2nd opinion

[HONDACBR600RR]

Ok, so my nitrates are starting to climb, I dont feed often, I actually feed 1 cube of frozen every 3rd day and dried seaweed every day. I have a system with about 125 gallons of water and a refuge/skimmer for filtration. I do have a few bioballs 10-15 in the fuge from when I switched from the wetdry to the fuge a few months back. I have been doing 10 gallon water changes weekly and the nitrates keep steady, anything else I should consider? Nothing has died and I havent added anything new lately. I have minimal ammonia and nitrites.

 

[Palting]

The standard answer in this forum is remove the bioballs slowly, and make sure you have adequate rock and flow.

You can also add a refugium with macro, or add mcaro to the DT, and/or increase your water changes. If you have a shallow sand bed, vacuum the sand bed with each water change.

How old is your tank?

 

[HONDACBR600RR]

about 1 year old, my nitrates are about 20ppm cureently, never been this high before. I have been removing the bioballs, my skimmer gets cleaned weekly and doesnt skim very much. I am kinda wondering if I am missing a picture, all water is RO.

 

[Palting]

20 is pretty high for a reef tank. Even when I had a fish only tank serviced only by a wet dry sump with bioballs, it never went that high.

Need to figure this out before you get an algae problem. Guess best way to figure it out is to go through the basics check list.
1. How much rock?
2. How much flow through the new sump?
3. How much flow in the DT?
4. Any dead spots?
5. Any livestock dead /missing?
6. What's with the skimmer not skimming? Should be emptying about once or twice a week.

 

[HONDACBR600RR]

I checked with your list, the only thing I can think of Is that I added a large clean up crew about 8 weeks ago and its possible I might have had some die off, other then that, no fish deaths. I might get a new skimmer, just not sure which one yet, I need something powerful with a smaller footprint that would work on a tank of about 210 gallons.

 

[tkeracer619]

You should have 0 ammonia and nitrites. Your tank is not fully cycled.

A SRO 3000sss would skim the heck out of that tank and saves some space. If you don't need the space saver the standard one is cheaper.
http://www.aquacave.com/reef-octopus-super-brsro-3000sss-in-sump-br-protein-skimmer-3180.html

 

[Palting]

Unless I missed something, the tank has been running for a year, so it should be cycled.

I can't think of what else may be wrong. You are definitely producing more nitrate than your system and WC can process or export. With nothing dead/dying, not overfeeding, adequate rocks/flow, the next step is to increase nitrate export. Larger WC, refugium, and a better skimmer would be where I would look into next.

I use a Marineland 300 for my 150 gal. It has a small footprint, and I can adjust the skimmate production from light tea color to coal tar black. The only caveat to it, and is a caveat for all in sump skimmers, is that the skimmer section needs to have a stable water level for it to be efficient.