new filter

[kyle]

k im thinking of geting a new filter. write now i have a canester filter theres nothing wrong with it i just cant get my nitrates lower then 15ppm. i doing 20% water changes every three days and im running PURA nitrateslock

i was thinking of a trickle filter. do u have to have a sump for this type of filter? and can you buy a trickle filter or do you have to make them ?

[reeffreak]

A trickle/wet dry filter will not lower nitrates.

Yes,a wet/dry is a sump filter so it will need to be in the stand.If you really trying to keep nitrates at zero then go with a sump/refugium over a trickle.You can build your own or buy one premade.

[kyle]

well then..what can i do to lower nitrates???

[Bifferwine]

You already have a skimmer. You really don't need any other filter. You should look into getting more live rock, if it's true that you have 50 lbs in a 65 gallon tank. Aim for 1 to 2 lbs per gallon, that will help improve your water quality.

[kyle]

i just put 20 pounds dead rock in. its all they had at petsmart. (i know it take time to seed)

[reeffreak]

Seriously,15ppm isn't really bad at all.Maybe give one of those HOB refugium a shot.

[hibye]

Like Reaffreak said above heres a site to the cheapest ones u can get or u can do a DIY.
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=284
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=292

P.S Whatever u do dont get a cheap intank fuge

[Rcpilot]

Here is what I'd do, if it was my tank.:

#1
I'd make sure that I had at LEAST 90lbs of rock in there. You need MINIMUM 1lb or rock per gallon. 2lbs per gallon is better. If you can stand it--put in 2.5lbs per gallon.

More live rock = more beneficial bacteria.

#2
I'd be using cheatomorpha macroalgae. It's the best thing in the world for nitrates and phosphates. It's a plant. Plants use nitrates and phosphates to grow.

Put the cheato in a refugium or in a section of your sump and light it at least 12hrs per day. It will overgrow the chamber. Cut out about 40% of it and throw it in the trash. Enjoy your nitrate-free tank. When it overgrows the chamber again--cut out 40% and throw it in the trash.

Once you buy cheato-=-you never have to buy it again. It's renewable. You can actually make friends and sometimes a couple bucks by selling or giving cheato away to newbies or people who are setting up again after a crash.

#3
I'd put a DSB in a refugium at the very least. I'd probably use a DSB in the tank as well, but I know everyone hates doing that.


__________________________________________________ ___________________

If it was MY tank, I'd have 6"--8" of sand in the bottom of that tank. I know, I know -- nobody likes to run a DSB because,
"It takes up too much room in my taaaaaaaaaank."

Boo friggin hoo!! You want HEALTHY corals and fishies? Get rid of the nitrates. Ya should have bought a bigger tank when you started this hobby. We ALL should have............ It's not that often you get to talk the spouse into something so expensive--so just this one time in life--we should have ALL gone for it and got the biggest mutha we could find. Then we wouldn't care about "wasting" 6 or 8 inches of tank depth on the sand.

You can buy a nitrate reactor. Lots of people use them. IMHO-- just another piece of expensive hardware that you gotta screw with. Do it cheap and natural with cheato and a DSB.

Look into a HOB refugium or make a 5g refugium and plumb it off your sump. There's lots of ways to add a refugium.
You can get refugiums that HOB or you can get a sump-type refugium and put it under the tank. My refugium has a built in skimmer. I like that because it's 2 pieces of equipment in one unit. It's compact for the amount of work it does.

You could put a 20g or 30g sump under your stand. Section off a spot for the cheato and DSB. Put the skimmer in one corner. Gets the skimmer out of the tank. Buy a 500gph pump and plumb it to a couple outlets in the tank. You got all kinds of options on HOW to do it. But I think you only got 2 simple options for actually dealing with the nitrates. Cheato and DSB.

[fatman]

You have 40 lbs of reef sand already. I would suggest you move all your sand to one side and put down about 40 or fifty, or even more if you can afford it, pounds of dead aragonite sugar sand. Move all the live sand on top off that and add aragonite dead sand to other side, then spread half of live sand back over that side. A deep sand bed is better at denitrificaton than live rock. Actually better at the whole biological process, only slower to establish to maturity. However, a tank with deep sand bed and live rock is much more stable than a tank with live rock and a thin layer of substrate. At this point it is very likely that your canister filter is maintaining your high nitrate levels by shedding its organic slime layer build up into your water. With trickle filters it can often be viewed when this happens, but usually not with a power filter. Mechanical and trickle filters are known for this by reefers. They have their places but reef tanks is typically not one of them, they are better suited to fish only and fish only with live rock.