Losing the nitrate battle

[ChrisPrusha]

Good afternoon, folks. I have a 180 gallon reef and I am losing the nitrate battle in it. I need to do a bigger water change container than the 30 gallon Rubbermaid I am currently using. Can you suggest a bigger container that's on wheels? Something that's perhaps available at Home Depot is a big plus. Thanks in advance.

[sminker]

Good afternoon, folks. I have a 180 gallon reef and I am losing the nitrate battle in it. I need to do a bigger water change container than the 30 gallon Rubbermaid I am currently using. Can you suggest a bigger container that's on wheels? Something that's perhaps available at Home Depot is a big plus. Thanks in advance.

HD has the 44 gallon Brutes. Or if your lucky you can have a business in your area that sells used plastic barrels. I bought a 55 gallon drum for $20 from a local one, he had all sorts of food safe plastic containers he gets from local manufacturers. You build a 2x4 frame at the bottom of it and buy some heavy duty casters from HD.

Also on a side note have you investigated into whats causing the nitrates?

[dzfish17]

I agree that you should find out whats causing the high nitrate levels. Could it be that you have overstocked the tank, overfeed, or have insufficient filtration? What about old tank syndrome? I'm sure that the knowledgeable folks here at RC can help you figure it out. GL

[somethingphishy]

how often are u doing water changes?

[gooberz]

+1 on Brute Trash Cans at Home Depot.

[ColaAddict]

Tell us about your tank (stock info, filtration, do you have a refugium, do you overfeed).

[rtparty]

I agree with those above. You need to figure out what is going on first.

You are trying to put a band aid on a gaping wound when stitches are needed. Find out why you have the nitrate problems.

Fix the problem, not the symptom. Tell us about your tank. What livestock do you have? Why type of flow? What filtration do you currently run on the tank?

[ChrisPrusha]

I suspect I am having nitrate problems because I overfeed, particularly flake foods. Most of my LR has been in there for 10 years, so there may be some old tank syndrome.

I have 8 fish in the 180g. I have a 55g sump with an AquaC 240 skimmer.

I do water changes religiously every week. I *thought* I was doing 20 gallon water changes every week, but it turns out they were closer to 10. Feeding heavily and doing 10 gallon water changes each week just doesn't get it done. I noticed the nitrate problem about 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have done five 30 gallon water changes. It is coming down, but not very fast (as you all know, nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby). I have also stopped feeding flake food since I noticed the problem, too.

It would be really nice if I could just fill up a 40 or 50 gallon container with RO/DI, roll it over to the tank, and do it that way. Thanks for your help, folks.

[sminker]

Theres nothing wrong with flake food. I use it 90% of the time. Other than that i use frozen mysis.

Just need to be careful how much you feed. You say eight fish and 10 year old rock. How big are these fish? If they are full blown adults then their poop might be causing it.

[rtparty]

Theres nothing wrong with flake food. I use it 90% of the time. Other than that i use frozen mysis.

Just need to be careful how much you feed. You say eight fish and 10 year old rock. How big are these fish? If they are full blown adults then their poop might be causing it.

Flake food is loaded with phosphates. I agree though, watch how much you feed.

I personally don't like using flake besides spirulina algae. I like feeding brine and mysis much more. When I had some issues with hair algae a LFS owner advised that all I feed is mysis shrimp for a month. He pulled out a magazine that had a study of a bunch of different foods. Flake foods had a considerable amount of phosphates compared to the mysis.

The numbers escape me but I think brine shrimp even had about 2x the amount of phosphate that Mysis shrimp did.

So if you are giving your fish a food loaded with phosphates, they are going to poop out a lot of phosphates.

Well I did what the store owner recommended and my algae started disappearing within a week. By the end of the month my tank looked a TON better.

[robs.mark]

Try mixing your own food, super easy, I buy RAW scollops, shrimp, oysters, fish, nori, brine, mysys and what ever else you fancy, throw a bit of garlic in their, and blend it up!
After that just freeze it in a bit of ro water and your away.