Bought a use/established tank....problems with nitrate

[SKNNYPGGY]

I bought this tanks as an upgrade from an 35 gallon hex tank, i was completely happy.

The sand bed is 3 inches,
i have alot of live rock, I combined mine with his,
I have a small sump, 5-8 gallons, with about a cup's worth of ceramic pellets. Do I need to upgrade?

I put in fresh carbon a month ago.

i change out my filter floss weekly.

I just tossed the scrubby filter that looks like it had been there since he started the tank.

It came with a Prizm protien skimmer, which I am noticing isn;t working for me very well. it either runs to wet, to dry, or not at all. its in the sump, should I move it to the back of the tank? or toss it and buy a better one?

Here are my specs.
ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80 ppm after a 15 gallon water change
ph 8.4
calcium 300
po3 0

[SKNNYPGGY]

I need to mention that I Lost my carpet anemone, and i really need to get my nitrates in check....the test kit he gave me was reading Nitrates wrong....and last week i used another kit and was floored with the readings. I am devested for the loss of my anemone.
So any advice is greatly welcome!

[rustybucket145]

My recommendations:

1. Loose the filter floss---> it's a nitrate factory
2. Increase your sandbed by at least an inch--> this will allow bacteria to become established and process your nitrates and not allow them to buildup in the system.
3. After a couple of months with the thickened sandbed begin removing the ceramic pellets a cupful/handful each week until they are gone. --> these are also nitrate factories.

This will take care of your nitrate issues... Long term. You will never have to worry about/with them ever again.

[fareforce]

I would pick up a better skimmer.. Maybe a remora (if you dont mind the noise) or something. 5%-10% water changes once a week will bring them back into check.

[fareforce]

In that size tank you could also go skimmerless. My 22cube is skimmerless. You just have to make sure you change the water every week!

[ahullsb]

How long have you had the tank since you moved it? Did you tank the water too? It's almost like starting over when you move a tank. Mine did the same thing when I bought an established 55 and moved it. For the first month I had ammonia, nitrate, and ph problems. Give it a little time and do large, frequent water changes. When I first moved the tank my nitrate was off the chart. I'm sure it was 80-100 ppm after I first moved it. Do 25 % at least, maybe more. Do it as often as you can to lower the nitrate. 80 is high. Test after each water change and see if it climbs again or not. Eventually I think a better protein skimmer would be a good investment. But keep your eye on craigslist or these forums and you will find a great deal.

[SKNNYPGGY]

-How long have you had the tank since you moved it?-

I have had the tank for six weeks now.

DID i mention my tank is about 80 gallons? I upgraded from the 35 gallon hex.

I will get rid of thefilter floss right now!

Also, the sump that came with the tank is a TIDEPOOL w/bio-wheel filtration. Should i ditch the biowheel too? The skimmer is in that tidepool, and when there is evaporation, the skimming is greatly affected. I have to add about a gollon of fresh R/O water everday.

[fareforce]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9638554#post9638554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SKNNYPGGY
-How long have you had the tank since you moved it?-

I have had the tank for six weeks now.

DID i mention my tank is about 80 gallons? I upgraded from the 35 gallon hex.

I will get rid of thefilter floss right now!

Also, the sump that came with the tank is a TIDEPOOL w/bio-wheel filtration. Should i ditch the biowheel too? The skimmer is in that tidepool, and when there is evaporation, the skimming is greatly affected. I have to add about a gollon of fresh R/O water everday.

1) You dont have to get rid of the filter floss. If you are changing it often, you dont have to worry about it being a nitrate factory. It will help remove particals out of the water to keep it clear.

2) I must have missed that it is a 80gal tank. The prizm is to small for that tank.. I am completely spacing on the name of the skimmer to get.. Maybe someone can chime in. They are awsome, and very popular.

3) You could get rid of the bio-wheel, or keep it. That is up to you. If you keep it you have to maintain it. Otherwise, it will be a nitrate factory.

