Filtration question

[marriedtothereef]

Hello everyone. Just needed some input on my 180 Gallon system. I have about 65 lbs of Live Rock in the display and 5mm sized crushed coral substrate. This is an LPS dominant tank and corals are doing okay but I haven’t been getting any good growth. I also lost a couple hammers and a bubble coral. My NO3 and PO4 levels are really high. In this system I chose not to go the refugium route but instead Im trying to go Mechanical. Lets say I rather go with reactors and a clean sump.

This tank started off as a ZeoVit system but I stopped dosing and did not keep up with it because I did not see any good results. So my Zeolite Reactor is basically sitting in my sump acting as a bio reactor. I was thinking of putting large Bio sphere balls inside the reactor instead of ZeoLites but I don’t know how effective that would be or how long that would take. What would be the best option to lower my Nitrates and Phosphates mechanically without carbon dosing?


NO3 - 75 ppm (Before w/c)
NO3 - 50 ppm (After w/c)
PO4 - 1.01 ppm (Before w/c)
PO4 - 0.98 ppm (After w/c)
ALK - 7.9 dkh (Stable)
CAL - 430 (Stable)
MAG - 1478 ppm

 

[Mark Bianco]

Welcome to R2R... A lot of time when nitrates high this is caused by overfeeding if this is the case then cut back and do more frequent water changes.
Do you have any type of filter pad or sponge or a filter sock? These will help there is also a product called Poly Filter works great if you have a place that you can put in the flow area.
As for the Bio Sphere's I am not a fan some other people swear by them.
Many will say the issue is using crushed coral is bad. IMHO I used it for years and as long as you do a little cleaning (Vacuuming) when you do a water change your good to go

HTH
Mark

 

[marriedtothereef]

Welcome to R2R... A lot of time when nitrates high this is caused by overfeeding if this is the case then cut back and do more frequent water changes.
Do you have any type of filter pad or sponge or a filter sock? These will help there is also a product called Poly Filter works great if you have a place that you can put in the flow area.
As for the Bio Sphere's I am not a fan some other people swear by them.
Many will say the issue is using crushed coral is bad. IMHO I used it for years and as long as you do a little cleaning (Vacuuming) when you do a water change your good to go

HTH
Mark

Thank you for the fast response Mark. So do you suggest that I leave the ZeoLites in the reactor? Also what are your recommendations with PO4?

 

[marriedtothereef]

Welcome to R2R... A lot of time when nitrates high this is caused by overfeeding if this is the case then cut back and do more frequent water changes.
Do you have any type of filter pad or sponge or a filter sock? These will help there is also a product called Poly Filter works great if you have a place that you can put in the flow area.
As for the Bio Sphere's I am not a fan some other people swear by them.
Many will say the issue is using crushed coral is bad. IMHO I used it for years and as long as you do a little cleaning (Vacuuming) when you do a water change your good to go

HTH
Mark

Btw yes i have sponges and a Filter sock that I replace regularly.

 

[marriedtothereef]

Here is a pic of the sump

 

[Forsaken77]

Hello everyone. Just needed some input on my 180 Gallon system. I have about 65 lbs of Live Rock in the display and 5mm sized crushed coral substrate. This is an LPS dominant tank and corals are doing okay but I haven’t been getting any good growth. I also lost a couple hammers and a bubble coral. My NO3 and PO4 levels are really high. In this system I chose not to go the refugium route but instead Im trying to go Mechanical. Lets say I rather go with reactors and a clean sump.

This tank started off as a ZeoVit system but I stopped dosing and did not keep up with it because I did not see any good results. So my Zeolite Reactor is basically sitting in my sump acting as a bio reactor. I was thinking of putting large Bio sphere balls inside the reactor instead of ZeoLites but I don’t know how effective that would be or how long that would take. What would be the best option to lower my Nitrates and Phosphates mechanically without carbon dosing?


