Aqua One 35 Nano Tank

[DominicDuffy]

I know that algae can use up my phosphates making it lower than it actually is, but I’m also using fluval clearmax to keep the phosphates low so I’m not too sure which ones reducing the phosphates. I have also just restarted using NOPOX again to reduce water changes as Iv done three this week to keep my nitrates at 5ppm. I wouldn’t normally be too bothered about the nitrates being 10-20 ppm but now I have corals I don’t want them dying. Hopefully, the NOPOX will keep my nitrates low. My protein skimmer is working perfectly and producing a good skimate. However, due to it being airstone powered it tends to go through air stones very fastly and I’m unable to buy them from any LFS, so I have to order them online frequently. Is there any motor driven protein skimmers which I can fit on my tank?

[Tamberav]

In order for NOPOX dosing to be effective at lowering Nitrate, you need some phosphate present. If you run out of phosphate entirely, you will not be able to reduce nitrate using NOPOX, they are related and effect each other. So running both clear max AND NOPOX may cause issues or make one not as effective, ect. 

 

You should get your tank under control before buying more corals, corals are shocked by dramatic changes. You can kill them with starvation if your PO4 or NO3 gets too low as well.

 

Do you vacuum your sand and blast your rock? Clean the back chambers? There should be a source of all this NO3/PO4. Finding the source and fixing it will help your tank greatly. 

 

Do you have two clownfish still? I would probably just rehome the clowns, they are poop machines and the tank is only 7.5 gallons, correct? 

 

Be sure to scrape/remove the algae off the back wall, ect. If it dies, it released po4 back into the tank. Removing algae is like removing bound up PO4. 

 

 

[DominicDuffy]

My tank is stable and my clowns are doing fine aswell as the corals. I just had a bit of green hair algae on my rock and once I removed it the other day I tried to siphon most of it out. However, because I didn’t get all of it, it has broken down I believe and increased nitrates. Also all of my corals are fully open now and I’m planning on removing from plugs next week and glueing to the rock. Iv been checked kh, calcium, ph, magnesium, nitrates and phosphates daily for the last week and all have been stable for that time period. The only day which I had a problem was when I removed the hair algae because the day after I retested my water and my nitrates went from 5ppm to about 20ppm. At the moment they are back down to 5ppm as I did a 75% water change and I will recheck in the tommorow to see if they are staying that way. Each time I do a water change I use a turkey blaster to blow debris of rocks and in sump, vacuum the sand and wash and replace filter floss. I also change filter floss every few days once it starts the change colour. I’m not sure why I would need to rehome my clowns when my tank is fully cycled and I’m always able to lower nitrates if they go high with a water change. I’m just looking for another method to keeping my nitrates low because I don’t really want to be doing loads of water changes. However, i will always do a water change if nitrates go above 10ppm. Also nitrates below 20ppm wouldn’t hurt the fish anyways. My nitrates arnt at zero so the NOPOX will work. I retested today and they where at 0.025ppm. But will probably be high as the algae is using it up.

[Tamberav]

I said rehome the clowns because you don't like doing water changes as often as you have to per your previous post and NOPOX is a bandaid. If your tank is stable, why would you need to use it suddenly? This makes no sense to me. NOPOX feeds bacteria which means it can also cause cyanobacteria. I am telling you this now so if cyano shows up, you know the cause.

 

If removing algae/tank maintenance caused a spike in Nitrate, okay that can make sense but you would just do a large waterchange to lower it (sounds like you have). Why would you then need NOPOX?

 

[DominicDuffy]

I probably won’t need to nopox but there’s no harm in using it to reduce water changes. If I didn’t use nopox the nitrates would keep rising resulting in the need for a water change. What would be the point in the hobby if I wasn’t to have any fish. Also I have had cyano because of this before. But if it did come again I’d use chemiclean and stop using the nopox again. This is the only time Iv really needed to do loads of water changes because of me trying to remove the algae. Next time I’m just gonna leave it and try find the cause instead of removing it and letting it break down that way. The main reason i have decided to use nopox again is because I have a 25l water container and it takes me half an hour to get to the LFS to refill my container with saltwater and every time I do a water change I use 15l of this water because I like doing a 50% water change. This means I have to do a 10l water change the week after. However, to prevent all of this I’m planning on getting a RODI system and start making my own water very soon.

[Tamberav]

I meant to get fish with a smaller bioload... Not no fish. 

 

Water changes replace trace elements and minerals. I don't know why anyone would try to not take advantage of water changes on a nano tank. It's one of the advantages the small tanks have over the big ones to make the corals look amazing. 

 

[DominicDuffy]

What size water change do you think I should do weekly ?

[Tamberav]

10% weekly would be a good place to start.

[DominicDuffy]

My tank is only 35l do you think 10% will be enough to keep my nitrates between 0-5ppm ?

