So I have been battling high nitrates for a couple weeks. I have had multiple water changes, cut way back on my feeding, fixed the skimmer problem, and still have the nitrate problem. When discussing this again with my LFS he is thinking that since my tank had been set up for a long time with a Grouper, and a couple of eels my nitrates were probably super high to start with. Since I didn't change the sand, he seems to be thinking that no matter how many water changes I do until i get rid of the source of my problem it isn't going to do me any good. He seems to think there may be tons of "crap" from the previous inhabitants of my tank that needs to be gotten rid of. He is suggesting some sort of filter that will allow me to stir up my sand and such in huge amounts of water that will clean my water. Thoughts?
Source of the problem
- Thread starter youtoo54
- Start date
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
I think you'd be better off replacing the sand altogether.
Do you have a sump? Do you use RODI water?
Do you have a sump? Do you use RODI water?
little_fish
Reef pro
Im not 100% sure that your sand bed is totally the source of the nitrates, but if you do decide to remove you need to be extremely careful. You could release so much crap that you cause the tank to cycle. If you are set on removing it, i wouldnt remove more than a few inches of sand every week.
I would also looking into getting an army of nass snails, a serpent star, and maybe a goby to keep your sand bed in shape.
I would also looking into getting an army of nass snails, a serpent star, and maybe a goby to keep your sand bed in shape.
wontonflip
I failed Kobayashi Maru
If he's right and there is tons of crap in the sand, if you stir it all up at once, you WILL get an ammonia spike. I posted in your other nitrates thread...did you test your tap for nitrates before or after adding salt? I remember mine tested at 20ppm of nitrates after I added salt (but tested at 0 before salt) I don't know if the salt I used was bad or not, but I tested 0 after I changed out my salt and used RODI. Just saying. I had 160+ ppm of nitrates in my tank and had done 4 wc's and it never went down until I did it right and used rodi.
SeaBee
Ha Ha Thats Funny!
I had to change my sandbed. What I did was suck up the sand with every water change until it was down to about half an inch. I figured this would be less of a shock in the system. So once I was ready, I had the sand and about 15 gallos of new salt mix ready to go. I sucked out every bit I could with a big water change down to the glass, then added the new sand, then topped off the tank with the new salt water. It worked well I think, no spikes in anything. No loss, just like a water change.
