Hey everyone,
So my question is what can I do, besides water changes, to remove nitrates? I work at a Petco and we have been having a nitrate problem the last few weeks. They sit around 60-80ppm. Water changes help bring it down but are back within a day or two, even if we skip feeding for those days. The system is 3, 30 gallon tanks with about a 30 gallon sump. So roughly 120 gallons total water volume. In the sump it has a rain maker, which falls onto the mechinal media, filter pad, carbon, and I added a nitrogen filter pad to see if that would help any. After the pads it flows onto a biowheel and into the sump where the small skimmer skims the water with the return next to the skimmer. The set up is by marineland if anyone has seen them before. I know biowheels and rainmakers are designed to turn ammonia and nitrites into nitrates, so I know it's not the ideal set up, but I have no control over any of that. There is around 90lbs of live rock inside the tanks spread out from each section. I was considering bringing some chaeto from my home reef and throwing that into the tank under the lights and seeing if that could make any difference? I'm also curing another roughly 30lbs of live rock to throw in there in about a month or 2. I also wouldnt consider the tanks over stocked either. There is about 7 clowns, blue throat, 10 damsels, a yellow tang and 2 neon dottybacks swimming around. All babies still. I don't want to stock anymore fish or corals until the nitrates are controlled again and back to 10ppm or less. Any suggestions would be helpful i am at a loss! I also dose microbelift every week.
Thanks everyone!
So my question is what can I do, besides water changes, to remove nitrates? I work at a Petco and we have been having a nitrate problem the last few weeks. They sit around 60-80ppm. Water changes help bring it down but are back within a day or two, even if we skip feeding for those days. The system is 3, 30 gallon tanks with about a 30 gallon sump. So roughly 120 gallons total water volume. In the sump it has a rain maker, which falls onto the mechinal media, filter pad, carbon, and I added a nitrogen filter pad to see if that would help any. After the pads it flows onto a biowheel and into the sump where the small skimmer skims the water with the return next to the skimmer. The set up is by marineland if anyone has seen them before. I know biowheels and rainmakers are designed to turn ammonia and nitrites into nitrates, so I know it's not the ideal set up, but I have no control over any of that. There is around 90lbs of live rock inside the tanks spread out from each section. I was considering bringing some chaeto from my home reef and throwing that into the tank under the lights and seeing if that could make any difference? I'm also curing another roughly 30lbs of live rock to throw in there in about a month or 2. I also wouldnt consider the tanks over stocked either. There is about 7 clowns, blue throat, 10 damsels, a yellow tang and 2 neon dottybacks swimming around. All babies still. I don't want to stock anymore fish or corals until the nitrates are controlled again and back to 10ppm or less. Any suggestions would be helpful i am at a loss! I also dose microbelift every week.
Thanks everyone!
