SteveM February 23, 2007 February 23, 2007 If you have 0 Amonia and 0 Nitrites, what makes your Nitrates go up? And if its going up how can you bring it down besides water changes?
dhoch February 23, 2007 February 23, 2007 The cycle is: Waste gets broken down into ammonia which gets broken down into nitrite which gets broken down into nitrate. The nitrate must be somehow broken down or gotten rid of. The fact that you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite means those bacteria are working very well, but the de-nitrification bacteria (gets rid of nitrate) are not doing a good enough job to keep up with the amount of "waste" in your aquarium. Steps to resolve: 1) Skim more 2) Feed less 3) Remove bio-load 4) Add a refugium and grow macro algae. 5) Deep sand bed All or some of the above may be used. Dave
SteveM February 23, 2007 Author February 23, 2007 The cycle is: Waste gets broken down into ammonia which gets broken down into nitrite which gets broken down into nitrate. The nitrate must be somehow broken down or gotten rid of. The fact that you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite means those bacteria are working very well, but the de-nitrification bacteria (gets rid of nitrate) are not doing a good enough job to keep up with the amount of "waste" in your aquarium. Steps to resolve: 1) Skim more 2) Feed less 3) Remove bio-load 4) Add a refugium and grow macro algae. 5) Deep sand bed All or some of the above may be used. Dave Thanks Dave. I have a refugium, very deep sand bed, not to much of a bio-load and I skim as much as I know how to with my skimmer. I guess the problem could be the feeding.
dhoch February 23, 2007 February 23, 2007 How old is the tank? How much flow (I think flow helps as well, I forgot to mention that)... What kind of skimmer (and how big is the tank)... sometime you may be pushing a given skimmer to the limit and you need a better skimmer. Dave
SteveM February 23, 2007 Author February 23, 2007 How old is the tank? How much flow (I think flow helps as well, I forgot to mention that)... What kind of skimmer (and how big is the tank)... sometime you may be pushing a given skimmer to the limit and you need a better skimmer. Dave Tank is a 110 and is 4 months old Have one Hydor #4 and 2 MJ 1200.. seems like Im getting plenty of flow Have an AquaC EV0120, I believe its rated up to a 200+ tank and I've heard it is supposed to be a pretty good skimmer. Seems to work well... but what do I know
dhoch February 23, 2007 February 23, 2007 I would consider more flow.... I have more flow in my 40 than you have in your 110 (two of the tunze nano streams & a maxijet 1200)... Dave
Rascal February 23, 2007 February 23, 2007 Another thing to consider is the possibility that your sand bed isn't really working up to its full potential yet. Same with the low oxygen sections inside your live rock (the other place where denitrification takes place). I may be mistaken, but I think I remember reading somewhere that a DSB takes at least 6 months to really start doing its job. I know that has been my experience anyway. That's not to say that more flow and being careful with overfeeding aren't good ideas, I'm just giving you something else to think about.
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