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tapwater
07/11/2008, 10:03 PM
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
joshkennedy07
07/11/2008, 10:25 PM
Tapwater,
Are you using tap water?
tapwater
07/12/2008, 01:32 PM
Josh I am not using tap water and I am not over feeding.The reason I did the water change was to deal with the nitrates.Someone suggested putting LR base on top of my CC but I don't know if that is the answer.I really think the CC is holding everything and letting junk swarm the tank like a virus or something.My next step is to get rid of the CC I think.

Lou
pepino
07/12/2008, 08:09 PM
hey lou check out this trhead hope it helps
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12934768#post12934768
spmedi
07/12/2008, 08:12 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12930612#post12930612 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by joshkennedy07
Tapwater,
Are you using tap water?


u had to know that question was coming, lol...
kevin2000
07/12/2008, 08:21 PM
My 02

Not sure what 8 turbo carbs are but here's a suggestion.

Switch/toss the CC substrate, increase the frequency quantity of water changes, and decrease the amt of feeding.

Crushed coral is a lousy substrate for SW ... old holdover from FW under gravel filter tanks .... tend to harbor debris which creates phosphate/nitrate issues.

Nitrates are the end product of the nitrogen cycle ... the only methods of reducing nitrates are water changes or processing by anaerobic bacteria which tend to reside in LR and DSB - you don't have much of either .. as such water change is the obvious method of reduction.

Most aquarist overfeed .... all new aquarist WAY overfeed - cut back on feeding. And yeah .. nobody thinks they overfeed their fish.