Tip for new players Nitrate going up again

[PeterEde]

Tank actually looks really good. I see the BTA on the left. Looks good. What are you seeing wrong with it?

Not as many open tips

 

[PeterEde]

Tank actually looks really good. I see the BTA on the left. Looks good. What are you seeing wrong with it?

3 trocus snails
I leave the algea for the urchin

 

[PeterEde]

Well, if you are going to feed them anyway, your conclusion is not correct. If you feed them macroalgae from your tank, or you throw away the macroalgae and feed them commercial foods, the net effect may be the same.

IMO, feeding macroalgae back to the display tank is a good idea and I frequently did it.

The rabbits get normal food too. The dusky is an absolute pig of a fish

 

[sixty_reefer]

Po4 is stable
Light does reach bio bricks

Thank you, With the information you have posted I would allocate your system to

3.1. Heterotrophic bacteria as dominant species effect on nutrients and residual.

Of one of my thread on nutrients, this could mean that your tank is only limited in organic carbon, maybe a small Addition of it would be all you need to stabilise nitrates.

Other option you could do also, is to try and block the light to your bio blocks, this would remove photosynthetic organisms from competing with autotrophic nitrifying bacteria and could be helpful at processing ammonia faster. This could aid with the pest algaes in the tank.

if you were to block the light to the bio bricks in the sump your tank would move to 3.2. Of the thread I’ve shared with you earlier.

hope it helps

 

[doubleshot00]

Tank looks small. Why not just do regular WC? Like 30-40%.

 

[PeterEde]

Tank looks small. Why not just do regular WC? Like 30-40%.

its a 30 gl I do 5 gl wc weekly
I did a 50 once ans cause problems

 

[doubleshot00]

its a 30 gl I do 5 gl wc weekly
I did a 50 once ans cause problems

That's why i suggest 30% not 50%

 

[Garf]

its a 30 gl I do 5 gl wc weekly
I did a 50 once ans cause problems

If your NO2 is actually 0.2 ppm as you’ve indicated, it could be messing with your nitrate reading by interfering with the test, giving a false high.

 

[dthom]

Not as many open tips

When you say open tips, do you mean that are bubbled up?

If so, that is a tricky one. Many BTA's do not bubble at all in captivity, and no one really knows what causes them to bubble up. I am all for working to get/keep the bubbles, but the lack of bubbles does not mean that the anemone is not healthy and doing well. Anyways, was just curious.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

its a 30 gl I do 5 gl wc weekly
I did a 50 once ans cause problems

I think I found your problem.

Please list the species of rabbit fish and what other inhabitants your tank has. The most common rabbit fish like one spot foxfire require at least a 75 gallon tank.

This is likely an overstocking issue and nothing you do to increase export will solve the issue if you don't have enough space.

 

[PeterEde]

When you say open tips, do you mean that are bubbled up?

If so, that is a tricky one. Many BTA's do not bubble at all in captivity, and no one really knows what causes them to bubble up. I am all for working to get/keep the bubbles, but the lack of bubbles does not mean that the anemone is not healthy and doing well. Anyways, was just curious.

It's a recent addition
The lfs uses nsw in their tanks. I suspect that's why it was fully open for the first few days.

 

[PeterEde]

I think I found your problem.

Please list the species of rabbit fish and what other inhabitants your tank has. The most common rabbit fish like one spot foxfire require at least a 75 gallon tank.

This is likely an overstocking issue and nothing you do to increase export will solve the issue if you don't have enough space.

How did I go from 40plus all the way down to 18 for 2 weeks and now rising again.
I agree about the fish. They will be the first removed fish. In future I will ensure I buy smaller

 

[ZombieEngineer]

How did I go from 40plus all the way down to 18 for 2 weeks and now rising again.
I agree about the fish. They will be the first removed fish. In future I will ensure I buy smaller

Could very well be related to import and export of your caulerpa and the bioload of the rabbitfish relative to tank size. If you remove too much caulerpa to feed him such that it reduces the growth potential of the refugium, you would see nitrates and phosphates spike within a week of eating. If you let the refugium overgrow to the point growth potential reduces, you can also get a spike. This is all compounded by the high nutrient load in each feeding for that rabbitfish.

 

[PeterEde]

Could very well be related to import and export of your caulerpa and the bioload of the rabbitfish relative to tank size. If you remove too much caulerpa to feed him such that it reduces the growth potential of the refugium, you would see nitrates and phosphates spike within a week of eating. If you let the refugium overgrow to the point growth potential reduces, you can also get a spike. This is all compounded by the high nutrient load in each feeding for that rabbitfish.

just realised another change I made recently. I added filter sponge to stop crap going through the return pump back to DT.
I'll give it a clean today with my WC.

 

[PeterEde]

Today's test
10June2022 17% change
No3 26ppm
Nh3 0ppm
Ph 8.3
Kh 8.4
Ca 400ppm

 

[Spare time]

Feeding the fish you macroalgae could still lower the nitrate and phosphate over time as energy is lost (chemical energy from food is converted to kinetic energy, heat, electrical energy, etc. as well as body mass).

 

[PeterEde]

Feeding the fish you macroalgae could still lower the nitrate and phosphate over time as energy is lost (chemical energy from food is converted to kinetic energy, heat, electrical energy, etc. as well as body mass).

The dusky rabbit was the last fish in and almost as big as the foxface. In just a month. A mistake fish.