Help with High nitrate levels

[Asantiago]

Really appreciate this. Its frustrating being so new to this. I can bring a person back to life but I can't figure out marine aquariums right now lol
[/QUOTE]

Hahaha, no problem! That’s the whole point to help each other. I was exactly where you at few weeks ago.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Mine is setup: Bottom chamber is Mechanical ) ( Sponge pad and floss pad), Middle chamber is Chemical ( activated carbon and Poly filter on top of it, The top chamber is Bio and that’s where you would put your Seachem Matrix.

I was under the impression the correct placement is:

Mechanical
Biological
Chemical?

 

[tjclapp]

Hi everyone

I’m new to the page, I have a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium using a pen plax 1000 cascade canister filter with a engineer goby fish, clown fish, esmerald crab, 3 Nassir Snails, and about 6 hermit crabs and some live rock. I’m having problems with my Nitrates as they are around 160ppm. I cleaned the the canister filter on Sunday and didn’t change the pads just rinsed them on some aquarium water that I put to the side. I’m looking to add a sump in the near future but I just bought this filter so I gotta try to make it work. Could someone help me with this as I’m trying to learn everything on my own and have done a lot research without any success ? Do I replace the pads in the chambers of the canister Filter or what should I do ? Any help would be really appreciated!
Thanks

I also attached a picture of the tank in case helps ‍

I definitely recommend putting some macro algae in the tank, like dragons breathe. It’s beautiful, adds color to the tank, and most importantly lowers nitrates/ phosphates!

 

[myinvalidname]

Hey man I read this thread as Im kinda in the same boat. Funny thing I went to a hobbyist aquarium store and was schooled (as I have an Eheim Cannister filter as well) about how ****** cannisters can be (need to clean it out more etc), and he mentioned to me about using mine as a "media reactor"... is this how you use yours? And if you do, what do you put in? And if not, what part in the filter requires cleaning more frequently. I bought mine from a local fish store, which is great, but now that Im learning more and talking to more hobbyists Im realizing how not so great cannister filters can be.

My nitrates right now are 25...Im planning on testing phosts but the test kit is in the mail.

Any tips?

Rob

Sorry rob. I wasn’t checking R2R. If you use the canister filter as a media filter you don’t have any mechanical filtration to trap debris. So instead, you might have carbon, bio material, or maybe gfo.

I go back and forth depending on my tank. If I fee there is too many things floating, then I’ll through I’m some filter floss. Sometimes I only run carbon and bio media, then I only clean it once a month and sometimes less.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Sorry rob. I wasn’t checking R2R. If you use the canister filter as a media filter you don’t have any mechanical filtration to trap debris. So instead, you might have carbon, bio material, or maybe gfo.

I go back and forth depending on my tank. If I fee there is too many things floating, then I’ll through I’m some filter floss. Sometimes I only run carbon and bio media, then I only clean it once a month and sometimes less.

Hey its ok man. Thanks for the reply. Don't have a whole lot in the tank right now. I think I'll be ok for the time changing the pads once a week...will look more into adding straight media like you mentioned. I've read GFO will turn solid and xoukd clog the canister?

Have a good week

Robert

 

[fishhead1973]

Oh ok. Some dude told me I should clean the floss 3x a week. That's what got me all confused and stuff. I still have the eheim material running as it was from day 1...tanks been running almost 5 months. I have the mech, filter blue pad, substrat, floss pad and carbon filter pad on top still. The guy at the store told me i only need to service the thing every 3 months. So the first "service" I did was just rinse the white pad under the drained aquarium water. Im so confused. Help lol. This is the pic of how my canister looks lol I just want to get in a routine, know what to remove, what to replace...each week lol

Take out all the bio pellets top and bottom they trap a lot of debris you can keep the filter floss I would add small bag of carbon and some sea chem phosphate remover pretty sure the bio pellets are the source of the problem.