Help! at the end of my rope........

[Paul_PSU]

I have a dilemma. I have a 75gal and in the process of going from a FOWLR to a Reef. I have about 75lbs of LR and a 3" DSB in the desplay tank. I only have 1 purple tang that I kept for the reef. MY refugium is 18gal with just some chaeto in it. I had some LR and 3" of sand/miracle mud in it but just removed it about 5 days ago. I also have 2 of the Phosban reactors with Carbon in one and PhoSar in the other. I have 2 #3 Koralias and also a eductor on my retrurn (696gph). My lights are DIY retro into the canopy that sit about 9" off of the water. They are 2 X 250w DE 14k MH and 2 X 54w TRU 03 T5's. I use RO/DI water and the TDS off my tap is 363 and the TDS of the RO/Di is 2. I run a Coralife 125 skimmer. I am also running a DIY denitrator from RC. If I am missing any other info about the setup let me know.
I use the API tests.
The effluent out of my sulphur denitrator is in the 5-10 range.

My tank is : Nitrates=triple digits (160) last color on scale.
Phosphates= 0
PH= 8.4
ALK= 2.0
My Nitrates will not come down no matter what I do. I do a 10gal water change every 2 weeks. In the past week I did a 10gal then 2 days later a 20 gal and my Nitrates are still triple digits. I am getting the longer stranded hair algae in my display. I have to be honest, before I chose to convert from a FOWLR to a reef I only did a 10gal water change every other month for the past 4 years. I am concerned that my DSB and LR 's are so polluted that I have no choice but to pull them them both out do a 100% water change, scrub the rock and do away with the DSB. When I set up the sulphur denitrator, there was a point that my Nitrates were zero for the effluent and the tank was at 5-10 for about 1 week. Then about 3 weeks ago they shot back up. Like I stated above, even after a 50% water change no change.

I have everything to build a RDSB, but not sure if that would help if my DSB and LR are that polluted.

Let me know any thoughts if you think I should just be more patient or the DSB and LR have to go or maybe try the DSB and see.

any input would be greatly appreciated


Paul

 

[Patrick12]

Siphon your your sand bed...and maybe even condsider removing it to a rubbermaid container. You can place a small powerhead into the rubermaid to circulate the water and prevent the sandbed from "dying" off. This will allow you to see if it is the main producer of your problem. Just a thought, given the other things you have instituted.

 

[turbo21]

if you did a 50% water change and did not see a drop in the nitrates, try another test kit.


about 6 months ago i went through the same problem, i converted my 210 from fowlr to full blown reef, once the the lighting changed from fluorescent bulbs to 2x400w halides the algae bloomed like crazy, my phosphates and nitrates were sky high.

in the last 2 months everything has stabilized to almost undetectable readings with routine maintainenece, and lots of carbon and phos remover

depending on what corals you want to keep, you may want to look at adding more flow to the tank


also how much skimmate are you getting, with trates that high i would think it is skimming like crazy


bob

 

[Paul_PSU]

Patrick - Good idea and if I remove the dsb I will put it in a container in case it is not the source. I really like the DSB look so I hope that isn't the case.

Turbo - i tried with API and Red Sea and got the same results. I am around 2 months since I changed the lights (from 4 65w pc) so maybe I'll give it a couple more weeks and see If I get any kind of drop. I am using carbon and Phosar changed out monthly so maybe I will change those out weekly over the next month and do 20 gal water changes every week for the next four weeks.
I am not getting that much skimmate. I usually empty my cup once a week. I was thinking of adding a koralia #4 to the tank so maybe I will do that sooner to get rid of all dead spots.

Thanks for the input guys. much appreciated

Paul