Tank overhaul tomorrow !!!

[Shergar11]

Right folks looking for bit advice here, I have had high nitrates for past month or 2 and have got them down to around 5ppm using Red Sea nopox,I am goin to try find anything that might be a sourcs for the nitrate so tomorrow I am taking rock out and scrubbing in the water I am removing from tank for water change,

Then the sand bed is getting a good siphon it is only maybe 2" 2.5" deep but this should be ok yeah ??

Ok so once that's done and I have reshaped my rock I am wondering best placement for the following coral

Bubble coral
Candy cane
Zoas
Mushroom

My tank is 4 ft long and I have at the moment 2 powerheads at the bottom back of the tank facing each other blowing behind my rock work, I also have 2 at the top front of tank pointing up to surface.

Hopefuly u guys can lend your expertise to this

 

[mike007]

Depending on how long your sand has been in tank i would replace with new sand. I went through the same thing and i replaced and started carbon dosing and have not had any problems since.

 

[glb]

Right folks looking for bit advice here, I have had high nitrates for past month or 2 and have got them down to around 5ppm using Red Sea nopox,I am goin to try find anything that might be a sourcs for the nitrate so tomorrow I am taking rock out and scrubbing in the water I am removing from tank for water change,

Then the sand bed is getting a good siphon it is only maybe 2" 2.5" deep but this should be ok yeah ??

Ok so once that's done and I have reshaped my rock I am wondering best placement for the following coral

Bubble coral
Candy cane
Zoas
Mushroom

My tank is 4 ft long and I have at the moment 2 powerheads at the bottom back of the tank facing each other blowing behind my rock work, I also have 2 at the top front of tank pointing up to surface.

Hopefuly u guys can lend your expertise to this

I am definitely not an expert here but I'm not sure this would be a good idea. It would create a lot of change in the tank at once. I'm not sure that scrubbing the rock would help unless it's covered with something producing the nitrates. I do think it's a good idea to look under all the rocks to see if something has died. As far as cleaning the sand bed, I've gotten mixed advice. Some people say to do it, others say it can make the water quality first. Why do you want to scrub the rocks? I'm just curious. I hope others with more experience will chime in. Good luck!

 

[glb]

Water quality worst is what I meant to type.

 

[Shergar11]

Sorry was meant to say also that the only reason I am scrubbing the rock is coz of the purple and orange algae growing on it it is only a few pieces of rock on the bottom that I will be scrubbing )

Cheers for your input tho al take the rock out to have a look for anything that's dead and give the sand a siphon while I am at it. I am also moving the rock because I bought a royal gramma last week and it won't come out because my blue damsel is bullying it when it came out so hopefully if I take the damsel out for a while and re scape the rock and then put damsel bak in it won't bother the gramma!!!

I live in hope

 

[glb]

Good luck!

 

[pam0630]

same here having high nitrates..been doing my water changes...did a 25 gallon change on tues.....doing a 30 gallon water change this weekend....hoping this is going to bring down the numbers...they arent that bad, but never had an issue like this.......crossing fingers.............my phosphate and nitrate reducer will be in on tues...then i will put that stuff in and see...i know i have to change the way i feed my babies........

 

[always reefin]

all you state will affect your cycle, you will probably see some ammonia too when completed. mini cycle will occur at the very least, possibly even full

 

[glb]

all you state will affect your cycle, you will probably see some ammonia too when completed. mini cycle will occur at the very least, possibly even full

This was my concern. Sometimes when we try to make things better we can unintentionally get things out of balance. I hope others add their thoughts as I'm no expert, but I did have a huge problem with my tank a few months ago when I changed too many things in my filter at once.

 

[mcarroll]

I would try to find a good home for either the damsel or all the other fish.

While you're siphoning the sand bed, I'd suggest removing about a quarter of the sand in the process. You could even repeat this, removing another quarter of the sand with each water change until you either have a manageable amount of sand (~1") or (my pref) none at all.

-Matt

 

[glb]

I would try to find a good home for either the damsel or all the other fish.

While you're siphoning the sand bed, I'd suggest removing about a quarter of the sand in the process. You could even repeat this, removing another quarter of the sand with each water change until you either have a manageable amount of sand (~1") or (my pref) none at all.

-Matt

I agree. That way you can save the fish.