Continuing Nitrate problem and green algae growth

[dkode]

Hello,

At the current moment I have about 2 bags of charcoal in my sump as filtration. Up to about 2 months ago this seemed to be effecient. Now I am getting rising nitrate levels and ALOT of green hair algae growing in the substrate and on my LR. I was going to remove the charcoal and purchase some bio-balls to put into the sump. Figured switching out the filtration medium might work. Any thoughts on this?

The sump came with a grid and drip plate for bio balls but wasnt in use when I got the tank from a friend. It's a 95 gallon, 100lbs. of LR, very low bio load, just 1 sailfin, 2 domino damsels and one yellowfin damsel. I had crabs and shrimp in there but they croaked for unknown reasons after being in the tank for about 3 weeks.

My nitrate levels are around 60-80 everything else is well within limits.

At this point I am willing to try a different filtration in the sump to try to bring the levels down, just wondering if removing the charcoal and adding bio balls will cause a tank crash.

I feed the tank 1 cube of lifeline every other day, and a little bit of flakes on the days I don't feed them lifeline.

One more thing to add that I thought of, I think my bulb on my UV Sterilizer may have burnt out, its a coralife turbo-twist and I noticed that the light isnt on anymore that would always be on. Perhaps this is the problem? or does that have nothing to do with nitrate problems?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[greg97527]

first IMO i would get rid of the charcoal and go with live rock rubble, but bio balls will do.
2nd cut back on ur feeding a little bit and test ur nitrates everyday.
3rd have you checked your phosphates?
you can use a phosphate sponge for slower removal of phosphates or you can buy a filter sock and some "phosguard" and reduce nitrates to almost 0 overnight.
Many people forget about the phosphates although your nitrates are high i would suspect that both nitarates and phosphates are out of wack mainly because you lost inverts and that's a phosphate problem almost for sure.

[graphixx]

I am gonna have to disagree on the bioballs, the bioballs are not going to remove your waste they are just going to trap and concentrate it. I would get LR rubble in there that will act as natural filtration. you may want to cut down on feeding a bit also. and the UV bulb would help. and yes check your phosphates and maybe get some phosban or something similar. I would also get some snails in there and get a cleaner crew.
how long have you had the tank up and running and how long are you running your lights?
and how often are you doing waterchanges and how much water. you might want to consider doing like a 25 gallon water change too that would help bring the levels down.

[dkode]

I havent checked the phosphates at all, I dont think I have a test kit for it. My test kit does amm., nitrites, nitrates, ph and something else i forgot. What kind of kit do I need to test for phosphates?

I tried 3 times to put a cleaning crew in there and each time they all die off within a couple of weeks.

the tank has been up and running for over a year. I got it from someone else. I have 2 55w actnitic PC bulbs (110 watts per dual bulb? or 55w per dual bulb?) running 8 hours a day.

When you say cut back on the feeding, do you mean 1 lifeline cube every 3 days and then flakes in between there?

I havent done a water change in about a month. When I do a water change I do ~15 gallons.

If I put some LR rubble in the sump (which there isnt much room in the center chamber) how many pounds should I put in? I already have about 100lbs in the tank.

So bioballs just capture all the waste and hold it in the bio-balls which I then assume have to be cleaned once a month or so?

thanks guys.

[Fatman]

LR is the one that normally eats the nitrates converting to nitrogen that realeses through gas exchange in your tank. One more question, what type of sand bed do you have? This also affects your nitrates removal. I normally feed every 2 days. My current set up is Deep Sand bed, with bio balls, and lots of Live rock. So the bio balls convert amo to nitrites to nitrates then the sandbed/LR should get rid of the nitrates.

Phosphates on the other hand (usually the algea problem) is attributed to feeding, but you can not compltely stop feeding, so you need to remove those nutrients (phosphates) some how. Thats why alot of people set up refugiums to grow macro algea that eats this nutrients so you dont get bad algea in your main display. Do you have a refugium? If not I recommend a refugium or a phosban reactor/sock with phosban in it.

Good luck with your battle!

