My names mike, and I'm new around here and to the hobby. I recently purchased a 150 gal fowlr. The person I purchased it from said he never did water changes or much of anything for that matter. I knew nothing about it so I went to LFS and had my water tested. Really high nitrates, low PH, and really high phosphates. He told me clean the sump out and rinse all the bio balls and change the sponges and filter media, and of course water change. Also had me run this phosgaurd stuff and I also bought a test kit that day so I didn't have to keep going back. So here I am 3 weeks later bunches of water changes later and i use ro di water. still canot find where the nitrates are hiding and my phosphates are still sky high. I feed lightly once a day and skip a day every 3. Can anyone offer me any advice.
Did you end up replacing all the filter sponges and rinsing the bio balls?
I would slowly, like over the course of a few weeks or months, remove the bio balls and invest in a protein skimmer if you don't already have one. Removing the bio balls will remove a lot of the good bacteria, so do it very slowly so it can balance itself out.
Perhaps add some macro algae to the sump too. They say only water changes above 50-60% have any real impact on nutrients, I don't know how true that is though.
Theres probably phosphate and nitrate leaching from the rocks. If so, there's not much you can do besides use a large skimmer, consider macro algae or a reactor (I don't know enough about reactors to give any advice there sorry), keep up with large water changes and ride it out.
Good luck!
Don't forget the phosphate media (probably rowaphos etc) will become full quickly an need replacing frequently until numbers start coming down. I bought a second hand tank that had not had water changes for 8 months, phosphates leached for about 6 months. I ran a rowaphos in a reactor and Seachem Phosguard in the sump until I started to see numbers coming down. I don't know if you used his old sand but we did and it was the biggest mistake we made, we siphoned it all out and replaced it and it made a huge difference.
Keep changing phosphate media and water changes. Lower your feeding and agree with above get a good skimmer.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the advice, I do currently have a protein skimmer, not sure if it's working right though. Sometimes it's foaming sometimes it's not. So I think I should invest in a better skimmer. I had the Reef octopus SRO2000 int in mind has anyone had any experience with that skimmer.
As far as the substrate I did use the substrate that came with it, crushed coral. Any advice on how to change that or should I ?
How much live rock do you have? That will be a good indicator of whether you should add something more for biological filtration.
I would also remove the substrate slowly. I'd remove about 1/8 - 1/4 every fortnight or so. Being crushed coral, it can hold a lot of detritus in, so I'd remove a portion right before a water change, that way you can siphon all the stirred up crap out.
Don't remove the substrate and bio balls at the same time though, you don't wana shock the system!
Okay should I do one or the other every time I do a water change? I'm guessing 150lbs+ of live rock. I know when I moved it it almost filled up a 32 gal can of just the live rock. Once I've got all the substrate out, should I replace it with CC or sand. Or does it just boil down to personal preference?
Okay should I do one or the other every time I do a water change? I'm guessing 150lbs+ of live rock. I know when I moved it it almost filled up a 32 gal can of just the live rock. Once I've got all the substrate out, should I replace it with CC or sand. Or does it just boil down to personal preference?
I'd start by removing the substrate first, then move onto the bio balls. Take a small amount out at each water change. I agree with an above post and believe the substrate is where the major issue lies.
You can replace the substrate if you like, or you can leave it bare. It's up to you
Sounds good. If I was to replace it I'd just have this same issue later on down the road or is it something if the substrate was vacuumed an maintained it would last?
Anyone got any tricks to putting sand in while the tanks filled? And also I'd assume leaving the pumps off an just keep power head on till sand settles?
Sink the bag of sand to the bottom of the tank and cut the bag away
I buy freezer bags from the supermarket and put the sand in them if I'm doing a lot of sand in one go. I found the smaller the bag the easier it is.
Another way is if your sand can be sieved through an aquarium net, dampen the sand slightly and fill up a net. As you wave the net through the water the sand will fall out and you'll get a nice even layer of sand, doing it this way will coat your rock though. Alot of sand is too big to do this with though. You have to dampen it first other wise it gets real messy real quick.
I would leave all pumps off for a while (maybe a couple of hours) and only turn them on once all the larger bits have settled. You don't want a grain of sand getting caught in an impeller and destroying a pump. Being a fowlr you can leave the pumps off for a little longer than normal
HI, when we replaced the sand bed we got a piece of larger PVC plumbing pipe and placed it at an angle into the tank as close to the bottom as we could get. We then poured the new (dry) sand down the tube while hubby moved the pipe along. NO stuff few around at all. Worked just great.
