Beating my head against the wall again

[jsn150]

Just cant figure out what is keeping my Nitrate level so high. tank has been up and running 6 months now and all along my nitrate level floated around 12-18 now its closer to 50. this is a reef tank mind you so at these levels i expext to start losing my corals :( not sure what to do, I just did a 30% water change, threw a good ball of chaeto in the sump a few days ago and my levels are still sky high. I did way overfeed starting out and wonder if maybe my dsb soaked up all the nutrients and is now expelling them or if this is even a likely scenario. So the answer is keep up the water changes right ? OK well I'll do another 25-30% tomorrow but how do i truly fix the problem? I just read on that "Holy Grail" thread that everyone is raving about BB well 6 months ago DSB was the "only" way to go so thats what i did. should I rip out the DSB ? that would be a MAJOR job. My skimmer is a g4x on a 150 which should be sucking almost everything out of the water but apparently not... any suggestions ? i need help

[capncapo]

It won't cure the cause but it may buy you some time to find it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=595109

[hopper]

If you think the DSB is a problem you might think about throwing some nassarius snails in there. They will keep the sandbed stirred underneath and will consume some of the detritrus buried beneath the sand. Also a sandsifting goby would keep the top layer sifted. If your sandbed is functioning properly though, I would think that your nitrates are not coming from the sandbed. How deep is it anyway?
Water changes will certainly help with the nitrates but with a 150 gal. tank, that is a lot of water to change. I have a 110 and nitrates were a issue when I first started cycling the tank, but after the first few weeks of water changes and everything else settling in, the nitrates finally went down.

I'm not on the BB bandwagon because I don't like the aesthetics of it. Don't blast me here, I know some people like it, it's just my personal opinion on the looks of BB. It works well for some people while DSB's work well for others. Nothing wrong with either one in my opinion.

One other thing to check, do you have a lot of detritus in your LR. Try blowing the rock off with a powerhead and see what happens. Turn your skimmer up a little also and see if you can skim more crud out of the water that maybe you aren't seeing.

[Paintbug]

what type of filtration are you using? how much live stock do you have? how much flow do you have?

[jsn150]

I have 220lbs of LR with another 10lbs or so in the sump. I also have a 25w uv sterilizer running 24/7 and a g4x skimmer that should be skimming all the crap out of the water. when i take a turkey baster and blow into one of the rocks all this white stuff comes out ??? should i do this or not ? I alreadyhave about 15 nassarius snails along w/ margaritas, turbos and various hermits and a atlantic cuke. bioload is fairly heavy but shouldnt keep my trates as high as they are. any other thoughts ?

[AquaReeferMan]

Hey this isnt going to help it for good but it will take your levels down to 0 for a while just get this with some pollyfilters and place into your filter so water can run over it

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/nitrate%2csponge/Class//T1/F24BE+0064+0221/EDP/6892/Itemdy00.aspx

[hopper]

The white stuff is detritus and maybe some sand that got kicked and settled into the rockwork. By blowing off the detritus, you are allowing it to go back into the water column and hopefully it will get filtered out. If you have a lot of this stuff, you might want to get a few more critters as this is what their job is to get rid of this stuff. Also an indication that you might be overfeeding. Be sure you turn the pumps off when feeding to allow the fish to get food before it gets lodged into the rockwork or goes out the overflow. This uneaten food will definitely cause nitrates.

[salty joe]

Are you absolutely certain that your topoff water is free of nitrate?

[jsn150]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6670703#post6670703 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by salty joe
Are you absolutely certain that your topoff water is free of nitrate?
Hmmm. hadnt thought of that although my TDS meter reads between 2-4 so i didnt think it would be coming from there, just finished ANOTHER 25% WC and have the trates down to 20 or so which is still high for a reef maybe I'll try the nitrate sponge stuff

[navajo]

Have you tired a different test kit? I had what I thought was the same problem a while ago and it turned out to be an out of date test kit.

Maybe take a sample in to a LFS you trust?

[thereefmaster]

I agree w/ Navajo. With a G4X your trates shouldn't be anywhere near that level. Go and get a different test kit.

HTH

-Nate

BTW, what are you running your skimmer at, as in wet or dry?

[BodiBuilt]

Are you missing any animals?Perhaps due to decomposition?

[Wiskey]

A DSB shoud never stop denitrifing even in the worst state of crash, unless the anarobic areas are constantly being desturbed,... If you have problems with Phospate, look at the sandbed, if you have problem with nitrate, look at flow, un-nessesary sand-bed sturring, by you or your critters, and nutreant export, bio load, and flow.

Whiskey

[jsn150]

wow look at my bubble coral ! should i pull him out ???
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/jsn150/DSC00919.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/jsn150/DSC00920.jpg
some of the other stuff looks just fine though ?
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/jsn150/DSC00924.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/jsn150/DSC00925.jpg