Trouble with nitrates

Katweet · Sep 23, 2015

I'm a newb, currently setting up a 29g fowlr, went ahead and threw in some new LR to cure. NH3 is <.25ppm, NO3- is around 80ppm. I plan to stock a single percula clown and a royal gramma, possibly one of the more peaceful dottybacks.

I'm running a barebottom tank for ease of cleaning. Once I clean up all the debris from the LR and if I do a daily spot-cleaning with a baster, how many PWCs a month might you expect me to do to keep nitrates within manageable levels? I'm a rather busy person who really cherishes my time at home with my pets and tanks, so I'd really like to do as little work as possible. Making RO water is annoying because I have to keep an eye on it when it's running so I don't flood the kitchen trying to save the wastewater. I get maybe 5 gallons a day, on avg, with my schedule. It's really grating because after a week, I'm not even done filling the tank, but I know I'm going to have to do a huge water change as soon as the LR is cured so I can add livestock.

I hear I really don't need a skimmer with a nano tank. Is that only true if I'm doing weekly PWCs? Will a skimmer replace weekly PWCs in keeping trates down? I'm looking for the cheapest way to keep me and my tank happy. If I chose between a skimmer, a reactor or a refugium on my next paycheck, which should it be? Or none, if spot-cleaning can keep my water changes down to, maybe, once a month?

SantaMonicaHelp · Sep 23, 2015

If you are wanting an almost maintenance-free tank where all you do is feed fish and top-off evap water, then yes it is possible

Katweet · Sep 23, 2015

SantaMonicaHelp said:
If you are wanting an almost maintenance-free tank where all you do is feed fish and top-off evap water, then yes it is possible

That's good to hear. Is a refugium, skimmer or reactor the way to go? Or will spot-cleaning do the job?

saltyphish · Sep 23, 2015

I don't think your question is so easily answered. You have to consider what nutrient exports your tank has (Biological filtration, Mechanical filtration, Chemical filtration, Bioload, and feeding amounts/regiments. All of those factors are going to vary from tank to tank. You would need to run your tank at full bioload and test parameters frequently to get the best answer.
It is possible to do with out a skimmer on nano tanks as long as water changes are done often. Some people feel nano skimmers are not worth using but I disagree. I use one on my nano and notice it does help. Using a reactor with carbon or gfo can help significantly as well. I run one of the BRS 5" minireactor with Carbon mixed with gfo. I also run a Tunze 9002 skimmer and both seem to help.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 23, 2015

There are many ways to keep nutrients under control.

In a fowlr, the main goal is likely to be algae control, not keeping nutrients low for most other reasons.

All of what you mention can be used, and several together can be even better than one alone, but in a small tank it can be hard to implement all of these..

Do you have a sump?

These have more info on the pros and cons of different methods:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium/

Phosphate In The Reef Aquarium
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/?p=3184

Katweet · Sep 23, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Do you have a sump?

I'm planning on putting one together after coming paychecks. 10 gallons, using the CPR continuous siphon overflow box (item # CD-74884; and related accessories to maintain the siphon) and a quiet one pro pump from Drs Foster and Smith. I'm obviously going to have limited space.