np73 Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 Is your display tank too full of live rocks when you said you have tons and tons of them? Maybe you can try bringing some down into your sump and do a bit of rescaping. Your tank maybe too overcrowded and hence reducing water movement and flow which causes dead spots everywhere and these dead spots trap nitrate easily. Try rescaping with your rocks not touching the tank walls at all and put wave makers or pumps behind these rocks for better circulation.Again when you do all these you may spike up ammonia and nitrate so try housing your fishes onto another tank until your nitrate is close to zero. Hope these help. Okay tons and tons of it is just exaggerated (slightly). but i do have lots and lots of LR. Theres this LR formation all the way up to the overflow, and its large enough to house all the inhabitants during lights off. I think the inhabitants favour it because its quite a "dead" zone. there might be one or two dead fish rotting away in there, but the LR mass is really quite huge, so not easy to access to the bottom portion. i have tried wavemakers but they just cant reach the corners/ dead spots in there. ah ha! maybe the problem started because once my wavemaker came off its suction cup and ended up blowing directly onto the sandbed creating this huge crater. Think that was 2-3 weeks back. perhaps that caused the ammonia/nitrate spike. or maybe not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
np73 Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 I have bought some rudimentary pipings for the DIY algae scrubber project. i suppose once this is up (and running properly), the PO4 and NO3 levels will come down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
np73 Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 I found 2-3 huge bundles of cotton wools in the sump tank. These look like full of detritus (and i suppose high nitrate content). I dumped them away. at the same time yesterday, did another large WC (around 80% this time). Water turned cloudy for next 2-3 hours after WC due to the amount of detritus stirred up in the sump). End result though is good - water now is in pristine (almost) condition: pH - 8.2 Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 20 Phosphate - 0.25 Salinity - 1.023 Finders crossed the days of lousy water is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRC Member teebs Posted March 5, 2010 SRC Member Share Posted March 5, 2010 I found 2-3 huge bundles of cotton wools in the sump tank. These look like full of detritus (and i suppose high nitrate content). I dumped them away. at the same time yesterday, did another large WC (around 80% this time). Water turned cloudy for next 2-3 hours after WC due to the amount of detritus stirred up in the sump). End result though is good - water now is in pristine (almost) condition: pH - 8.2 Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 20 Phosphate - 0.25 Salinity - 1.023 Finders crossed the days of lousy water is over. Since you have found the cause, the days of lousy water should be over... But just take note that you will still have to vacuum/siphon your sump everytime you do a water change as detritus will make its way there over time. Quote My Setup: 3x2x2 tank with IOS Equipment List: Chiller: Artica 1/5HP Chiller Pump: Sicce 4000 Return Pump: OR3500 Skimmer: Deltec APF600 Wavemaker: Tunze Wavebox/2x Hydor K2/SCWD wavemaker Lights: DElighting 2x150W MH + 2x 39W T5 Atinic FR: Skimz FR Pump: Atman AT-104 Tubby ATO, Kalkweisser Reactor with magnetic stirrer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRC Member babareef Posted March 6, 2010 SRC Member Share Posted March 6, 2010 Well done cos you've found the root of the problem. Now u can add AZNO3 to reduce your nitrate fast to zero. Since you prefer the algae scrubber then go ahead and do it. You might wanna introduce some chaetos in your sump to further reduce the nitrate in the long run. Macroalgae not only good in transporting nutrients and phosphate, they also stabilize your Ph at night and provide oxygen to your display tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
np73 Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 im glad to say this: Fin rot on both yellow tangs have stopped. The fins are in fact growing back now. The larger one is almost fully recovered, while the smaller one is only recently starting to grow back all the fin parts. They seem to be healing fast now. Just the other day the smaller one was pinched by the boxer shrimp, and the wound recovered within 2 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hockboon Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samfsl Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 Glad to hear that your effort has paid off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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