View Full Version : Should I downsize my tank?
noteworthy
05/13/2007, 01:16 PM
Hello,
I have a 125 gallon tank that needs a lot of maintenance. I'm just curious if it will always be so labor intensive or should I downsize to mabe a 20-29 gallon?
I could even go with three 10 gallon tanks and build a stand for them all stacked together..
I dont wanna drop 40 dollars on salt every two weeks to get nitrates into check. Any ideas?!?
Also I'd love to polyurathane the stand but it is full of fish. would it be feasable to empty the tank and poly the stand and make some mods? or should I start smaller?
Impala1964
05/13/2007, 01:31 PM
In IMO the 125 gallon would be alot easier to keep stable small tanks tend to take alot of work to keep stable and depending on the lighting can heat up quick summer is here
t5Nitro
05/13/2007, 01:34 PM
How high are your nitrates?
noteworthy
05/13/2007, 01:43 PM
nitrates are between 50 and 60
I did a 60 gallon change 2 weeks ago.
I might need to break it down and take all the fish out.... and fix the stand .. poly it and larger sump.. right now I use an 18 gallon rubbermaid tote.
KAKLANGLEY
05/13/2007, 02:28 PM
A refugium will in theory help reduce the nutrients that give nitrate problems.
KAKLANGLEY
05/13/2007, 02:42 PM
Also a water change that large could have disrupted the bacteria levels. Maybe try 20 -20-20 over a couple of days.
Make sure your test kit is not out of date and you may try having someone else perform the test to see if there is a difference. When I check mine it reads about the same levels as yours and then the LFS will check them and there only showing around 10. Is there anything in the tank that exibits signs of high nitrates or is the kit the only thing thats telling you they are high. If everything looks healthy and clean of hair algea and growing than I dont usaually let it bother me to the point of breaking the system down. You may also try chemi-pure or another nice grade of carbon that may help rid the tank of some contaminants that skimming and normal filtration may be struggling with removing.
Are you using RODI and testing before adding. City water has some harsh stuff in it in most areas. See if you can get a TDS reading and check for ammonia in the new water as that would turn into nitrate and youd be doing a water change and not gaining any ground. If a LFS is within reasonable driving distance you could try buy premixed water. Here its only .75 a gallon so weekly water change would only cost around 7.50 for 10 change a week.
Hope this helps some.
Young Frankenstein
05/13/2007, 03:03 PM
S T O P find the root of the problem and fixity. Are you over feeding ? is there traps of nitrates where theres no circulation ? etc.
Bmgrocks
05/13/2007, 04:15 PM
are u using crushed coral as a sand bed....
What is ur filtration.....
suprised everyone missed that.
noteworthy
05/13/2007, 05:19 PM
Using aragonite sand. I feed every day.. so I think I prolly need to back off to every other day. The reason I think nitrates are high is because i have a peach like fuzz over half my rocks.
I do use RO/DI water from my own filter and it reads no ammonia.
My filtration is about 80 lbs of rocks with about 2600 of circulation on the top main tank.. 1300 on each side. Skimmer with a mag 3.. aqua c remora. And a mag 5 in the sump to push water up.
noteworthy
05/13/2007, 05:23 PM
People have recommended that I get more rock but I dont think I can afford that. Costs would be considerably less for a 55 gallon? I wonder if I could find a couple of 55 gallon tanks rather cheap and do one as sump one as main. Another 100 lbs of rock will easily go for $500 or more.
ihopss
05/13/2007, 06:30 PM
How old is this tank, and rock.
noteworthy
05/13/2007, 06:41 PM
well the tank has been up for second time for 10 months.. before that it was up about 7 months. So the rock has been going for almost 1.5 years. about 10 months ago when I moved the water the rocks were in was extremely warm so I'm not sure how much dieoff I had then. I moved the tank 400 miles south from my old house to my new one.
I put five 30 gallon trash cans in the back of my pickup then lined each with three trash bags.. construction grade.. then put my rocks in there with tank water. Fish were transported seperate in a styrofoam minnow bucket... four of those buckets.. with aerators powered by batteries in each of those.
noteworthy
05/14/2007, 06:51 PM
well next month I should be getting a slight bonus so I can add about 100 lbs of base rock and 50 lbs of live rock. I'm thinking I should take apart the tank completely.. move it off the stand.. fix the stand and put a 55 gallon tank under the main 125. Put a mix of a sump/refugium and then redo plumbing. Put in the new base rock then live rock then sand.
I need to remake the stand so I have enough room for a 55 gallon underneath. I also would like to have some ideas on bracing. i would like to be able to remove the tank if need be from under the stand so bracing might be an issue. The stand is about 6 1/2 foot long. so bracing along the back every 2 foot but there will be 4 1/2 foot without any bracing on the front. Except the corner bracing. Polyurethane the stand and Canopy.
Sounds like a lot of work!
Is there a way to do an overflow where I dont have to worry about the siphon breaking. I have seen air collect in the U-tube. The tank itself is all tempered so drilling is out of the question. I have a cpr like overflow that uses a luft pump, but it tends to suck sand into the luft air line and stop pulling air out.
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