These are just my opinions, and I know people will give me flack about saying to keep the floss, and bio-wheel, but to state my case. If you properly maintain those items the wont give you problems. If you are changing the floss every week, there isn't enough time for the bacteria to seed the floss and start building up excess nitrates. Those who have been in the hobby know it can take up to 6 week to properly seed something. Sometimes it can happen faster, but I have never heard of it happening in 1 week. At least not enough to effectivally build up nitrates. That is like saying you can cycle a tank in 1 week by putting in dead rock.

[neotekz]

you need to do some large agressive waterchanges to decrease nitrates quickly. i had the same problem with my old 35g tank. do a large 50% waterchange by adding about half at a time and letting it mix in you display tank then take out the same amount and repeat until all of the water is changed. wait a few hours or a day and then do another 50%. this will lower your nitrates right away and then weekly 20% changes until your nitrates are at 0.

the increase of nitrates is probably from moving things around during your ungrade. be careful with overfeeding. you are going to need a new skimmer, the prizm is not a reliable skimmer. try euroreef or asm. also get rid of the ceramic pellets. keep running carbon it will help to make the transistion easier for your tank. filter floss is helpful if you keep up with changing them as they get dirty.

are you using RODI water?

[fareforce]

Neotekz got that name of the skimmer... ASK.. They are great skimmers!!!

[Lotus99]

Did you give the skimmer a good clean? If it's not skimming, I guess it's possible it's gunked up inside.

[SKNNYPGGY]

Hi All!

Ok, I think I know what the sorce of the nitrate problem.

When I bought the tank, the guy that sold it to me told me he never did water changes, and always topped it with city water. He said he used RO water but it was t costly and the city water didn't seem to affect the fish. Well, I have been using RO water faithfully, and when we moved the tank, we brought ALL the water with it.
I tested the city water today for nitrates. If i read my test correctly it said 40ppm! NO wonder its so high! He stopped doing water changes, and only topped off. When water evapoated, nitrates concentrated, and more nitrate infested city water was used. I never caught this because I was using the test kit he gave me for the tank wrong. it wasn't until my sis came over and we checked with her kit and realized how bad it is.

Now, this is my plan......
I am going to do 50% water changes daily until I can get my nitrates down to a decent level......have water mixing right now.
I am going to toss the skimmer, and buy a better one this week end.
I think i am going to get rid of the bio wheel, because its been running since who knows when, unless anyone has tips on how to maintian it. I didn't know a bio wheel needed maintaining.
I am seriously thinking about getting/building a refugium. I am still learning about fuges, and i don't have any idea where i am going to put it. I have space under the tank.
I want to increase the sand bed by an inch.

Thanks guys on your advice. All of it is great advice!
Anymore suggestions will be greatly appreciated, especially on fuges.

[SKNNYPGGY]

what? i am reading my post and i don't understand myself.

[neotekz]

how big is you sump? i have a 30g sump under my 90g and it has enough space for 3 sections:
a intake -->skimmer and return--> refuge
i put a t fitting on the return line that feeds the refuge. check out melevsreef.com, it has lots of different sump/fuge designs.

you don;t need a bio wheel, they are bio filters for freshwater tanks.

if you are going to add sand to make a deep sand bed then i would add live sand that you can buy online. for a DSB to work propertly and decrease nitrates you have to maintain it. here's a good article on DSB, http://ronshimek.com/Deep%20Sand%20Beds.htm

[SKNNYPGGY]

-how big is you sump? i have a 30g sump under my 90g and it has enough space for 3 sections: -

Neotekz, here is a linkof the sump/wet dry filter i have. i am not sure of how much water it holds,but i doubt its more than 10 gallons.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3589&N=2004+22778

I am not to happy with it, and i am thinking of getting a bigger sump, with a fuge incorporated. The problem is that i don't have alot of space under the cabinet for all that I want to do.

I am going to the web site you posted.

[fareforce]

If you wanted to keep the Bio-wheel your need to remove it and just submerge it in fresh salt water, and shake it for about 1min. This needs to be done ever other week to once a month. They really dont do much for your tank though as long as you have enough live rock. You should have 1.5-2.5 lbs per gallon.