philr
Active Member
I have a 90 gallon reef tank. The filter is a 20 gallon sump. I created 3 compartments. First the water flows from 2 1" pipes into prefilter sleeves. The water in the compartment is circulated thru a uv sterilizer, and a protein skimmer. the water then flows into compartment 2 that contains approx 12lbs of live rock. The water is filtered thru a sponge into the 3rd compartment that contains a reactor filled with chemi pure, and denitrate. Finally pumped into the tank at approx 1000 gph. The lighting consists of 2 100 watt metal halide bulbs, and 2 50 watt actinic t5 flourescents. The tank contains approx 100lbs of live rock. Some of the rock I have had for over 6 years. I moved 2 years ago, and the rock sat in a tub for a couple of weeks. There is no substrate, just a bit of sand/crushed coral. The botttom of the tankk is painted black- on the outside. I have several snails of different variety and size perhaps a dozen total. There are 2 lysamata cleaner shrimp, 1 blood shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 pepermint shrimp, 1 hermit crab - hitchiker with the live rock. I have 1 clown gobi, 1 maroon clown and 1 dottyback. in addition i have 1 bubble tip anenome. The anenome seems to prefer the top of the tank, as there are bristle worms in some of the rocks. I never see the worms but will sometimes catch a small one 1/2 inch in a trap. I do regular water changes approx 10 gallons per week, i do this at the rate of 3-4 gallons every 3 days. THE PROBLEM I HAVE IS THAT I CANNOT SEEM TO CONSISTENTLY KEEP THE NITRATES TO BELOW 20PPM. I NEED ANY HELP OR ADVICE ANYONE MAY HAVE. THANKS.
