Nitrates - Go Away!

[crownboy]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum. I have been doing FOWLR for about 12 years, so I am familiar with the hobby. I came across a deal too good to pass up on Craigslist. Now I am hating every minute of it. I found an established, LED modified Biocube with 40# live sand and 60# live rock for $150. The overflow has also been modified for a refugium. How could I pass that up? I was going to use this to create a reef.

Well, I have been fighting Nitrate ever since. All the other water parameters are perfect except Nitrate. The LFS told me that it is all the waste that is trapped in the substrate and stirred up when the tank was moved. They said “dead reef syndrome”. The Nitrate was at 160ppm and after 7 - 85% water changes it is hovering around 15ppm. Apparently, the seller did nothing but clean the glass.

I don’t know what else to do. I am tired of buying RO water and salt. I am considering taking everything out of the tank and dumping all the substrate and starting over with “fresh” live sand. I just don’t want that big of a change to initiate a cycle. (There is livestock that will get ate if I up them in the FOWLR tank).

What does everybody else think or suggest?

 

[sen5241b]

I got my Biocube 29 to zero 'trates. Here's how:

Put a halogen or xenon puck light outside chamber 2.
You need strong flow on the pump --close to 300gph thru the back chambers
Add cheato to chamber 2 and give it time to grow
You need additional flow in the main display like a Koralia 1
30 pounds of rock is fine
2 or 3 inches of sand was enough for my tank.

 

[sen5241b]

Yes, old sand beds can have a load of detritus and when stirred up will cause a nasty nitrates spike. Did you wash the sand first? If not then I can understand your problem.

 

[crownboy]

I did not wash the sand. I was thinking about doing that this weekend. However, just replacing it with new seems to be the quicker way to go.

 

[Northstar24]

I dont think replacing your sand shouldn't kick off a full cycle, most of your filtration is actually done in the live rock

 

[chichimom79]

Suck the sand out while siphoning so that the wastes don't get stirred up into the tank water again. Good luck. The new sand should not be an issue.

 

[sen5241b]

At this early point I would just take replace the sand. If its about the money you might just rinse what you have in tank water. Once the new sand is in and its settled down, do a 50% water change. With 'trates that insanely high you'll need it.

Northstar24, not sure I entirely agree. There is a substantial amount of beneficial bacteria in the sand.

 

[crownboy]

Thanks guys. I don't have the time to wash, so I just picked up 40# of live reef aragonite. Thanks for the refug setup suggestion, that's how I am setup now.

 

[sen5241b]

One last thing: I saw my cheato grow dramatically with the puck lights.