NO3 - 75 ppm (Before w/c)
NO3 - 50 ppm (After w/c)
PO4 - 1.01 ppm (Before w/c)
PO4 - 0.98 ppm (After w/c)
ALK - 7.9 dkh (Stable)
CAL - 430 (Stable)
MAG - 1478 ppm

Just an fyi... That is biological filtration, not mechanical. Mechanical would be something like filter socks or filter floss/padding. Biological would take a few weeks to start up to the level you need. You can always seed the media with bottled stuff to kick start it.

Someone on here made a unique device called the Nitrate Destroyer (you can search the site or google), which is all biological. He posted it on a few forums and in theory it should work for nitrate well and there was a lot of discussion on it. The tough part is the denitrification process and his device seems to address that.

You can always try a macro algae reactor, which would address both N&P, without having a full fledged fuge. You would need a large one if you have a heavy bioload in that tank size.

Are you feeding too much dry food?

Maybe someone else has some other advice.

 

[marriedtothereef]

Just an fyi... That is biological filtration, not mechanical. Mechanical would be something like filter socks or filter floss/padding. Biological would take a few weeks to start up to the level you need. You can always seed the media with bottled stuff to kick start it.

Someone on here made a unique device called the Nitrate Destroyer (you can search the site or google), which is all biological. He posted it on a few forums and in theory it should work for nitrate well and there was a lot of discussion on it. The tough part is the denitrification process and his device seems to address that.

You can always try a macro algae reactor, which would address both N&P, without having a full fledged fuge. You would need a large one if you have a heavy bioload in that tank size.

Are you feeding too much dry food?

Maybe someone else has some other advice.

Thank you for your advice. So I only feed frozen food. At most twice a day. I thaw the cubes in a squirt bottle with RO water and keep it refrigerated. I replace the food in the bottle every 3 days. I have about 23 fish so its quite a fish load.

What I meant with mechanical was, I didnt want to throw a bunch of Chaeto and rubble rock into my sump and have to put a 6500k light on there. The display tank had a good amount of mature rock.

 

[Forsaken77]

Thank you for your advice. So I only feed frozen food. At most twice a day. I thaw the cubes in a squirt bottle with RO water and keep it refrigerated. I replace the food in the bottle every 3 days. I have about 23 fish so its quite a fish load.

What I meant with mechanical was, I didnt want to throw a bunch of Chaeto and rubble rock into my sump and have to put a 6500k light on there. The display tank had a good amount of mature rock.

I wouldn't suggest rubble rock anyway. I'd suggest something like a Marine Pure block, which has huge surface area and can do denitrification if in a low flow area.

What were you slacking with on the zeo reactor? Pumping it, or feeding it? Because they make those auto shaking ones that you don't have to pump, like the Avast.

My brother, who has sold corals, invented an aquarium product, and has a stellar tank tried different methods. He always went back to using the zeo reactor (not the entire program). He said it kept his tank the most balanced.

Is it possible to put the zeo bacteria food in a doser? So you wouldn't have to pump it with an auto one, and only check the doser infrequently.

Just trying to make it easier by automating things.

 

[marriedtothereef]

I wouldn't suggest rubble rock anyway. I'd suggest something like a Marine Pure block, which has huge surface area and can do denitrification if in a low flow area.

What were you slacking with on the zeo reactor? Pumping it, or feeding it? Because they make those auto shaking ones that you don't have to pump, like the Avast.

My brother, who has sold corals, invented an aquarium product, and has a stellar tank tried different methods. He always went back to using the zeo reactor (not the entire program). He said it kept his tank the most balanced.

Is it possible to put the zeo bacteria food in a doser? So you wouldn't have to pump it with an auto one, and only check the doser infrequently.

Just trying to make it easier by automating things.

Yes this Zeo reactor is actually pretty good. I put the Bio Sphere balls inside with 1/4 of ZeoLite on the bottom. It actually dropped my Nitrates from 75 to 50. Not a huge difference but its a start since i just put them in there last month. IMO the Zeolite is similar to Matrix. I even thought about connecting the doser directly into the reactor for vinegar feeding.