piggy]

Very easy PVC pipe,several feet of hose, bio balls and valves. I'll see if I can find the instructions. My nitrates were 30-40 but after running it for four weeks they fell to 0. They've been there now for 6 months. Plus I don't do water changes as often. I been doing 15 gallons water change every 3 weeks.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Piggy do you ever need to clean it.

For the clam you need a mature tank as well as a lot of light.

 

[wontonflip]

Piggy...it would be great if you could post a link if you find it, about how you made the denitrator :) I've seen a few, including using a mesh to let algae grow on it. I was going to do one for my sump, since the light is on in there almost 24/7. I was going to take this plastic mesh that people use for crafting and just putting it against the baffle separating my fuge from my return area.

 

[RyanG]

Ive seen indivdual marine glo T5's at the LFS any chance of you taking a picture of them?

 

[wontonflip]

u want pics of my lights, or someone else's?