Alternate Nitrate reducers....

[Snidgetless]

Cool thanks for the heads up B. I need to double check the AZNO3 bottle when i get home, there were two chemicals i was treating the tank at one time, that and some ick medicine (caused by stress due to the high nitrates) one of the two medicines said the skimmer needed to be off while treating the tank, so i hope its not the Nitrate bottle. I will have to check tonight. Feeding is done once a day, the eel gets a piece of shrimp that he eats whole, the puffer get about three krill, small scallop and small silverside, the wrasse (too fast to take a pic with my Sony Cybershot) gets about 4-5 sticks of compressed cichlid food and the lionfish gets 3-4 big silversides and the rest of the shrimp. I mean the puffer and wrasse make a mess, but everyone else eats their food whole so there is little mess floating around the tank.

 

[saltwaterB]

If you where treating with any medicine you would have to have t he skimmer off (or it would remove the medicine) So if this was the case and you added the AZNO3 while not running the skimmer, my bet would be that this is why you had little results with the product. It definitely has to be used with the skimmer running.
That is a good amount of food to feed every day. Any way to skip a day here or there, to cut back a little. I would think that is normal for the fish load, but with that load and feeding schedule it would be normal practice to do large frequent water changes to keep everything in check. Unfortunately no easy answer here. Also, don't think just cause the lion and eel eat there food whole that they don't produce as much or even more of a mess than the puffer and wrasse. Remeber what goes in one end will come out the other

-B-

 

[JustDavidP]

Faces only a mom (or dad) could love.

Dave

 

[Snidgetless]

Remeber what goes in one end will come out the other

-B-

Got ya!! Thanks for all the help, here is my attack plan. Get about 20 more small hermits, let them go to work until the puffer picks them off, change my filter pad, 30 gal water change, dose with the AZNO3 with the skimmer on- i bet that is why i had so little luck with this product, and monitor the levels. I will try frequent water changes to bring down the Nitrate levels and keep you guys updated from there! BTW, i am still not ruling out the possibility of a Nitrate Reactor, i think it does have its benefits, so i will still look into that. You're the best B.

 

[Snidgetless]

Faces only a mom (or dad) could love.

Dave

Sir? I hope you do not imply my babies are ugly... Haha

 

[JustDavidP]

Ugly...no.. I rather fancy the eel.. but the turkeyfish! They scare me.

BTW... B is one of those "reef gurus" that without, I'd have given up on the hobby long ago. Run with his ideas.

Dave

 

[guyduquette]

consider replacing bio-balls with live rock rubble. also, you said that you change the wet/dry filter pad every month or so. too long. consider removing it all together.

i would not use medications. try moving the rock around in the tank or use a maxijet 1200 to blow the detritus off of it. leave the skimmer running to remove the waste

 

[gobie1313]

I just want to throw out there 1 small thing to check. I use the test kit with the little white bottles(don't know the name), and i didnt shake them up really good before testing, and it gave me a very high reading of nitrate. Just a thought before spending alot of money, test for nitrates with pure I/O
water, just to make sure the test is accurate.

 

[madisonrose]

i was just gonna chime in with a similar thought
i chased my tail once and killed a tank because my test equ expired
just something to get a second opinion on to confirm an accurate reading
good luck

 

[reefkeeper2]

Here is a link to a good DIY sulfur denitrator. Stay away from the coil denitrators.http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1288082&perpage=25&pagenumber=1