My aquarium ( a thrill and a pain )

[viowyn]

okay so let me start off with this; I love my aquarium. I wouldn't sell it or trade it for the world. But I'm getting annoyed with the nitrate level. I cannot get it to drop below 10 ppm.

I use RO/DI water..
I change 15 gallons a week..
I have a mega flow sump and fuge with mangrove plants
I use a berlin classic skimmer..
I have countless snails/hermits
One star, 5 reef chromis, yellow tang, blue tang, clarkii clown, copperband butterfly, and 5 pajama cardinals...
It's a 125 gallon by the way...

anyhelp on this nitrate problem?

thanks
Jamie Schroeder

[brody98]

This may sound stupid but it has to be asked.. Have you tried another brand of tests? Almost everyone with an aquarium has been stumped with a bad batch of tests before. I can’t remember if this is an ongoing problem for you or a new one so if you have talked about it before sorry about asking about the tests again. How deep is your sand bed and what size re the grains on average?

[viowyn]

I have used two different test kits..An expensive one and a cheaper one
My sand bed is 3" deep and its made up of caribsea special grade reef sand.

[Matthewdmueller]

What about food? How much are you feeding, how often, and what kind? I had a problem a while back with a shrimp pellet that I was using. It caused all kinds of whackyness.

[brody98]

That's about how deep mine is but I never really thought it was quite deep enough to deal with nitrates. I think it should be closer to 5" for nitrate reduction. Like Matt said food is a big one especially if the skimmer isn’t quite up to the job (under size or just a bit dirty).

[viowyn]

i feed san fransisco bay shrimp 'gum balls' I feed two a day

[mbeach66]

do you only use 'gumballs' ? and does your livestock consume all of what you can see? because obivously overfeeding will cause the food to decay into ammonia>nitrites>nitrates.

[Matthewdmueller]

I don't know what these gumballs are

[brody98]

I only feed mine once a day and sometimes I skip days.

[mbeach66]

Likewise to Brody, i also skip feedings sometimes.

[mbeach66]

i've never hear of gumballs either, by gumballs do you mean pellets?

[viowyn]

The gumballs are just a small frozen cubes of brine shrimp...I follow the instructions on feeding. The cubes are relatively small and I feed two a day. Maybe I am over feeding..