[Tamberav]

8 hours ago, DominicDuffy said:

My tank is only 35l do you think 10% will be enough to keep my nitrates between 0-5ppm ?

Every tank is different so can't say what yours needs exactly. I usually do larger percent water changes on smaller tanks.

 

On my 10g I was changing 50 percent of the water for the first 6 months or so but now change about 25 percent weekly. 

 

On my 20g I change 25 percent twice a week. 

 

I don't have a nitrate problem but my main reason for water change is to just get the crud out before it turns into nitrates and to replenish trace elements as I feel I get better growth with regular water changes. This could also be related to the fact I can feed the corals more if I change the water more regularly. 

 

 

[Clown79]

If your nitrates are increasing quickly right after a waterchange, the source of nutrients is higher than the waterchanges you are doing. 

 

Waterchanges will help reduce nutrients but only if you find the source and correct it.

 

I have 2 clowns in a 10g with 15% weekly waterchange. My nitrates sit between 0-2ppm. 

 

2 clowns in a 7g may be the cause, you might be over feeding, might be an issue with your maintenance routine (what you do or don't do)

 

Nopox, it's meant to be used with a very good skimmer or else it can cause issues.

 

Products are bandaids, they are great for reducing but not the answer to fixing a problem.

 

You need to go through your maintenance routine, feeding, water source etc.

[DominicDuffy]

Do you know when you say nitrates stick between 0-2ppm. Does this mean whenever you test your water it is always between that range or does it increase over this due to water change. Iv checked my nitrates for that last three days and they have been between 0-5ppm. I believe the reason I ended up with loads of cyano last time is due to me trying to use the nopox with a large gap between the nitrates and phosphate. I think when I was using nopox last time my nitrates where like 80ppm at one point and phosphates showing as 0 on my api year kit before I got the Nyos one. 

[DominicDuffy]

My skimmer produces a black tea sort of skimate about every week to where the cup is nearly full. I just have to make sure the airstone is regularly changed.

[Tamberav]

Airstone skimmers, while useful, are not powerful regardless of the tea produced (which would be considered wet skim). They help but are not the beast skimmer needed for serious carbon dosing.

 

Nitrates increase over time, then you do a water change and bring them back down and 'reset'. 

[DominicDuffy]

I would use a pin wheel one but I can’t find one which will fit in the rear chamber of the tank. Do you know any that are around 8.5 cm x 6cm x 28 width ? I was looking at the innovative marine ghost but due to me having a baffel between the centre chamber and where the heat is placed this means I only have 8.5 cm and the ghost is about 9cm

[DominicDuffy]

Also when I’m saying a tea skimate I’m not meaning like a weak tea colour. The skimate I have been collecting it black with a lot of solids in aswell

[DominicDuffy]

I have just used a stick of D-D aquascape epoxy to glue my live rock together but soon as I put rock back into my tank the water went cloudy. After about half an hour my clown fish stopped swimming and were hovering on sandbed. Now they are under rock dug into sand. I have heard that the epoxy can cause oxygen depreviation. But Iv got an airstone skimmer running so this shouldn’t be a problem. Has anyone had this issue before ?

[Clown79]

Any epoxy I've used has caused no issue but some are known to.

[DominicDuffy]

Yeah it nothing to do with the epoxy I just tested ammonia and Iv had a spike due to me taking the rocks out to reaquascape. I’ll upload a pic to show you. Do you know if I will have to recycle my tank ?

[DominicDuffy]

Looks darker on picture but I’d say between 0.25 and 0.50 ppm. What shall I do because I’d dont have no spare saltwater as I did water change soon as I seen fish not swimming.

[DominicDuffy]

My fish are currently under a rock not sure if they are dead or alive atm.

I have just dosed some bacteria to try reduce ammonia but not sure what else I can do.

[Tamberav]

Weird you would have an ammonia spike just from removing a rock for a short time. How long was it out of the water for?

 

Do you have prime? Can you get prime? It would help greatly.

 

I have had epoxy send my clown to the sandbed as well. Mine I believe was a rapid change in pH and oxygen issue. It was a long time ago but don't remember ammonia being an issue. I did a 100% water change and dosed prime.

[DominicDuffy]

Got my clowns out and both alive, just hope they pull through. Can ammonia in the tank make my arms sting because just moves rock and my arms and hands are stinging

[DominicDuffy]

About 10 minutes my rock was out of tank all I had to do if glue my current scape together. No I don’t have prime but I have a bottle of fluval cycle which says prevents fish loss by reducing ammonia.

Soon as I seen clowns on bottom I did a 70% water change because iv has similar issue when I over dosed nopox causing oxygen problems

[Tamberav]

I think that is bacteria which won't help immediately. Are the stores closed there? Can you go get some prime? or distilled water to do a water change? or better... both!

 

10 min is probably too long. I usually have my rock out maybe a min and back in.