New owner to 3yr established 34g tank. Need advice...

[brad2157]

I'll give all my detailed information first, then post my questions at the bottom.

I am the new owner of a Aqua Euro 34g cube tank as of 2 weeks ago. Came with quite a lot of live rock and live sand, bunch of different corals (mostly soft), a black onyx clownfish, a engineer goby, a black long-spine urchin, and two large snails (unsure what type). Previous owner removed the top cover with the MH light (put off too much heat), added a Kessil 350 LED tuna blue light and left the top open. There is very little mention online about this tank at all and after emailing Aqua Euro, they did not have much to offer either, only that they still have parts available even though the tank was last made 4+ years ago. From what I see, it appears to be set up about the same in the back chambers as the biocubes are. The aqua euro has two large sponge blocks in the bottom of the far right-hand chamber with slits down the front right side to let water flow through, this same chamber also houses the Aqua Euro nano protein skimmer. The next chamber over is split in two by a plastic wall that is not as tall as the main chamber seperators (has an Aqua Euro denitrator tube and the heater on the right side and bio balls on the left side), then the last chamber on the far left hand side houses two pumps (one for each return), the top pump feeds through a UV sterilizer that no longer works as the power supply is bad and can't get a replacement from Aqua Euro.

Have had the tank set up for two weeks now. I know the previous owner lost interest in it and didn't stay on top of the water qualities like it should have been. It still has a bit of green hair algae around some corals on the LR. I also have some red algae that forms in spots on the sand bed. I stirred up sediment at the bottom of the tank when I moved it from the original owner's house to mine. I immediately added 10g of new saltwater from my LFS when setting the tank back up and then added the remaining original tank water that I saved in the move. I did another 10g water change using RODI water mixed with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt a week later. I vacuumed the sand bed when performing the water change, as there was some sediment around the LR at the bottom. Was able to get a lot of nasty gunk from that. I let things clear up and measured the water today (2 days after water change) and here are my measurements:

PH - 8.0
Salinity - 1.025
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm

Finally to my questions after all the info.....

Q1.
I understand that nitrates should be as low as possible. Is 20ppm a lot to be overly concerned about? I'm mixing up 10g of saltwater now to perform another water change if needed today.

Q2.
What can I change for better filtration in my tank? I see a lot of people with biocubes are removing the bio balls, etc.. I don't like there is no filter floss anywhere to catch small particulates. I plan on trying to find a spot where all/most of the tank water will pass over it. I understand they need to be changed often. I'm not opposed to changing daily if needed. Do I need to remove the Aqua Euro denitrator from the tank? I don't know much about it or how it works. I do see that it has a built in pump at the bottom.

Thanks in advance for reading through all of that. Better to have too much info, than not enough.

 

[Sk8r]

Nice tank. To remove the bioballs, take them out a couple at a time, every 2 days. This lets the tank bacteria increase as they gain food the bioballs were keeping back. Instead of filter floss, we mostly use filter socks, which can go about a week, then launder them with no soap, and I don't know the Aqua Euro denitritor. Keeping nitrate down is a plus. Corals hate it. The sponge also is a problem. Replacing that with live rock rubble would be good.
For a crash course and general reference on tank management, read the red arrow sticky up top, which will cover a wide range of problems. And ask away. YOu have a pretty good crew for a little tank, and the best rule is 'go slow' and 'ask first.'

Marine Depot (one of our sponsors) handles Aqua Euro, and they list another brand, Aqua Maxx denitrators at 350.00 dollars, as a sulfur denitrator, which verges on expensive exotic equipment to solve the nitrate problem (which ironically is in part generated by the sponges and bioballs---so I think maybe getting on the phone with them might help. They're very nice people and helpful.)

Anybody know about the denitrator?

 

[brad2157]

Nice tank. To remove the bioballs, take them out a couple at a time, every 2 days. This lets the tank bacteria increase as they gain food the bioballs were keeping back. Instead of filter floss, we mostly use filter socks, which can go about a week, then launder them with no soap, and I don't know the Aqua Euro denitritor. Keeping nitrate down is a plus. Corals hate it. The sponge also is a problem. Replacing that with live rock rubble would be good.
For a crash course and general reference on tank management, read the red arrow sticky up top, which will cover a wide range of problems. And ask away. YOu have a pretty good crew for a little tank, and the best rule is 'go slow' and 'ask first.'

Marine Depot (one of our sponsors) handles Aqua Euro, and they list another brand, Aqua Maxx denitrators at 350.00 dollars, as a sulfur denitrator, which verges on expensive exotic equipment to solve the nitrate problem (which ironically is in part generated by the sponges and bioballs---so I think maybe getting on the phone with them might help. They're very nice people and helpful.)

Anybody know about the denitrator?

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply back. I looked at the filter socks online, but don't see any way to incorporate one into my filtration. My middle chamber apparently gets the water feed through bottom vents beside the sponge filters in the far right hand side chamber that I can't see from the top. Definitely sounds like I would benefit tremendously by slowly removing the bio balls and the sponge filters and replacing with LR rubble and filter floss / sock.

 

[nmotz]

Some thoughts for you, I wouldn't be too terribly concerned about 20ppm honestly. There are ways you can get that down fairly easily. IMO, denitrator's are more useful for large tanks with massive amounts of nitrate to remove. I don't know how useful that will be for you at this stage. I'll tell you that for a tank your size, it's completely possible to lower nitrates without it.

Skimming is important. Ensure your skimmer is actively collecting and is correctly adjusted. Sometimes skimmers are kinda sensitive as to how they are positioned and won't work at full capacity. I have a hang on back protein skimmer that wasn't working all that well until I adjusted the inlet pipe with respect to the water level. I think i might have moved it about 1/2" and it made all the difference in the world. VERY finicky.

I agree that the bioballs are probably your main issue. You might try marinepure spheres instead. They mimic live rock a lot better and don't trap detritus like bioballs will.

Lastly, as I mentioned before, vinegar dosing will bring nitrates down pretty effectively. Here's some good reading for you:http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

On a tank your size, I'd start out by just adding a few ml's (with a syringe) per day then slowly increasing. I have a 40 gallon and I got up to dosing around 10ml's.

Then just clean those filter pads and you should be good to go, best of luck to you!