Sump experts

[Mattcor1986]

I've had my 220 gallon saltwater tank set up for about 7 months and put it all together like it was at its previous owners home. It's I'm sure several years old the corals and anemones seem to be growing fine. It has quite a few cool fish and everything seems to be doing good except for the nitrates. It's had pretty high nitrates since I've set it up. The sump has two 200 micron socks, a aquamaxx q3 skimmer, a coral life turbo twist 36 watt UV sterilizer and a reactor that had carbon in it but I've tried different things like Bio pellets and they don't seem to do much. What are some long term success story's or components/media that people use out there. It had horrible algae all over the rocks but a combination of a sea hare, lawnmower bleny and the UV sterilizer really nuke the algae, not really sure what had more of an affect on the algae but probably the UV.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Red Sea Nopox gets good reviews, reduces nitrates & phosphates.
Basically you are carbon dosing but with specific bacteria.
-0- is NOT the # you want, anything up to 10 is OK.

 

[clevername]

refugium is key. You can almost run a tank setup without a skimmer then.

 

[Weboh]

Yeah, nitrates aren't necessarily bad. Your coral needs the nitrates to keep growing--especially if you have extra powerful lights. I have a friend who once had a healthy, thriving tank with nitrates consistently around 50. Of course, he had a tank chock full of coral with 1000 PAR lighting throughout. Plus, he's an old pro. I'm not endorsing running your tank like this by any means.

Intense lights and high alkalinity make coral want to grow faster, and without the right amount of nitrate, they can't. You don't need to shoot for a specific number; if your coral and everything is happy, leave it where it is. For awhile, I was trying to shoot for an alkalinity of around 11, as that's what many places suggested. I had to dose a ton to keep it that way because that's not what my tank preferred. Now, I just keep it lower and I don't have to dose nearly as much.

There are other ways to get rid of algae; an easy one is to make there be less red and green light (if you have an LED light, you may be able to change the settings to lower it). If your current methods are taking care of the algae, I'd leave it alone. Getting things that eat the algae, like you've done, are what have worked the best for me.

 

[ryeguyy84]

Try a turf scrubber, I took my fuge offline and replaced with an IceCap scrubber

https://clearchoiceaquatics.com/pro...um-60w-up-to-225g?_pos=2&_sid=6bc3a578d&_ss=r

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I've had my 220 gallon saltwater tank set up for about 7 months and put it all together like it was at its previous owners home. It's I'm sure several years old the corals and anemones seem to be growing fine. It has quite a few cool fish and everything seems to be doing good except for the nitrates. It's had pretty high nitrates since I've set it up. The sump has two 200 micron socks, a aquamaxx q3 skimmer, a coral life turbo twist 36 watt UV sterilizer and a reactor that had carbon in it but I've tried different things like Bio pellets and they don't seem to do much. What are some long term success story's or components/media that people use out there. It had horrible algae all over the rocks but a combination of a sea hare, lawnmower bleny and the UV sterilizer really nuke the algae, not really sure what had more of an affect on the algae but probably the UV.

You haven't said what your no3 is sitting at, or your po4 either.
In any case, if things are doing well why worry about no3?

Algae filtration is great for inorganic nutrient control if you want to reduce them, & it also oxygenates the water - by reducing co2 - helping maintain higher pH, if that's an issue for you ?