Live Rocks

[jackal]

I have a 3x 1 1/2x 1 1/2 feet tank, using an internal overflow for 9mths. My NO3 is very high and someone told me it may be due to my coral chips. I tried every method to bring down the NO3 like weekly water change,putting in denitrite, less feeding .... So I removed all my coral chips and I bot small live rocks to replaced it. Will this method help? Should I put the small live rocks in the chamber before the bio-balls or after? Plse help.

I have 7 fishes, 2 star fishes, a cleaner prawn, sea cucumber, sea urchin, crab and variety of soft and hard corals. I am using a Resun chiller, MH light, macro needlewheel skimmer.

[yiling]

take out your bioballs as well

[steven]

hi jackal,

what kind of filtration are you using ? over flow ?

you might want to consider cleaning the filter media. Are them dirty and choked ?

poly filter might help.

Before removing your bio ball, maybe you can make sure your filter is able to handle the bio load. ie Ammonia and nitrite are undetectable.

therefore you should put in your live rocks first to provide nitrification bacteria to grow before removing the bio balls....

i had experience with high nitrate for many month in my previous 2 ft tank. i clean the sand and gravel. grew some algae and it is much better.

[jackal]

Thanks guys.

I am using overflow filtration. I will changing water again later after a week. Going to clean my filtration media and change my poly filter. But I always clean them and poly filter turn dark brown after 3 or 4 weeks. Don't you think it is too fast?

My needlewheel skimmer is doing very well cuz can see dirty after few days. Been having problems with NO3 for few months. NO2 is zero. Rest of water perimeter is good. Btw, I am using Sera test kit and also used my friend Tetra Test kit to double confirmed.

I feed my fishes frozen brine shrimps once a day and a little dry mosel food twice a day. Direct feed my corals with chopped prawns and marine snow once a week.

Friends say that my fishes look very healthy and corals look not bad.

I will still keep my bio balls for a month before clearing them away, leaving only life rocks to cultivate the bacteria.

Thanks for all your wisdom and appreciate if any members have anything to advice to add.

[shaohui75]

Some bro here is suggesting adding sugar to reduce Nitrate to zero. Do a search.

[silverfish]

Some bro here is suggesting adding sugar to reduce Nitrate to zero. Do a search.

Hmm! Using sugar to reduce nitrate?

If your skimmer is running properly, using AZNO3 should bring down the nitrate level to healthy levels in a matter of weeks..

[Clownfish]

remove ur bioballs n add in liverocks in stages...

i.e. maybe remove only 1/3 fo ur bioballs then add in few kgs of liverocks....

then second 1/3

then all of them

firstly, this makes sures that ur filtration system can adjust the change n secondly, u cannot possibly add in too much liverocks in 1 time...

[yooyoo99]

oh i have a similar system as yours. having an internal overflow, with coral chips and biohome initially. now i have removed all the coral chips and biohome, still thinking if i should add life rocks in the overflow compartment. same as what u did, i changed water freq and also the filter wool weekly. NO3 still is a big problem. hope you can find a way out, cos this will help me as well...

[hwcheong]

just wonder will coral chip cause this problem?

need to replace coral chip with LR?

[Clownfish]

just wonder will coral chip cause this problem?

need to replace coral chip with LR?

coral chip themselves wont cause nitrate prob, rather it's the accumulation of detritus at the bottom of the coral chips causing nitrate prob...

putting LR firstly can betta facilitate siphoning of the bottom, secondly, coral chips onli offer nitryfying effects, LR do hav some denitryfying effects apart from that provided there's gd flow

[hwcheong]

coral chip themselves wont cause nitrate prob, rather it's the accumulation of detritus at the bottom of the coral chips causing nitrate prob...

putting LR firstly can betta facilitate siphoning of the bottom, secondly, coral chips onli offer nitryfying effects, LR do hav some denitryfying effects apart from that provided there's gd flow

If I add in the LR now in a 1 yr tank, will cause cycle to start again? think cannot replace all bioball at once right? so is it advisable to have coral chip or purely LS in the filter system?

[Clownfish]

If I add in the LR now in a 1 yr tank, will cause cycle to start again? think cannot replace all bioball at once right? so is it advisable to have coral chip or purely LS in the filter system?

i cannot tell u which system is betta... some pple might hav thier success in usin coral chips onli...

btw, refer to my earlier post, i hav already said that it is not advisable to take out all bioballs at once....

how much LR to put in is dependant on ur water volume n how cured is the LR... if it's cured, then u do not need to recycle ur tank, more might be added, but i dun recommend anything more than few kgs though (u can always add ur LR more slowly to be safe)... if uncured (betta get cured ones la) then u risk massive dieoffs from these which cld give u ammonia spike which then could lead to a tank crash or recycling....

[hwcheong]

i cannot tell u which system is betta... some pple might hav thier success in usin coral chips onli...

btw, refer to my earlier post, i hav already said that it is not advisable to take out all bioballs at once....

how much LR to put in is dependant on ur water volume n how cured is the LR... if it's cured, then u do not need to recycle ur tank, more might be added, but i dun recommend anything more than few kgs though (u can always add ur LR more slowly to be safe)... if uncured (betta get cured ones la) then u risk massive dieoffs from these which cld give u ammonia spike which then could lead to a tank crash or recycling....

thanks bro