is my hang on filter causing my nitrate problem?

[tada1096]

i have a hang on filter and a canister filter. the hang on seams to end up way dirtier every week (green gunk on the filter). also the water in tube has green alge hair all over it and the canister filter in water tube is clean. i can not get my nitrate under 40. i have been doing water changes every week for several months now with no results. could the cause of my nitrate problem be the hang on filter because there is alge all over the in tube and the filters always dirty. to be honest i cant aford to change the filter every few days. so would it be good for the tank to get rid of the hang on and just have the canister and add a bunch of hermits or something?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Absolutely needs routine maintenence. The hang on filter (and canister) need to be taken off periodically and cleaned. Detritous gets trapped inside and will cause elevated nitrates. Simply changing the filter is not enough.

I pull my hob filter off my tank every two weeks and give it a rinse with hot water. Change filter cartridge, clean intake tube. Monthly, impeller gets cleaned. GAC and GFO changed per instructions.

 

[bud217]

I would get rid of the both filters IMO, and get a skimmer. The filters just collect to much detritus that rots. The hermits will only eat the algae but not eliminate the problem. They are just turning the nutrients bound up in the algae into poo which goes back into the water column. Do you siphon detritus out of your system when you do a water change?

 

[somethingphishy]

Hopefully u r doing water changes with ro/di water or ur just adding to higher nitrate levels

 

[tada1096]

i have a skimmer and use ro water. i give the canister a good cleaning take it apart every week or so but i have never taken apart the hang on. i try to siphon when i do water changes but my siphon doesn't seem to have enough pressure to much up. i have a siphon that hooks up to my sink i guess i just dont have enough water pressure to gut much power.

so are you guys thinking i should ditch the hang on and just increase the cleaning on the canister? do you think this would be good for the tank or not?

 

[somethingphishy]

when i had a canister filter i added kent nitrate sponge as the media...with regular water changes, a low fish load, and growing macro algea my nitrates stayed lower (<2)

When i had an eheim canister i cleaned it every two months...if your cleaning the media in the canister every week your disturbing the benifical bacteria...

 

[tada1096]

i actually dont have any media in the canister right now. was using carbon but stopped for a unknown reason. just using it as a filter.

just wondering cleans the tank for people that dont use any kind of a filter? i guess how important is a filter?

 

[tada1096]

does anyone with out a sump not use a filter or any kind other then a skimmer? or do i have to have some kind of filter?

 

[sporto0]

If you are not using any bio-media in the filter, it has nothing to do with nitrates, you need a bacteria colony to convert nitrites to nitrates, a sponge can support some bacteria but if you clean it out weekly, it will be negligible. Using it as chemical filtration also will not make nitrates high.

 

[Ryan2013]

Have you thought about a refugium? Do you have a lot of algae present in your tank?

 

[tada1096]

the only place there was algae in the tank was on the intake and return areas of the hang on filter.
i dont have a refugium because i dont want to put alot of money into this tank, im going to be getting a nice 90 gallon with built in overflows and everything within a year. I have basically figured out that by going the cheep way i have just hade it much harder on my self so im going to start over and do everything the right way. but i dont want to loose my fish and corals while im saving up for the new tank.

 

[Ryan2013]

O i was just thinking that if you were scraping algae from your tank it could be releasing nitrates and phosphates. And yeah i agree on starting over. It is so much of a headache to half-a** your first tank and then try to fix it later.