PS: About your clean up crew dieing, if the snails flip over you need to reflip them since they can not flip themselves.

[Fatman]

Also if you already have a sump you can add a refugium else where. Either hang on or a seperate from your sump under your tank.

[dkode]

Thanks!

I dont have that much more room underneath for a refg. perhaps on the back of the wet/dry filter.

I think I am going to try bio-balls and some live rock underneath that in the center chamber of my wet/dry filter. I don't think the charcoal is doing it anymore.

The sandbed is shallow, i forget what the sand is called, its little tiny shells. i think argonite?

By adding the bio-balls and lr to my sump I won't be hurting anything? Since I am only running charcoal right now I think anything will help. I am also going to try to place a sock with phosban down there to help that problem.

Anyone else have any ideas?

One more thing, I believe there is a protein skimmer on the first chamber of my wet/dry filter. it's a cylinder column that goes all the way down to the bottom -2 inches and is sticking out of the top of the wet/dry filter although I've never done maintenace to it. maybe a crappy protein skimmer? the top part comes off like a cup and has some nasty scum in it.

[greg97527]

address your phosphates, the kit is about 10 bucks u can get it from ur local fish store, then use phos guard or phos ban in a filter sock. remove the bio balls and replace it with live rock rubble.

[jojo22]

Is the charchol the same stuff you added 2 months ago??? If so it has probably absorbed all it can and is leaching nitrate back into your tank faster than it is absorbing any. If this where my tank I would remove the charchol check the nitrates and do some reguylat water changes to see if that helps. (I agree with Greg that 25 gallons would be a good amount to change), I would only do this once a week or every five days as impoveing water quality can be just as stressful on fish as rapidly decreaseing it, the quick change in chemisty causeing stress applies to any change not just bad ones.

[dkode]

Ok,

I went out and bought a phosphate test kit, the results are 1.0ppm

I'm assuming this is a high phosphate level? perhaps too high for inverts to live?

I have some kalkwasser that the previous owner included in the gear. I read online somewhere that this can reduce phosphate levels. Is this a good idea to add in there?

sorry for consistently asking questions, i'm learning as I go along =)

thank you!

[greg97527]

use phosguard in a filter sock
and put it over your outlet on the skimmer or in a refugium

[dkode]

i'm in the process of building a sump refg. now. Should i wait until i put together the sump and refg. (about another 2 weeks) or go ahead and just stick it in my wet/dry filter?

[Dirt4dinner]

If you are planning on adding a fuge in the near future...I would just do a couple good size water changes...of 15 or 20 gallons. Do one now, and then another in 3 or 4 days. You should noticed a pretty good drop in nitrates. Bioballs are usually not recommended for reef tanks. They could potentially cause a rise in Nitrates as they collect waste material. Keep us posted. But start with the basics, water changes.

[iVgOnMaD]

Remove the carbon.

Add phosphate remover resins of your choice.

Do water changes.

Make sure you are feeding high quality food for marine fish. (Food for fresh water fish may contain chemicals that are not good for a reef environment).

You can replace your carbon with Volcanic Rock gravel or pebbles and seed it with a pound of live rock rubble. The volcanic rock should be the very porous and light, kinda like puffy. It will soon be alive as well, so no need to spend hundreds on some more live rock hehe.

Keep track of your skimmer too, it is a very important part of your tank, empty it out as often as needed or it will overfill and spill the bad stuff back in your tank.

[hummer]

have you ever testd for copper my be thats why your inverts die ... you did say you got the tank used maybe the last owner used some kind of copper base meds in there?????

[Fally]

You can build or buy a reactor for phosphate or any media and it will greatly increase the effectiveness of the media. Phosphate is the reason for your algae growth. I designed and built the DIY reactor in the link below and my problems went away. Filter socks suck because the water pretty much just runs around the media instead of through it.

Try this for a DIY thread:
http://www.captivereefing.com/showthread.php?p=35303#post35303

Check out this reactor:
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F70/Class/Fish+Supplies+Reactors/T1/F71BX+0064+0511/EDP/49730/Itemdy00.aspx