Newsmyrna80
Active member
Thank you all for advice! After much deliberation (and Bertoni's advice) I've decided not to do the 90% water change along with removing the sand bed that I had originally planned. In the spirit of passing along experience and education I'm going to post my findings while I carry out my plan to lower nitrates.
After looking of pictures of my tank from just last month I couldn't figure out what had drastically changed in such a short time. I have changed the things that I thought were contributing to the high nitrates, over feeding, filter media, horrible skimmer and insufficient water changes, but it did not make a difference in the nitrates. Obviously something is "manufacturing" these nitrates and that is what needs to be changed.
So I'm starting with the refugium DSB. It is approx 6" deep and is about 13 years old..yes I know! So all of that has been removed. I put in new sand (rinsed of course), some live rock and put the chaeto back in.
I'm going to give this a few days to settle in then I will slowly start removing the tank's sand bed in 15% increments and replace with new sand.
I will report back. Hopefully with lower numbers. :fish1:
After looking of pictures of my tank from just last month I couldn't figure out what had drastically changed in such a short time. I have changed the things that I thought were contributing to the high nitrates, over feeding, filter media, horrible skimmer and insufficient water changes, but it did not make a difference in the nitrates. Obviously something is "manufacturing" these nitrates and that is what needs to be changed.
So I'm starting with the refugium DSB. It is approx 6" deep and is about 13 years old..yes I know! So all of that has been removed. I put in new sand (rinsed of course), some live rock and put the chaeto back in.
I'm going to give this a few days to settle in then I will slowly start removing the tank's sand bed in 15% increments and replace with new sand.
I will report back. Hopefully with lower numbers. :fish1: