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jason the filter freak

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Posts posted by jason the filter freak

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    Chip,

     

    Do you replace your sand ata all?

     

    BTW what does your saturday look like?

     

    Dave

     

    Sat looks fine for me

     

    I've decided I'm going to switch over to sand, and jst pick out and keep a few shells from my former substrate for new hermit homes, etc.

     

    I have now the output from a fluval 305, and 405 canister filter, and from a 400 gph pump thats running my sump, plus two power sweep power heads for circulation at the moment.

     

    Just how stong should my circulation be? Whats a good gauge.... Due to limited space and the tendancy for powerheads to suck up sand and umm limited space I'm about to pull my super sponge filters to make room to add more power heads. What does any one think about cheap and effective wave making strips?

    Got sand?

    in General Discussion

    Pat,

     

    I'm not sure where bowie is, but I can definitly provied you a cup or two of sand...

     

    Dave

     

    Bowie is in maryland outside of the beltway

     

    New market is more than a hour from Bowie

    Got sand?

    in General Discussion

    Anybody in my area (Bowie) have a cup of sand to spare for my new tank?

     

    I switched from CC to sand and did not want to put any of the old CC in with the new sand.

     

     

    I'm about to make the same switch... Where did you find the sand that you used in your tank?

    Help with Tank move........AGAIN!! August 19th

    in General Discussion

    Jason,

    We can always use another set of hands. And it's always nice to meet a new member. We'll see you there Saturday! :cheers:

     

    One: Your signature is incorrect you've mispelled "gitty gitty"

    Two: If I'm able to choose which car would you rather me bring

    Three: What's the afomentioned free stuff, I'd like to meet the people of wamas, however with the gas prices and cars not running off of RODI water yet I'm just slightly curious what the "stuff" is. PM me?

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by jason the filter freak

    RHF did a good study (or was Delbek I forget) about the optimim size grains (and really you want a variety)... It turned out that it was satisfied very well by a play sand that you can no longer get...

     

    In general smaller is better though (more surface area & less gaps so bigger anerobic area for nitrate reduction).

     

    Dave

     

    Dave you said something about a variety, If I'm olny doing about a 2 to -2.5 inch sand bed would it be better to have a mix of crushed coral and fine sand, or just fine sand?, I'm going to get a Remote deep sand bed set up and just put play sand in that.... But for the tank, where would be a good place to get that fine white sand, for cheap that I see in alot of tanks?

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    DId you post pics of your tank anywhere?

     

    Anyway you coudl grow some macro (chaeto) in tank? (Maybe even section off a part of the tank..

     

    How about a hang on fuge (I've got one wiht light for $100 in the for sale/trade seciont).

     

    Dave

     

    I'll post pics of my tank asap, I actually have many members here to thank for my tank, some people should recongize the tank quite readily

     

    Ok I was just reading a thread on RC and I came across this!! I want to know if anyone has heard about this or has any opnions before I start getting my fish drunk!

     

     

    This was a comment on a DSB thread

     

    This has nothing to do with this thread BUT

    I just came across this thread, Have any of you ever tried the sugar/vodka method. The way this works is almost like the DSB bucket but a lot easier. When you add sugar or vodka ( They both do the same thing) to your tank it feeds anerobic bacteria. They eat the sugar , then the sugar is gone, so now theres a million bacteria in the tank with nothing to eat. So they eat your nitrates, at the same time your skimmer skims out these bacteria that have nitrates. Therefor lowering your nitrates I have a red sea test kit and my nitrates were off the chart. I'm guessing at least 60-80ppm, the test kit didn't go up that high. So I decided to add a little sugar since water changes were useless. In 2 weeks my nitrates were down to 0 ppm and have stayed there ever since. I did not do a water change in the sugar period and haven't done one in a loooong time. Now in my 92G tank I have a few damsels, 2 clowns, pajama cardinal, and two medium size tangs, I have never had a nitrate problem since. I have started manyt threads on this and steered many people in the right direction. Also I do not know one person that has lost any livestock including corals doing this. If any people are interested let me know, I'm here to help

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    I was quite embarressed to post this thread in the first place considering all the work that I had done with fresh water tanks in the past, and that I was Petco's aquatics expert ... :blush: however I just want to thank everyone for their number of responses. I should also mention being in college I'm on a rather limited budget... I can't spend $300 on a skimmer.

     

    So far the solutions people have come up with are:

     

    A remote deep sand bed, which I don't know if i can do in the interest of space, although any one who has seen plans to one, please let me know!

     

    A bigger and I suppose better protien skimmer, I like the idea of the needle wheel design, due to I hate messing with adjustable air flow intakes, any one have any views on what skimmer is better than another?

     

    Lastly it was mentioned to replace my crushed coral/shell aggrogate with some super fine sand, I've been told I can get this at ace hardware, anyone know any other places where I can get this sand.

     

    Once again, I found it way worth joining this fourm and I appreciate all the responses I'm getting: Rember My setup = quite limited space, and a more limited budget!

     

    Thanks All! :biggrin:

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    The process is (as I'm sure you're aware):

     

    Amonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrates.

     

    "Bio-media" excels at turning waste into nitrates, but it does nothing to remove them. Natural media such as LR or LS can process nitrates. Nitrates are okay for fish (they tolerate fairly high levels) but lethal to corals.

     

    Most reef tanks use LR/LS (& water changes) to keep nitrates in check. Bio-balls & other filters of this type are what is known as "nitrate factories" - not good if you're keeping a reef tank.

     

    Large skimmers are used to remove waste matter before it goes through the cycle.

     

     

    I like your opnion and I like what I paid for it! :wink: I didn't even think of it like that!! I knew about the nitrogen cycle, yes but I didn't consider to having a way to rid my tank of the final product! Ok, I also noticed you mentioned protien skimmers... My issue is a huuuuuuge LACK OF SPACE, the 55 is going in a dorm sized room, and the olny space I have is that under the stand. There for I can olny add insump skimmers that skim water that already passes over bio balls... any ideas on that?

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    This is a converstion I'm having with one of the WAMAS member in regards to a system called REMOTE DEEP SAND (filter, bucket, etc. I've seen it called a number of things. Any one else have opnions on this. + :eek:

     

     

    What kind of sand are you reccomending for this, I think I've made a mistake in my 55, i made about a quarter of my tank on the right side of my tank crushed coral/shell substrate, and then the center about half is course reef sand, and then the left quater is a course black sand, alot of these tanks I'm seeing seem to have very fine sand bottoms, and reccomendations? For both the remote system and the main tank...

     

     

    basically you see alot of tanks with the finer white tropical play sand because, 1 it looks good, but 2nd it doesn't allow for stuff to settle between the grains as easily as crushed coral, etc. If you have good enough flow the stuff will flow over the sand and be suspended until it enters you filter or skimmer.

     

    "They" say that you shouldn't mix different size grains of sand becaused different sizes causes the sand to cement itself (something like that)

     

    You don't have to use the deep sand bucket if you put six inches of sand in you main display. I don't like that much sand in my tank so I went with the bucket. I used the yardright play sand from ace hardware in my bucket and mixed it with very fine crushed coral in my main display. since it is silica based you may have diatom outbreacks. mine weren't too bad. if you want you can post my responses in the forum part and see what others have to say on the subject.

    Mixing tanks

    in General Discussion

    I used to keep a 29 gallon when I had my brakish set up to have premixed (salt and buffer mixture) water for the 60 cube tank I was keeping my cichlids in. I had a similar problem, and took these steps to solve it.

     

    Put a cover fitted cover over the mixing tank, this solved two problems 1. Kept the mixing water from evaporating at a high rate. 2. Put some holes in the lid to allow for gas exchange.

     

    Added 2 power heads, one to cirulate the bottom and the other aimed at the surface at a 45 degree angle to help break surface tension.

     

    Added an air stone and air pump to help the water be oxygenated when I put it in my main tank, and to allow for gas exchange.

     

    Lastly I put a fountain pump in the tank to pump the water in the 60 gallon, however when I wasn't using it to pump water into my main tank, I had the tube u'ed back into the 29 gallon tank and running and this did two things, allowed for more circulation, but I also installed a cylinder inline with STUFFED filter floss, which at first didn't take anything out of what was suposed to be clean water, but after about a month it made a diffrence.

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    For those of you asking, my nitrite, and amonia levels are zero, but my nitrates are a very saddening 150-ish

     

    I've seen a number of people mention removing my bio media, wouldn't that be counter productive? When I was running my FRESH AND BRACKISH tanks I made sure to never clean all my bio media at once, so I could prevent killing off my backeria... Could someone explain why I'd want to take out my bio media? :why:

    Help with Tank move........AGAIN!! August 19th

    in General Discussion

    I'm putting out the call for help moving a 125g tank again. There will be some free stuff in it for anybody who helps. I'm moving the tank from Silver Spring to Woodbridge. The tank is already broken down so it will just be showing up, loading, and bringing it here.

     

    Silver Spring is fairly close to me, being that I live in laurel. I'm a bit new to wamas, but I'd be willing to help.

    I have a Jetta, and may or may not have a wagon at my disposal as well.

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    Well the first thing to do is don't anything else to the tank...

     

    Then answer some questions:

     

    1) What was the exact nitrate level (and what type of test kit was used).

     

    2) When the 55 was setup how much new "live rock" and sand were added, how much taken from the older 25 gallon system.

     

    3) do you have some type of bio material in the sump/canister filter... you may want to consider removing them (but wait and do it slowly over time)

     

    Most like your tank is cycling and some patientce to let the bacteria catch up with the bio load will probably help.

     

    Dave

     

    None of the live rock came from my 25 gallon, and olny about 15 pounds of live sand came out of that tank, right now I'm using a red sea master test kit

     

    I would highly reccomend you read this article. I think it is all you will need.

     

    http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

     

    I had the same exact problem. It sounds like you need to start farming macro algae in your refugium.

     

    Bruce

     

    I'd love to have a refigium in the first place, but that's going to be the next step after getting another protien skimmer, right now all I have is a sea clone 100 :why:

     

    Sounds like New Tank Syndrome. All you need is patience. Are you using RO/DI water?

     

    -- Rob

     

    I'm using ro but not di water, because I don't have the set up for an rodi filter I just get the stuff from UMD's labs

     

    Jason,

    what about the skimmer...u have one?

    what test kit are you using for nitrates?

    seems as if you have a bunch of filtration on there...hence the name ...i get it.....lol

    has youre sand bed been producing alot of air bubbles lately??(i learned this process from reading some old posts from lee stearns)...if so you are probably converting alot nitrites into nitraTES AND SOON THE LEVELS WILL BACK BACK DOWN.

    Bryan

     

    Yea I do, i didn't mean to say aqua clear 100, it's a sea clone 100 skimmer, I need a better one, I know but I keep getting mixed reviews and no one seems to have on at an affordable price

     

    From the gist of what I'm hearing from people on this thread, I'm going to grab a few more cured pieces of live rock, and work on getting another/better skimmer.

     

    Does any one have some good live sand, with established bacteria culture. That i can have/buy??

    HELP! My nitrates are running amok!

    in General Discussion

    I just switched over from a 25 gallon tank to a 55 gallon tank, and my 25 always had minor problems with nitrates, but that tank olny had a fluval 305 and nothing else.....

     

    so over all about 40 gallons of actual water

     

    My 55 now has a pro clear aquatics 175 sump, with a 400 gph pump.

    An aqua clear 100

    a fluval 404 and 304 with fresh media

    2 power sweep power heads

    and lots of air pumps and air stones

     

    The tank has about 50 pounds or so of decently good quality live sand, and about 70 pounds of live rock with some green, brown, and a little purple coraline algae... and about 8 pounds of heavy growth purple coraline, alond with some other misc orange alge and some plany life.

     

    Some one care to help me, I don't know what I'm doing wrong the tank load up until tonight was 8 blue leg hermits and a blue green chromis and a domino damsel (neither of which were mature) Now my load is the same a mentioned before plus 4 more chromis and a slug of some sort that was attached to the live rock.

     

    I did a 7 gallon water change, and added some nitrate, nitrite reduction chemicals, and I still not having good luck with nitrates

     

    My nitites are Nil so is my amonia

     

    The water is at ideal salinity and pH is 8.2 and the temp is 75-78 depending on wether or not my MH lighting is on.

     

    WHAT CAN I DO??

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