Yeah, i had brought the Red Sea Pro kit to Chris this weekend, just to get a 4th opinion.
It's nuts and I've never seen it before, with either the original TBS rock or the newer 2.1.
I had around 50 ppm N03 when the 2.1 rock went in this time but it quickly came down. This is expected. Tons of life on the rock and not all 100% will survive.
The difference between my tank and Chris', is that he had Pukani mixed in and used bagged live sand.
I had all 2.1 rock and TBS sand. I know that the TBS sand is chock full of denitrifying bacteria, so between that and the rock itself, that probably helped get my n03 down quicker.
But Chris has done a ton of water changes, chaeto in the fuge, carbon in a reactor... nothing seems to help.
Seems like there has to be something decaying somewhere. My thought, since there's no coral in the tank yet, is to remove the pukani temporarily and store it in a brute with water and pump.
Then see if the n03 drops in the tank. At least then you'd rule out the pukani as the source one way or the other.
I've spoken with Richard at TBS about it. He hasn't had other reports of this problem which is odd, and the rock had been in the gulf for around 8 months. You'd think that'd be plenty of cure time. But maybe not???
The other option as noted above is adding more good bacteria.
I completely understand his frustration. He got his rock weeks before I did. This is so out of the norm, it's unreal.
And he's got an old tank in the wings waiting to come down and transfer to this one.
It's a gorgeous setup, too! We gotta figure this out. :mad:
