Nitrate too high

[bluewind79]

Hi all,

I'm having a 3x2x2 ft tank and a sump with a skimmer, chiller & MH. Having coral chips & filter wool in the sump, bio-balls in the over-flow chamber and 2-3" of sand bed. The setup was ard for 6 mths. Recently found that the nitrate was way too high and some corals r not 'opening'. Have change the water ard 10-20% each change but not often. Even try the myth method 'sugar' which resulting the water to turn clody But readings of the nitrate still very high.

Next step i was thinking to remove all bio-balls & coral chips. Is that advisable and rely only on filter wool is it sufficient? Shall i add in LR in my sump as well?

thks for the help

[Flame-Tail]

I'm running a wet dry system and I thought of removing the bio balls and stuff but i'm worried that the whole system might just go haywire and crash.

So for now i'n doing frequent water changes and just try to cut down on the feeding.

I'm also trying out seachem water stabiliser as it worked for my friend's tank.

[loster]

welcome to SRC, bluewind wow! past few weeks, we have a quite a few discussion on the nitrate problem

how high is your no3? what skimmer are you using? your bio-load?

my tank size is same as yours. i believe you can remove your coral chips & bio-balls in your sump without a problem since you have LR at your main tank. you still can use filter wool but you need to change it every other day or at most once a week. have a regular water change

[ciaolong]

did your check your water change water for nurients ?

usally if i see the nirates spike up for me i do a 40% water change then keep doing my 20 % per week with NSW

[gerald28]

haha loster i believe i started it all hahah

[gift05]

hey bros, just wondering, how would removing all the bioballs and coral chips aid in reducing the nitrate lvls? i thought they were in there for the purpose of denitrifiyin the water....

lost

[blueheaven]

They trap detritus which decomposes to nutrients

By removing them, you can either siphon out the settled detritus or let the skimmer settle them

[gift05]

then wouldn't that be taking the "good" bacteria inside the bio balls along with the "bad" detritus?

sounds like a case of a greater good, so we sacrifice lol

[blueheaven]

We don't want the bacteria to be exposed to oxygen

Most of them are facultative and we want them to be in a region of anoxic conditions.

That's why we deploy the use of sandbeds