Monarch Academy Earth Matters Club!

[iceet]

Dear Bailey,

 

That was an amazing story. You are wise beyond your years. I wish I was as smart as you when I was your age.

[monarchcharter]

Origami and Iceet, Thank you for the suggestions.  I will look into videos as soon as I can.

 

I have another dilemma:/  Our tanks have seemed to be doing well after the heater wiped the one out, but all of a sudden our Nitrates are through the roof?  We are testing every other - every day and they have climbed to over a 100.  I have done water changes?  Not sure what to do now.

 

These are tanks that have been running, have hermit crabs and clowns, live rock and some substrate.  The one tank has some surviving coral (zoas and other small pieces that the students fraged).  We also have tube worms.

I am not sure what to do or what is causing it.

 

Could it be the filters in the RO system?  Just wondering since it is all of them.'

 

So confused and concerned

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Sharlene

[L8 2 RISE]

How big have your water changes been- time to start doing very large 30-50% changes.  How much are you feeding?  Should be a very small amount for just a pair of clowns.

 

Do you have a TDS meter?  This measures the Total Dissolved Solids in the fresh water that comes out of the RO/DI.  You want it to read zero.  Old filters typically won't shoot your Nitrates up that high, but they can definitely have an impact on your water quality.  Do you know if you have color changing DI resin?  If so has the color changed?  How long has it been/how much water have you produced since you changed the filters, and what type of unit is it?  

 

Ultimately, with what you have in the tank, I don't think high Nitrates will impact you too much, but you want to get to the bottom of what's causing it.  

Edited January 13, 2015 by L8 2 RISE

[Origami]

Shar, 

 

1) Has anything changed in how you're feeding the tank?

2) Are these separate tanks that you're talking about when you say that one of them crashed? Was it on a separate system from the one or ones that are showing you high nitrates?

3) Do you trust the test kit reading? Have you tried another test kit? How does the tank look?

4) Has anything changed regarding filtration? For example, have you recently added a canister filter or something? Have you taken out a lot of live rock or sand?

5) Are all fish accounted for - any large fish missing?

6) How long have you had the high nitrate problem?

7) Have you checked your ammonia / nitrite levels? Since these precede nitrate, it may be worthwhile checking these again as you may have a new cycle underway.

[monarchcharter]

Hello,

 

     This is Lex from Monarch Academy's Earth Matters class B-day. We're setting up a 120 gallon saltwater reef tank, and we need a filter. We don't want a sump for the sake of making this easier. Any recommendations? If it helps, we've already ordered a protein skimmer.

 

Thanks, 

Lɘx 

 

Edit:

I probably should mention we are no longer the marine biology club. We are now a class called Earth Matters. 

Thanks again,

Lɘx       

Edited January 13, 2016 by monarchcharter

[monarchcharter]

Hello,
 
 This is Lex from Monarch Academy's Earth Matters class B-day. We did a Phosphate and Ammonia test, and the results showed up as:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Test</th>
    <th>Tank 1</th>
    <th>Tank 2</th>
    <th>Tank 3</th>
    <th>Tank 4</th>
    <th>Tank 6</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Phospate</td>
    <td>10.0</td>
    <td>2.0</td>
    <td>2.0</td>
    <td>2.0</td>
    <td>2.0</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Ammonia</td>
    <td>0.50</td>
    <td>0.50</td>
    <td>0.50</td>
    <td>0.25</td>
    <td>0.35</td>
  </tr>
</table> 

That might not show up right. Sorry...

Just use http://htmledit.squarefree.com/

These are way too high. Does anyone know how to bring them down?
Thanks, 
Lex Scobey
 

Edited March 18, 2016 by monarchcharter

[Origami]

I'm not so concerned about the phosphate numbers, but the fact that you have non-zero numbers for ammonia is kind of disturbing. It indicates that you likely have stuff decaying in the tanks - such as uneaten food, etc. What kind of filtration do you have on these tanks? And have you cleaned out any pockets of detritus?

 

As for the table code, we don't allow embedded HTML in the posts. That's why it didn't show up right. It's easy enough to match the numbers up, though.

[DCReefer1964]

Status Please ???

[monarchcharter]

To Origami:

As for the filter, we have a hang-on-the-side. 

I don't think we have cleaned out any pockets of detritus.

Should we?

 

Thanks, 

Lex Scobey

 

[Origami]

Try cleaning the filters weekly. Detritus can look like bits of organic garbage floating on the bottom of the tank. It can often build up in areas of low flow. Just siphon it out during a water change. It often originates from uneaten food (overfeeding) or more fish waste than the filtration can process (too many fish).  If you have a sandy bottom, you may want to vacuum an area of the sand from time to time, or stir it up some so that you can get it out of the tank. Detritus can settle in and work it's way into the sand to continue decay there. The decay leads to higher levels of ammonia, nitrates and even phosphates. If you have live rock in the tank, you may want to squirt it with a stream from a turkey baster from time to time to clear out the tiny openings in the rock where stuff can collect. Opening up these pores increases the surface area that bacteria can live on. This increases the capacity of your biological filter. Larger water changes can help bring the numbers down in the short term, but if you have insufficient biological filtration, the numbers will just grow again.