my 55 gallon

[tapwater]

Hey I have 3 damsels,a clown, about 8 turbo carbs, and I just added two sand sifting starfish.I have been running for about a year now.I have about 20lbs of LR, a small skimmer,2" of sand w/ crushed coral on top.Now I am aslo running two hang on filters because I can't afford more LR at this time.So far everything is good with my my parameters except my nitrates are at 40.My question is I got brown film on the glass constantly and brown algea i guess on the crushed coral.Is that because I am lacking a outstanding clean up crew?Also I did a 50% water change last week too.
Lou

[silver17jo]

A massive water change is not all that great. 20% is what I usually do. You can turn one of your filters into a small fuge for some macro. The nitrates are your problem. Maybe over feeding?

[Tswifty]

My guess is that either the Crushed Coral or your HOB filters or a combination of the both are the cause of your high nitrate readings.

Since your tank is relatively new, I would bet on the filters. Clean them often. I used to clean my filter sponges on my old tank every 3 days MAX. You'd be amazed how quickly they can become clogged, and begin causing nitrate issues.

[jwd]

Are they biowheel filters???... that is sure to leech nitrates back in your system...... maybe the crushed coral substrate also..... also a lack of lr for biological filtration....

[IslandCrow]

You have a pretty high bioload and mediocre filtration, so that's going to make keeping the nitrates down a problem. I agree that water changes as large as 50% are usually not the best idea. 10% or so a week should be sufficient. Look into getting some base rock if you can't afford live rock. Base rock is just dried out live rock and is much cheaper. Your live rock will slowly populate the base rock with the necessary bacteria. You can get it online if no one in your area carries it (I'm afraid I don't have any good links).

Sand sifting stars are not a very good idea, especially in a tank that small (well, relatively small). They eat anything and everything in your sand bed, to include some very beneficial microfauna, pods, etc. I'd get rid of them. Some more snails will probably help with the algae, and I like blue leg or scarlet hermit crabs for cleaning the sand, but you'll get different opinions there. If you can run some phosphate media (like Phosban), that may also help fight the algae. The best way to run it is with a reactor, but you can also just put it in a media bag and put it in one of your filters.