waynotcars

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I am REALLY frustrated. Here's the deal. My 220 was a FOWLR for 2 years. 6 months ago I decided to go reef. I began with a 50% water change. I removed all my sand substrate. I bought an RO/DI unit and thats the only water I use. I bulit a closed loop for wave movement useing a Mag 24 and SCWD with 6 outlets. I have a 45 gal AGA sump into which I've added live rock, already fully cured, purchased from a friend reefer from his 150 reef with 0 nitrates. I purchased a large aquariapure denitrator which I feed with Vodka when needed and as recommended. I have Chaeto in my sump with the live rock. I have TWO prtein skimmers running, a Aqua C Urchin and I modded a JEBO with needle wheel pump and both pull lots of skim. For livestock I have only 5 fish, clown, yellowtail damsel, bi-pseudo, engineer gobie, green chromis. Invertes, coral banded shrimp, 4 turbo snails (big).
I feed a TINY bit of flake food every two days. I feed so little I wonder if the five little fish are getting enough to eat.

My calcium is at 480 ppm and KH is at 13.

I run a BRS Dual reactor with GFO & ROX carbon. My return pump is an Iwaki 40rlt running at about 400 gph. In my live rock I have seen a few bristleworms and there are a LOT of mini brittle starfish. I even have one candy cane coral which lives real well and from my live rock a green and brown button polyp has emerged. For the last FOUR weeks I have been vodka dosing and and up to a dose of 20 ml per day split into two doses daily of 10ml.

I have been doing a 10% water change weekly.

When I began this transistion my phosphates were at 5 ppm! My nitrates were OVER 100 ppm, the highest, deepest red on an API test kit. I even went out and bought a brand new API kit thinking mine might be old.

Well, my phosphates are now WAY down, just .05 ppm, the second lowest color bar on API kit. The nitrates came down to 80 ppm and are STUCK there for FOUR weeks! I am at my wits end and do not know WHAT to try next??!

I keep getting the red slime cyno stuff because of the nitrates. I do not want to add any more corals or livestock until I can get nitrates down to 5 to 10 ppm.

Can't see what I'm doing wrong here and don't know what else to try.

Any suggestions other then changing 75 % of my water?
 

NYreefNoob

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poughquag, ny
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well few things, nitrates might be leaching from rock and a 10% wc probably isnt doing the trick, but most of all both skimmers are junk, well aqua c isnt but it is no where near efficient for a tank that size. whats the nitrate reading coming out of the reactor ? and phos arent correct on api test kit and nothing happens over night, engineer goby will constantly stir sand up which might be one of the cause's also, how old are the bulbs on light ? tds coming out of the ro\di ? and kh is a little high, cyano isnt because of nitrates it is because of high nutrients
 

waynotcars

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There is no sand to stir. Barebottom. Aqua C Urchin not junk, under-rated for tank size IF bio-load was heavy. Skimmers don't remove nitrates, they remove organics which can cause nitrates and there is hardly any organics in tank to skim. JEBO IS junk but I simply used the body to mod with a needle wheel pump and venturi mod and it skims insane. TDS, of course, is 0 out of ro/dI or I wouldn't use it. Lights are BRAND new German radium halides and TEK T5's and although I appreciate the help, don't see old bulbs, if in fact mine were old, causing a nitrate problem. Ugh, I thought nitrate was a nutrient that caused cyano and if I feed only every other day, have 5 small fish in a 220, what other nutrients are you speaking of?

Wes, which test kit do you recommend? Thanks
 

tynman

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Do you think a BIG skimmer would lower the nitrates?
Not bigger just a better one and make sure you go with an over sized one cause you can always turn it down but never make it do more then the max its made to do... I also think your doing to much just let it run. The green polyp thing might be a mojelo (which isnt good) it popped up do to the water par being messed up. You can also try a nitrate reducer that I used for over a year but now my tank as settled into place after a while and stopped using it. No I run 2 prefilters chemie pure and bio pelets( but how knows how long the bio pelets will be good for just like the bio balls were the best thing ever now we know they will hold nitrates) and a good skimmer I dose 2 part every day (just started the esv 2 part ) hoping that will bring the dosing down to maybe 2 or 3 times a week but I wont know until next week. Good luck.
 

NYreefNoob

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poughquag, ny
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nitrates arent the cause of cyano as i stated, and if you read i said the urchin isn't junk but way under sized for your tank, i asked on lights because old bulbs tend to lean towards different kevlar and have been known to cause the out break. you posted 2 issue's nitrates and cyano, the bulb comment was in reguards to the cyano, and sorry for putting my 2 cents in i just began in the hobby and have never dealt with either problem :rolleyes: and you stated you took sand out but seeing you have an engineer goby figured you pulled sand and cleaned and put it back. hears a little reading for you

http://netclub.athiel.com/cyano/cyanos2.htm
 

waynotcars

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I'm going to get a better skimmer. I'm going to get a better test kit. No, this polyp is a coral from the live rock I bought from a fellow reefer but I can see where you might think it is a mojelo. I absolutely agree with tynman when you say I'm doing too much. Patience was never my strong suit. I'm going to try and leave it alone and let it run after I add a better skimmer. Any suggestions on a skimmer? Do you find the Chemipure to do a good job? I run GFO and carbon. Should I run Chemipure also? Thanks for all the input. I appreciate it. I just don;t think when you post you should start off by saying "First of all you have junk."
 

waynotcars

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Hi, just to update if anyones interested. Nitrates are still sky high. I think I was stupid to start vodka dosing when I didn't have a skimmer to handle it so here's what I'm going to do next.

Coming UPS is a ASM G-6 skimmer. It's 4 foot tall and tuns on two Sedra 15000's. It's rated for 1200 gallons. Maybe over-kill? Don't know BUT I got a KILLER deal on it, brand new, never used.

So, my 220 is in the living room and I have only 27" of clearance in stand. So I bought a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank. I built a table in my basement below tank in living room.

This week I'm goona begin this "rebuild". Sometimes ya gotta take a 10 steps backward in this hobby to move 1 foot forward.

My goal is to tackle this challenge and have an awesome reef tank by Summer.

Here are the reasons I believe a 100 gallon sump in basement will benefit me:

1.) Adding about 60 gallons of water capacity to system.

2.) Able to fit ASM G-6 easily

3.) My RO/DI is lready hooked in basement so I can more easily add an ATO to the rubbermaid sump.

4.) Basement is always about 10 to 15 degrees cooler so I am hoping my chiller, if it has to run, won;t run nearly as often.

5.) VERY easy to do water changes now. I can do them right at sump. It is a PAIN to do water chnages in a 220 gallon 30" high display tank.

6.) Will be able to set up a fuge off of sump. (next project)

7.) Plenty of room in this sump for my Dual reactor, de-nitrator and other equipment. I am getting TOO old to bend over underneath a stand all the time.

8.) tank in livingroom will be MUCH quieter with all pumps and skimmer in basement.

Probably lots more advantages I can't think of right now. So tomorrow I'll begin by drilling the holes in floor I need for the pipe/hoses to run down to basement. Going to turn display tank off and lights. I have only 5 fish, a coral banded shrimp and 1 candy cane coral in tank. While I'm working on this project this week I plan on leaving the tank in the dark in hopes some of the red slime and green algae will recede.

I've done some research on others using rubbermaid stock tanks for sumps and having them in their basements. I have to build bubble diffusers for sump and build something to hold skimmer in 7 to 10 inches of water. I have to build the return outlet using the stock drain plug in rubbermaid tank. I'm going to run pvc pipe in the tank from the drain to one end that will be on the opposite end of the water coming in.

I'm hoping that by adding all the extra new salt water to system it will help reduce nitrates a little like doing a water change.

First I have to make a LOT of RO/DI water and mix about 75 gallons of salt water before I begin.

I'll keep this updated.
 

nycpassat

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i think you're also adding too much to the system. Also, it appears that your liverock is leeching out nitrates and will continue to do so for a long while. My suggestion is to get ahold of Marco rocks, cure them and eventually replace what you have now. good luck
 

ari5736

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Vodka works, but its sounds like you might have a phosphate limitation issue, with nitrates at 80ppm and phos at .05. Starting feeding foods heavy in phos like sheets of nori, and take the phosban offline for a couple of weeks. You will probably have to start decreasing vodka doses drastically. Just a few mls in my overstocked heavily fed tank of about the same size as yours brings nitrates down to 0.
 

waynotcars

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Sump in basement built. ASM G6x added. In three days it hass pulled SMELLY green slimme from the tank that by looking at the water you'd never believe it's in there. My flow is now awesome and the skimmer is at work. Now I'm going to leave everything as it is and let ot run for a few weeks and see what happens.

Oh, and I've learned not to mention vodka dosing on this site as quite a few regulars can get brutal when they don't agree with something. Guess I'm not used to NY being from South Jersey where we respect others opinions.
 

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T

THEDLO

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Oh, and I've learned not to mention vodka dosing on this site as quite a few regulars can get brutal when they don't agree with something. Guess I'm not used to NY being from South Jersey where we respect others opinions.

lol suck it up everyone gets bashed for there ideas at some point in time, so just take it with a grain of salt, and before u know it ull have enough to do a 10% water change :rolleyes:
 

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