possible nitrate factorys?

[richp]

I bought an established tank complete with its problems. I am battling high ammonia (coming down) and nitrates around 20ppm. I was reading about nitrate factories and found some issues in my tank. The tank is a oceanic tech 70 gallon with center overflow. The overflow is jammed full of filter floss that has likely not been changed for a long time. There also is a chamber in the sump that is packed with filter floss.

I believe these are helping with the high levels of nitrates and ammonia so I took them out. They seem to have a lot of built up decomposing detritus

any comments?

Thanks
Richard

[patsfan1130]

There should be 0 ammonia on an established tank. unless the move caused a spike or something died. a little more about the setup and what type of equipment is used will help (filtration/livestock etc). with what we currently know, I would definately say removing the floss was a good idea :)

[Sugar Magnolia]

If there was any detritus build up under the floss, you'll need to syphon that out as well.

[badwrasse]

water change time.

[Jason Turner]

Did the tank have a deep sandbed that you're using as well? This could be where the spike came from. If the prev owner didn't bother changing the floss in the o/f they probably haven't siphoned the sand in a while either.

[eyesinthedrk]

your filter floss was providing bio and mechanical filtration, since your cycle is out of balance already, and hopefully have no live stock in the tank, i would go ahead and remove it and replace with a filter sock if possible,

i hate the term nitrate factory, its one of those terms tossed around more than it should be, i get it in the case of bio balls something that cant be taken out and cleaned regularly, but people call all mechanical filters "nitrate factories" and in my opinion using a micron sock to catch floating solids and removing them regulary to be cleaned will do far more for nitrates than letting free floating poop or uneaten food to recirculate through the system

[mikersx02]

Your LFS should have a thing called "matrix". They look like white rocks. They do well at removing nitrates. Only down side is that they convert it pretty fast and produce nitrogen bubbles. I have some in my eheim canister. Im a fan. 0 am, 0 nitrates and nitrites and no phosphorus. Also, I do not have a sump.

[richp]

Tank Setup:

70 gallon with overflow
30 gallon sump with rubble rock and chaeto

approx 1 inch of sand on the bottom of the tank and 60-70 lbs of nice porous live rock. There are 5 soft corals, a feather duster and several fish.

I bought the tank a week ago completely setup and running, tore it down and moved it to my house including 90% of the water. All the live rock was kept wet, the only thing that has died has been some crystalline algae that was exposed to air on the back wall of the tank.

The following day I checked the water quality and found ammonia and nitrates but nitrites were 0. calcium and ph were good. I am not sure if the amonia was an issue prior to moving the tank as I didn't check the water beforehand.

Richard

[billdogg]

The Nitrates were likely already there. The Ammonia is probably a spike from the move. No worries, but I would do several LARGE (%50) water changes, and leave out the floss unless you are ready to change it out at least weekly. As stated above, filter socks work great for the same thing. If it were me, I'd leave the overflows empty of anything but water. The very last thing you want to do is restrict the drain flow to your sump in any way.

[WaterKeeper]

It is extremely rare to have an established tank showing nitrates to also have ammonia present at the same time. There would need to be a major problem with that LR for that to happen so I'm guessing a erroneous reading.

I would definitely remove that filter floss and not replace it. If the LR is healthy it is not needed except for water polishing and when used for that it should be replaced weekly. Let your LR do its job of ammonia to nitrate conversion.

I'm not too sure about "Matrix", there has never been a successful nitrate removal media for a SW tank. The problem with media is that they tend to prefer chloride over nitrate as an anion exchange agent and quickly saturate with chloride ions. They have limited success in FW nitrate removal but I've yet to see on that works well on a marine system. I'd use carbon or a GFO in the canister and skip the floss entirely.

Do watch the fish for signs of distress as if there is really ammonia present in the tank they are the first creatures to be affected.

[richp]

Thanks guys.

I am going to take some water to the LFS to get it tested I don't want to be chasing a problem I don't even have..

As for the filter floss, thats out. I am going to fill the area in the sump that had the floss with about 5 lbs of rubble rock and leave the overflow empty.

Also, the fish don't show signs of stress and are eating well.

Richard