ACBlinky
07/01/2006, 07:26 PM
I've recently made some MAJOR changes to my 65g and now I've run into a problem. I know how it happened... now I need help fixing it!
The tank was a FOWLR with a 2"-3" sandbed, and to make a long story shorter I removed the sandbed, added 35lbs of rock and a bunch of corals from another tank and made it into a reef. Now I'm having nitrate issues, I assume because although the sandbed was disgustingly dirty it was probably doing a fair bit of denitrification.
The tank contains:
100lbs of live rock
LPS and soft corals
8 small fish (Lubbock's wrasse, yellow clown goby, South Seas damsel, Talbot's damsel, white-tail pygmy angel, neon dottyback, 2" flame angel, 2.5" flagfin angel)
2 skunk cleaner shrimp, a few hermits, snails, and an urchin
Levels today weren't great, to say the least, but the tank looks just fine. PO4 0.25 - 0.5 (hard to say, it's a lousy test kit), NH3 0, NO2 0.1 (just barely registers), NO3 20ppm (!!!), pH 8.0.
I'm planning on a large water change tomorrow, and will continue changing water until the levels are better, but I want a long-term solution. Here's what's probably the major issue -- there's a canister filter on this tank, with 4 sponges (2 coarse, 2 fine) and biomedia. The stand doesn't have room for a sump, so I'm stuck with the filter, but I guess the time has come to ditch the media. What's the best way to do this?
The tank was a FOWLR with a 2"-3" sandbed, and to make a long story shorter I removed the sandbed, added 35lbs of rock and a bunch of corals from another tank and made it into a reef. Now I'm having nitrate issues, I assume because although the sandbed was disgustingly dirty it was probably doing a fair bit of denitrification.
The tank contains:
100lbs of live rock
LPS and soft corals
8 small fish (Lubbock's wrasse, yellow clown goby, South Seas damsel, Talbot's damsel, white-tail pygmy angel, neon dottyback, 2" flame angel, 2.5" flagfin angel)
2 skunk cleaner shrimp, a few hermits, snails, and an urchin
Levels today weren't great, to say the least, but the tank looks just fine. PO4 0.25 - 0.5 (hard to say, it's a lousy test kit), NH3 0, NO2 0.1 (just barely registers), NO3 20ppm (!!!), pH 8.0.
I'm planning on a large water change tomorrow, and will continue changing water until the levels are better, but I want a long-term solution. Here's what's probably the major issue -- there's a canister filter on this tank, with 4 sponges (2 coarse, 2 fine) and biomedia. The stand doesn't have room for a sump, so I'm stuck with the filter, but I guess the time has come to ditch the media. What's the best way to do this?