reverendmaynard
New member
Hey guys,
My reef tank was recently purchased used from a owner who had been neglecting the tank for at least a year. I did not test the water that was in the tank, but there was a living royal gramma in it when I bought it (and later found some worms and what not surviving on the LR). Because I wanted to keep the gramma alive and happy, and to minimize the chance of starting the cycle from scratch, I used about 50% old water when I set it back up. Of course, the gramma died during the night after I set the tank up, still in his holding tub, for unknown reasons, so that ended up being somewhat of a wasted effort. Anyway, I now have nitrate levels of 20-30ppm, which I attribute mostly to the inital water since it really hasn't changed much in the 6 weeks since. I'm keeping up with it via wcs, but not reducing it.
I have a RDSB which should be just now be starting to be effective, so I'd like to avoid adding chemicals or using absorbtion media for the time being. I also have a refugium with macro, though it's really not growing much. I'm planning on getting chaeto or caulerpa to replace the gracilarus (sp?) I've got now.
I'm working on a diy counter-current skimmer which should be up and running by this coming weekend.
Anyway... I've got about 50 assorted snails/microhermits and 2 cleaner shrimp and some amphipods in the fuge, no corals (well, anthelia polyps but I don't think they do any calcification). I haven't seen any molting of the crabs (4 weeks) or shrimp (2 weeks) since I've had them, though the amphipods have. Also I'd like coralline to grow, to which end I've added several booster plates from ipsf.com. Also, I'd like to be able to keep corals in the future, but plan to wait at least 6 months for that.
So, finally to the question...
Are these levels of nitrates enough to inhibit calcification of snails/crabs/shrimp/coralline? Should I continue to try to reduce the nitrates via the exportation strategies I've outlined, or should I take more drastic measures to get it down and then allow those other strategies to keep it down?
I might as well add that I'm using phos-zorb currently, and have phos-pure for the future, but I do have detectable levels of phosphate (<.25ppm). Can this inhibit calcification?
My reef tank was recently purchased used from a owner who had been neglecting the tank for at least a year. I did not test the water that was in the tank, but there was a living royal gramma in it when I bought it (and later found some worms and what not surviving on the LR). Because I wanted to keep the gramma alive and happy, and to minimize the chance of starting the cycle from scratch, I used about 50% old water when I set it back up. Of course, the gramma died during the night after I set the tank up, still in his holding tub, for unknown reasons, so that ended up being somewhat of a wasted effort. Anyway, I now have nitrate levels of 20-30ppm, which I attribute mostly to the inital water since it really hasn't changed much in the 6 weeks since. I'm keeping up with it via wcs, but not reducing it.
I have a RDSB which should be just now be starting to be effective, so I'd like to avoid adding chemicals or using absorbtion media for the time being. I also have a refugium with macro, though it's really not growing much. I'm planning on getting chaeto or caulerpa to replace the gracilarus (sp?) I've got now.
I'm working on a diy counter-current skimmer which should be up and running by this coming weekend.
Anyway... I've got about 50 assorted snails/microhermits and 2 cleaner shrimp and some amphipods in the fuge, no corals (well, anthelia polyps but I don't think they do any calcification). I haven't seen any molting of the crabs (4 weeks) or shrimp (2 weeks) since I've had them, though the amphipods have. Also I'd like coralline to grow, to which end I've added several booster plates from ipsf.com. Also, I'd like to be able to keep corals in the future, but plan to wait at least 6 months for that.
So, finally to the question...
Are these levels of nitrates enough to inhibit calcification of snails/crabs/shrimp/coralline? Should I continue to try to reduce the nitrates via the exportation strategies I've outlined, or should I take more drastic measures to get it down and then allow those other strategies to keep it down?
I might as well add that I'm using phos-zorb currently, and have phos-pure for the future, but I do have detectable levels of phosphate (<.25ppm). Can this inhibit calcification?
