How do you feed your fish to prevent nitrates??

[marcelft]

What's up reefers? So, my nitrates are up there, 50ppm. Im doing big water changes to help. But, I want to sop this from happening in the first place. Im figuring feeding to much is the culprit. But, I dont want to starve my fish either. I run bio-pellets, a Euroreef skimmer rated for a 150g, and filer sock.

My 75g is stocked with:
Fox Face,
Maroon Clown,
2 Blue Chromis,
Sailfin Tang,
Blue Head Wrasse,
Solaris Wrasse,
and a purple pseudochromis.
Also three shrimps.

I rotate how i feed. One day I will feed one frozen cube of mysis and one cube blood worms. Then the nex day a cube of mysis and nori. Once in a while I will feed them "Brine Shrimp Plus"

So, any thoughts?? How do you know how much to feed your fish wihout starving them??

[anbosu]

You have too many fish, not too much food.

[marcelft]

Originally Posted by anbosu

You have too many fish, not too much food.

Ok...How do you figure amount of fish to size Tank??

[anbosu]

Well, that is the hard thing - there isn't a hard and fast rule. If you lose the sailfin and the foxface you should lose your nitrate issues though since those are going to eventually be the two biggest fish (if they aren't already) and produce the most waste.

[marcelft]

humm..Ok. This tank has been stocked like this for about 4 months now, hasnt been a nitrate issue at all till this week. Has this been a potential problem that somehow reached a tipping point?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are lots of ways to reduce nitrate aside from reducing foods.

These include growing macroalgae (and ATS), organic carbon dosing (pellets, vinegar, vodka, etc), several types of denitrators, skimming, deep sand and rock, water changes, etc.

IMO, it is generally good advice to use several of those at once.

These have more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm


Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

[nrbelk]

Randy, do you have any works written with information about organic carbon dosing? I haven't heard of that before and want to read about it.

[marcelft]

Originally Posted by Randy Holmes-Farley

There are lots of ways to reduce nitrate aside from reducing foods.

These include growing macroalgae (and ATS), organic carbon dosing (pellets, vinegar, vodka, etc), several types of denitrators, skimming, deep sand and rock, water changes, etc.

IMO, it is generally good advice to use several of those at once.

These have more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2003/chem.htm


Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Thank you for taking that much time to reply with this info...very much appreciated!

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Originally Posted by nrbelk

Randy, do you have any works written with information about organic carbon dosing? I haven't heard of that before and want to read about it.

I have not written anything on it. I dose vinegar rather than vodka and take a rather different approach to dosing determinations and rates, but this article on vodka dosing is a good introduction:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Originally Posted by marcelft

Thank you for taking that much time to reply with this info...very much appreciated!

Happy Reefing.

[markaren]

I would think pre-mixing and a turkey baster to the fish in small amounts directly with the pumps turned off will ensure food to be minimally wasted to sit in hiding spots.

[nrbelk]

Thanks! I'll probably go the vinegar or sugar route (if I decide I should do this) as I don't drink and would feel funny buying vodka lol.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, sugar seems a much poorer choice than either vodka or vinegar. I'd avoid it.

[marcelft]

Randy, Im looking at my bio-pellet reactor, and it isnt working very well, bio-pellets are sticking together, and there is a whitish milky coating on inside of reactor. Is there any way bio-pellets would lead to high nitrates???

[wnppmy]

Newbie here, but read turnining off your system during feeds more than few minutes can effect the beneficial bacteria even reduce alarming rates, few minutes fine but over even ten to fifteen might effect things.

[bongarone]

I have a 110 gallon with a maroon clown, yellow tang, and a bunch of snails. That's it. I had a fire shrimp but he killed all of my Nassarius snails so he's gone.

I think your tank is overstocked.

[Lynnmw1208]

I use NLS pellets. a lot less waste from these than frozen food. I feed frozen food sparingly. I also have a huge wad of cheato in the sump.

[carlos413]

I like to rinse my frozen cubes in RO water before I feed them to my tank.

[marcelft]

After reading, I dont believe I have to many fish, I believe I have a system and maintenance issues which needs modification to handle my bio-load. I could get rid of all but one fish in my tank, and without the proper tank set up and maintenance procedures I could have a problem with nitrates too down the road. I have been to friends houses with much larger bio-loads than me who are doing just fine. It's sort of the glass half empty or half full thing.

[marcelft]

Originally Posted by Lynnmw1208

I use NLS pellets. a lot less waste from these than frozen food. I feed frozen food sparingly. I also have a huge wad of cheato in the sump.

Im going to give these a shot also.

[NatureNerd]

You may be right about maintenance but, I would have to agree with the others. If you don't have too high of a bioload now, you will when the tang and foxface get bigger. In fact that tang will quickly outgrow your tank, in my opinion.

With that said, I also can't imagine feeding my 75g a whole cube of anything and then some. That is more than twice what I feed. My fish are healthy and a touch chubby. I use flake food five time a week. Mysis once or twice a week. Cyclopeeze once or twice per week. I cut the cube in half, rinse it losing some of the food and the cloudy water, and the feed it right in front of the fish. Almost nothing hits the substrate. It is completely gone in 30 seconds.

[elegance coral]

How often do you change out your filter sock? If they're left in for more than 24 to 48 hours, they simply become nitrate factories.

[marcelft]

Originally Posted by NatureNerd

You may be right about maintenance but, I would have to agree with the others. If you don't have too high of a bioload now, you will when the tang and foxface get bigger. In fact that tang will quickly outgrow your tank, in my opinion.

With that said, I also can't imagine feeding my 75g a whole cube of anything and then some. That is more than twice what I feed. My fish are healthy and a touch chubby. I use flake food five time a week. Mysis once or twice a week. Cyclopeeze once or twice per week. I cut the cube in half, rinse it losing some of the food and the cloudy water, and the feed it right in front of the fish. Almost nothing hits the substrate. It is completely gone in 30 seconds.

Ok, so Im definitely feeding to much then. Ive put 2 cubes of food in one day!!! Im going to scale back on feeding and try using some pellets. What flake food do you use?

Originally Posted by elegance coral

How often do you change out your filter sock? If they're left in for more than 24 to 48 hours, they simply become nitrate factories.

I have been changing them about every 3-4 days, or when I hear the water flowing over the top of them and am reminded Didnt know they should be changed that often, I will start doing that. Some people go sock-less and just allow the skimmer to do it's work right?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Originally Posted by marcelft

Randy, Im looking at my bio-pellet reactor, and it isnt working very well, bio-pellets are sticking together, and there is a whitish milky coating on inside of reactor. Is there any way bio-pellets would lead to high nitrates???

Not really, but they might not be working well to reduce nitrate.

That said, white films are a sign of bacterial growth, which is the goal with organic carbon dosing. Pellet people usually keep them tumbling to allow bacteria access to grow on all the surfaces.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Originally Posted by carlos413

I like to rinse my frozen cubes in RO water before I feed them to my tank.

FWIW, I do not believe that is generally very useful as the amount of phosphate that you are washing away is likely very small compared to what is in the foods.

For other posters, it also doesn't matter if the foods are all eaten or not with respect to nutrients getting into the water, but I agree that uneaten foods are simply a waste to add.

I discuss both issues here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry