thinking of taking sand out of DT for NO3 reduction

Gandolfe

Gandolfe

New member
Hello, I have nitrate issues and was thinking about taking out my sand from the dt. it is about 3" deep. I have 200 lbs of rock, a pair of marron clowns, a pair of 16" engineer Gobies. was looking for any past experience from others wheteh this would help with nitrate issues and whether i should leave 1" or a little less of sand on bottom.I have in tank plumbing running along bottom of tank under rocks for closed loops and this would show if i removed all sand. please give me any feedback or advise.I have tried everything to reduce Nitrates but can't get under 80 ppm. i have done massive wtaer changes with no help, i have a ATS running, no help, a DIY de-nitrator, no help, running a skimmer, have a fuge with 14 mangroves and a huge clump of cheato but still can't reduce nitrates. it gets frustrating going through boxes of reef crystals doing water changes(45 gallons every couple of days with no results) and yes I use r/o.d/i water only for water. I got my po4 under .08 so that took care of cyano issue.Please help with ideas or past experiences. I'm ready to get rid of tank all together
 
other fish in tank are a foxface, a pajama crdinal,coral beauty and a cleaner wrasse, lots of bluelegs hermits,snails and a couple of wild caught hermits from tampa bay as well a few conch's. a couple of mushrooms, some xenia, a 3 GSP colonies, a couple of zooz coming back after being dormant for months. Just took out eggcrate holding mangroves in air and let them all touch sand in fuge also
 
Some people have bare bottom tanks with no detectable nitrate. But others have sand beds (of varied depth) and no detectable nitrate. The sand bed may or may not have something to do with a particular setup's nitrate level.

So I guess my question is: what makes you think the sand bed is related to your nitrate problem?
 
I've tried vodka dosing and AZNO3 didn't work either. Just figured detritus was getting under sand by gobies and marroons mixing it up( my female maroon is constantly making a den under some rocks and is always pushing sand out with her tail,kinda neat to watch while sitting watching TV).I have narcissus snails and conchs get under sand as well, also have a yellow sea cucumber in there somewhere i haven't seen for months
 
not after having them for 6 years, 2 of the first fish I bought and extra large at over 16",just can't do it
 
I could not see the size of your DT ???

With 2 fish at 16 inches, plus the others, that is one large load of fish waste coming out, and presumably a large amount of food going in !!!

Logic must suggest that the nitrate issue is related to this situation. After all, Nitrates cannot appear out of thin air. It seems that your husbandry techniches (very frequent water changes ) just cannot cope with the production levels of nitrate and the reduction potential of the biological filtration provided by the in-house bacteria, mangroves, cheato etc.

Something's gotta give !!!...MORE water changes (UGH !!)

Less Bio-load (less food), or less fish.

Alternate methods of Nitrate reduction (sulphur) bio-pellets, vodka/vinegar.

You are on a treadmill, and you have to break the chain somewhere...less nutrition IN or more waste OUT
 
interesting that nitrates are getting so high so fast when doing such frequent large wc's. I am wondering where all the nitrates are coming from. interested to see what you find out
 
Your problem is easy to fix. Remove as much of the sand as you could leaving a small layer of sand on the bottom. You should consider removing as much rock from the display, clean it and put it in the sump if possible. Wet skim and carbon dose. I bet most of the food gets trapped in the rock and detritus built up in the sand.

I have a ssb with rock in the sump. I have no nitrate issue because I carbon dose AND wet skim every 2 days or so. I purposely add additional water or saltwater (depending on my sg) to raise my sump level and have my skimmer skim wet. The level returns to normal the next morning for me. Check out wet skimming water changes. They go hand in hand with carbon dosing to help with nitrates.
 
I have a bare bottom tank and I love it. I can blow the crud out from underneath the rocks and not have sand flying everywhere. Also, coraline is growing on the bottom which looks very nice. I even have a jawfish that lives in a comfy cave under a rock. (I know it should have sand, but seems happy without)

All around, I do have less issues than I had with having a sand bed.
 
Gandolfe said:
not after having them for 6 years, 2 of the first fish I bought and extra large at over 16",just can't do it
Click to expand...

Umm... their only motivation for living is engineering sand. Get rid of the sand and you get rid of the gobbies. You don't have a choice.
 
it's a 125 gallon with a 40 gallon sump and a 10 gallon fuge,as for feeding i feed 1 cube of mysis and some homemade seafood mix that consists of squid,clams,fish,,formula 1 cubes,spirilina cubes,and formula 2 cubes all chopped into a fine mix in the food processor then made into a flat sheet and frozen, less than a 1/4' thick piece by maybe 3/8" pice with mysis in the morning every other day, small pinch of flake at night, then small pinch of flake in morning and nite on opposite days, so not overfeeding
 
how about water movement in the tank? is there dead areas where detrius settles? I had the same problems in my tank and increased the water movement and added a ATS. Nitrates are very low if detachable at all and I feed the tank a lot. The ATS gets cleaned bi-weekly and produces about a 16 oz. cup of algae. I also have several friends who carbon dose in my local club with great success. They state it takes a little while to get the bacteria levels up and the dosing right. Never tried it myself.
 
I have 2 closed loops, one with a 3200 GPH pumps at both ends with two 90's at both ends 2 pointing into rocks and 2 pointing at back glass and the other is 1000gph with 2 sprayer bars(6" in the rocks) and 3 45's in front and 2 in back pointing at glass, i also have 2 950 gph powerheads at top of tank pointing at back glass and angled, 2 koralia 1's at top pointing towards front of galss and angled, and a koralia 1 in middle of top of tank pointing at front of glass at a 45, so i have good flow..LOL
 
its good until 2014 plus i get the same reading from a Red Sea Algae kit that is less than 3 months old...My zoas are starting to come back and where there were 2 there are now 6 and my frogspawn has never opened up as wide! either the water quality is getting better or they are adapting to the nitrate levels I do need a new test kit though, I'm almost out.
 
there one more option for filtration that i use it helped me that Upflow Algae Scrubber or uas with it i took my skimmer of of my 90gal when it slowed way down on producing crap lol.there cheap and probly only need spend 20 buck for every thing to try it.
good luck
 
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