Couple noob questions

[Thelonius]

Hi guys. I set up a 29 gallon cube with about 30 pounds of base rock and some live sand around December 15th. Early January after a vacation, I added some live rock rubble to seed the base rock and started feeding a little bit of flake food and checking for ammonia. Didn't get anything, so I added a raw shrimp for a few days which did send my tank into a little mini cycle over a week, but I still read no ammonia or nitrites and my nitrates started to rise. Consensus here was that the base rock actually cycled my tank while I was on vacation and that I should wait a few weeks and add a very small CUC.

My nitrates were at about 20 PPM and I did a large water change before adding the inverts, two hermits, a turbo and an astrea. Everything has been going fine, the hermits have grown a lot and moved into much larger shells I laid out for them, so I thought I would add some Nass snails and maybe a couple of astrea's or ceriths. I went to check my nitrates and do a water change and my kit was reading around 80PPM. After a water change, it's still around 60-80PPM.


No bioballs, or hang on canister or sponges to trap nitrates. It's a biocube that I have added my own filter floss to and have been changing regularly. So my question is, because I had so much base rock, do I not have enough bacteria on the rocks to be working properly? Or I read recently, that hair algae can trap nitrates, I have a large patch of hair algae that I have been letting grow on one of the pieces of rock until I get a ball of chaeto, could this be throwing off my readings.


I'm doing a bunch of water changes and obviously not going to add anything else for the time being, but why would my nitrates be rising so fast, yet not seemingly effecting the inverts? I've got tons of pods running around, some type of slug and I think a little shrimp, because I saw what I thought was a giant pod and then found a little molt.

Thanks, sorry that is long winded. Water source is good btw

[drparker]

Growing hair algae would use nitrates and phosphates thus lowering those numbers and will not add to them. Nitrates are much harder to get rid of than ammonia or nitrites. The bacteria for these live in oxygen depleted areas like Deep Sand Beds or deep in rocks.

Water changes will remove nitrates. Something is adding them You could be feeding to much or your food could contain a high amount. Are you sure the water source is not adding nitrates? Have you had a 2nd test kit or LFS test your water to verify the readings your getting?

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I'm pretty sure(in planted tanks anyway) that nitrate tests will also pick up dissolved organics (DO). I didn't see any mention of a skimmer..

[dileggi]

Ok, you already mentioned that you had removed the bio-balls from your BC.

Are you still using the carbon pad? If so, are you cleaning it off regularly along with cleaning the filter floss?

Are you by any chance using tap water?

Those were the main things contributing to my high nitrate readings in my BC. I removed the bio balls and added LR rubble to that chamber. I use the carbon pad and filter floss. I rinse the carbon pad every other day and the same with the filter floss. I change the filter floss every 5 days or so. I also added a skimmer.

If you don't have a skimmer, you could also try running some carbon, running purigen, or people have had good results with a product called All-gone.

[Thelonius]

- I removed the bioballs and replaced with several pieces of rock right from day 1. I thought a pile of rubble back there would be almost as bad of a detritus trap as the bioballs without a proper CUC so I have three larger pieces.

- I have taken out the stock carbon media and replaced it with filter floss and have been changing it every few days.

- I haven't been feeding the tank at all. Probably should have mentioned that.

- Water source is good RO/DI. No skimmer or carbon/purigen media. On such a small tank, I'm trying to run with as little as I can if I can get away from it. That is one of the reason I have left the big tuft of hair algae to act like a microalgae would.



So, with about 2 pounds of live rock seeding 30+ of base rock for about a month and a half, do I just not have enough beneficial bacteria to deal with the nitrate buildup?

[dileggi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11854922#post11854922 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Thelonius
- I removed the bioballs and replaced with several pieces of rock right from day 1. I thought a pile of rubble back there would be almost as bad of a detritus trap as the bioballs without a proper CUC so I have three larger pieces.

- I have taken out the stock carbon media and replaced it with filter floss and have been changing it every few days.

- I haven't been feeding the tank at all. Probably should have mentioned that.

- Water source is good RO/DI. No skimmer or carbon/purigen media. On such a small tank, I'm trying to run with as little as I can if I can get away from it. That is one of the reason I have left the big tuft of hair algae to act like a microalgae would.



So, with about 2 pounds of live rock seeding 30+ of base rock for about a month and a half, do I just not have enough beneficial bacteria to deal with the nitrate buildup?

Have you actually tested the ro/di water to make sure there were no nitrates in there? It's quite possible they're leaching from the rocks as well.

But...the rubble/live rock in that chamber should be fine either way. I have 3 lbs of rubble in mine. It's fine as long as it's completely submerged in water. If it's not completely submerged, then either way, it'll act just like the bio media. Is it submerged?

[Thelonius]

Also, water has been tested independently. Same API type, but a different set. Both my source water and tank.


Could the inverts in the tank really be flourishing in 80 ppm water? The pods seem to double or triple daily.

I should also mention I have about a 5 inch sand bed because I planned on keeping a jawfish. It was seeding with a 5 pund bag of live sand about two months ago and a cup from another tank for diversity

[Thelonius]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11854958#post11854958 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dileggi
Have you actually tested the ro/di water to make sure there were no nitrates in there? It's quite possible they're leaching from the rocks as well.

But...the rubble/live rock in that chamber should be fine either way. I have 3 lbs of rubble in mine. It's fine as long as it's completely submerged in water. If it's not completely submerged, then either way, it'll act just like the bio media. Is it submerged?

yes, I was late posting the source water is around .o something tds and showed no nitrates. Rock in chamber two is completely submerged

The base rock was sitting dry for a long time, maybe that is the explanation

thanks btw guys

[dileggi]

It's possible it could be from the base rock. Have you distubed your sand bed at all?

As for the inverts, I would think anything over 40 would've been a disaster.

But, I have an API kit as well. My nitrates were reading 40 on there. I had a second kit, also API and I was reading slightly lower, but not much.

I had the water re-tested at my LFS. With there kit it was only reading 20. They were using Salifert. Maybe it's the kit since I've had trouble with API on nitrates? It might be worth a try to have it tested with something other than API.