Sugar dosing

[Justyn kot]

Do sugar dosing help to lower nitrates and how much do you dose? I have a 90 gallon including sump. Thank you

 

[Reeferdood]

Well the short answer is yes sugar can lower your nitrates but it is more complicated than that. Can you tell us more about your setup and what your parameters are..
And,

 

[Justyn kot]

I have a 75 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump with an ASM protein skimmer. I have 2 clowns 2 damsels and one cardinal. The water temp is 78 high range ph is 7.8 ammonia is 0 nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 5.0.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Vinegar or vodka are th better options

 

[Justyn kot]

Why is vinegar or vodka better and how do you dose them?

 

[Cherub]

that's not a huge load for a 75 gallon. you might try feeding less. chaeto in the sump helps a ton too

 

[Scrubber_steve]

There are problems with using sugar, & there is a heap of info out there about vodka & vinegar dosing, google is your friend

 

[Justyn kot]

thanks guys

 

[Justyn kot]

Do you guys have any clue why anytime I put either snails or hermit crabs in they die in about a week?

 

[Reeferdood]

Nitrates are not high either, why are you trying to get them lower than 5ppm?
That is not what is killing your snails..

 

[408Dartfish]

What test kit are you using to get your nitrate reading? 5ppm in my experience isn’t very high to be killing inverts. Dustin

 

[Justyn kot]

Ok thanks I thought that was high. What do think would be killing them

 

[ZachR32]

What is your salinity? What is your acclimation method?

 

[Justyn kot]

My salinity is 1.025. To acclimate them I add about 25mls of my tank water to the bag they are in every 5 to 10 min for 2 hours

 

[ZachR32]

Has copper ever been used in your tank before? From everything you've told us so far I'm not sure what's killing your critters. What do you use for top off water?

 

[Justyn kot]

I never used copper in my tank and I use RO/DO to top off. I do 10 gallon water changes every other week.

 

[Cherub]

was your tank started recently? you might just let it mature. you dont really have a heavy bioload and your CUC is probably starving. Did you start the tank in April when you joined?

 

[Justyn kot]

I started it in the being of March. So I should awhile to ads a CUC?How long should I wait?

 

[cracker]

Do you guys have any clue why anytime I put either snails or hermit crabs in they die in about a week?

If snails & hermits don't live long it could do with your acclimation method.This has happened to me , they don't live long or at least I lose too many. I very slowly drip my inverts for at least 2 hours ! I don't loose hardly any .

 

[Dennis McGrath]

If snails & hermits don't live long it could do with your acclimation method.This has happened to me , they don't live long or at least I lose too many. I very slowly drip my inverts for at least 2 hours ! I don't loose hardly any .

Or is the problem that there's not enough nutrients in the tank for them to live on?