[whitetip31]

hello again !!!!
Now i have sorted out my light problems, heres another one for you all.
I have a problem with my water qualitie. About 4 weeks ago my nitates started to rise,it went up to
50 ppm, i started to us seachem matrix and seachem purigen in my ext filter.
This has fetched it down to 20ppm but does not seem to want to come down any lower.
Also my ph seems to swing from 7.8 to 8.2 in the day. ( not everyday )
I am using tropic marin salt,ro water. Doing fortnightly water changes .

Hope you can help me please,cheers ian (whitetip31 )

My tank readings today are,
phos 0-02
calcium 420ppm
nitate 20ppm
ph 7.8
magn 1280
KH 11.5
alkalin 4.11
temp 27-28

[ben]

the purigen and matrix are probably exhausted so would need replacing to bring it down further, however you need to find the cause of the nitrates.

what are your filtration methods, whats in the external, what skimmer, what are you feeding?

a tank pic may help

[whitetip31]

ben, on Jun 28 2009, 06:12 PM, said:

the purigen and matrix are probably exhausted so would need replacing to bring it down further, however you need to find the cause of the nitrates.

what are your filtration methods, whats in the external, what skimmer, what are you feeding?

a tank pic may help

Hi Ben.
In my external filter i am running activated carbon,Rowaphos,Purigen ( replaced today )
+ Matrix.
The skimmer is the large weipro.
The food i am using for my fish is a mix of different frozen food each day + i bit of flake.
I feed my corals on zooton and gamma nutrapus + frozen cyclopeeze (2-3 times a week )

Sorry can not do any pics till next weekend ,

My fish list is 1x small mandarinfish, 1x bicolour blenny, 1x coral beauty,2x clowns (now 12 years old )
4x small green chromis 1x sweetlips tang, 1x tommy tang.

( Are there to may fish for my tank !!!!!!!!!! )


Thanks Ian (whitetip31 ) cheers.

[ben]

what size tank is it?

i would start by stopping the frozen cyclopeze totally and only feeding frozen fish food twice a week. see how that goes.

also i would suggest you slowly remove the external filter matrix media and only use it for chemical filtration.

[whitetip31]

ben, on Jun 28 2009, 08:39 PM, said:

what size tank is it?

i would start by stopping the frozen cyclopeze totally and only feeding frozen fish food twice a week. see how that goes.

also i would suggest you slowly remove the external filter matrix media and only use it for chemical filtration.

Hi ben.

My tank is a corner unit which has 190lts .
So if i remove the matrix should i still carry on using the purigen !!!!!!!!!!!!

An other thing which i would like to ask is when i put my tanks together 3 years ago i made
a box out of eggcrate for a cave in the rock work, now the sand which i put in the front of
the tank has made its way back under the eggcrate,
I clean my sand when i do a water change with a syphon tube but can not get at the sand under the crate.
Do you think this my have anything to do with the nitrate problem !!!!!!!!!!!


Thanks for taking the time to help me.
I still got a lot to learn.


cheers ian.

PS do you now anything about using sugar to help bring down nitrates !!!!!!!!!
I have been put it in everyother day now for a week ( 1/2 teaspoon )

[Social D]

Half a teaspoon is way too much you should be looking at a maximun of the tip of a teaspoon every few days, It sure does bring doqwn nitrate but thats too much, Vodka is the prefered method, Personally i would stop adding gamma nutra + and cycplopeeze both imo will mostly get wasted in the tank, and the skimmer will take the majority of it out anyway. liquid foods are better or just plain juices from frozen food in varied amounts.

Given that and fish poo personally i dont see many reasons to feed a tank with extra food, Fish crap suffices ive found with my set up and some of the better tanks are run on this rountine alone.

Yes there is evidence that feeding coral food enhances the growth of microfauna in the sump but it will easily fornicate without its use, Unless you run an ulns system adding extra food is a bit pointless imo anyway

[whitetip31]

Social D, on Jun 29 2009, 01:25 AM, said:

Half a teaspoon is way too much you should be looking at a maximun of the tip of a teaspoon every few days, It sure does bring doqwn nitrate but thats too much, Vodka is the prefered method, Personally i would stop adding gamma nutra + and cycplopeeze both imo will mostly get wasted in the tank, and the skimmer will take the majority of it out anyway. liquid foods are better or just plain juices from frozen food in varied amounts.

Given that and fish poo personally i dont see many reasons to feed a tank with extra food, Fish crap suffices ive found with my set up and some of the better tanks are run on this rountine alone.

Yes there is evidence that feeding coral food enhances the growth of microfauna in the sump but it will easily fornicate without its use, Unless you run an ulns system adding extra food is a bit pointless imo anyway

Thanks will give that a go.

Can you please let me now how much vodka would you use on a tank my size ( 190lts),
and how many times a week.

thanks ian

[ben]

i persnally think you have too many fish and the tank isnt suitable for the 2 tangs.

yeh you can still use the purigen, but the nitrate cause needs to be found really, and i cant comment on the sugar or vodka as i dont know enough about it.

[whitetip31]

ben, on Jun 29 2009, 07:07 AM, said:

i persnally think you have too many fish and the tank isnt suitable for the 2 tangs.

yeh you can still use the purigen, but the nitrate cause needs to be found really, and i cant comment on the sugar or vodka as i dont know enough about it.

Thanks ben cheers ian