Aqua One 35 Nano Tank

[Tamberav]

I would do a water change and then add some prime after. It says how much on the bottle, I believe it comes out to 1mL per 10 gallons. It won't be harmful if you overdose a bit so just do your best estimate. 

[DominicDuffy]

I have dosed 1ml as that’s the normal recommended dose. But will I have to add more due it being an ammonia spike rather than just a water change.

[DominicDuffy]

I have added without doing the water change. Iv got saltwater now so should I do one still or won’t it be needed because the prime with detoxify it anyways 

[DominicDuffy]

Iv just looked online then, is it correct that the ammonia won’t decrease when using prime due to it only detoxifying it. I just test my ammonia then and it is still the same after dosing 1ml.

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, DominicDuffy said:

Iv just looked online then, is it correct that the ammonia won’t decrease when using prime due to it only detoxifying it. I just test my ammonia then and it is still the same after dosing 1ml.

 

Yes, it does not remove it, it only locks it up for awhile, I have heard 72 hours. So the prime is used to 'buy you time' between water changes and in emergency situations where you cant do a water change right away.

 

So yes, you absolutely want to do a water change and use prime between changes to help keep ammonia from causing damage.

 

 

[DominicDuffy]

Should I only use 1ml or should I use more 

[DominicDuffy]

I have just realised that my ammonia may eventually go down but my nitrite will stay constantly as 0 as I’m using fluval clearmax which absorbs phosphate and nitrite

[Clown79]

22 hours ago, DominicDuffy said:

Iv just bought some Seachem Prime how much do I need to dose and should I do water change before dosing ?

The instructions state how much to dose

[DominicDuffy]

Can anyone help me I'm currently struggling with a nitrates problem every week I do a 50% water change and my nitrates drop from 10ppm to 5ppm. Then every week they 're rising to 10ppm again. Is there any way I can keep my nitrates at a constant level because as they nitrates rise my corals are stressing out.

[Clown79]

10ppm isn't high. 

 

The rise is due to the amount if nutrients you're adding. So the amount you're adding is more than is being exported. 

 

Possibly phytoplankton dosing if you are doing that. Too much coral feeding, food that's being fed.

 

When we dose products, if they aren't being used up, it just becomes waste.

[DominicDuffy]

I'm not dosing anything and I feed my fish a small amount of food times a week and my corals once a week. Would 10ppm of nitrates stop acan and goniapora from opening ?

[DominicDuffy]

I'm also using GFO and CARBON in media bags in the rear chamber to get rid of my green hair algae and it has got rid of most of it now. 

All my corals are still frags meaning they are really using anything from the water so I'm only really doing water changes weekly to lower the nitrates.

[Clown79]

Inconsistent parameters can cause them to act up.

 

Gfo may have stripped too much phos. Are you testing your phos while using it?

 

How long have they been closed?

[DominicDuffy]

Yeah I'm testing phosphates whilst using it but it's hard to tell what the reading is. Also as i said before I do a 50% water change each week and when I do this I blow the rocks using a turkey baster and my nitrates seem to rise rather than go down. Is it essential to blow the rocks off each week because I'm finding I'm doing one water change by blowing the rocks off and vacuuming the sand then a few days later to maintain a low nitrate level I'm doing another but just removing the water. When I just remove the water my nitrates decrease. For example, my nitrates where 10ppm today so I did a 50% water change so I was expecting then to drop to about 5ppm but when I retested after they where between 10 and 20 ppm

[Clown79]

What water are you using?

[Clown79]

What I normally do during waterchanges is

 

Blast rocks, scrap glass, vacuum sand and remove water.

 

So only a portion of the water change water is from vacuuming.

 

 the rest I remove water from the water column making sure any detritus is sucked up.

 

I also scrub my back chamber and siphon water from there.

 

I do  4g in my 25g

 

I rinse my media bags every week. Carbon changed every 2 weeks.

 

Floss is changed on waterchange day and 1 time during the week (more if it gets Brown faster)

 

Every 2-3 months my return pump and hoses are cleaned.

 

 

 

What is the livestock in your 9g?

[DominicDuffy]

The only live stock in my nano is two clown fish and that procedure is basically the same as what I do

The only thing that is different is that time of completed vacuuming the sand nearly half of the water is already been taken out

[DominicDuffy]

I have just tested my water and these are my parameters now, before my water change calcium was 420. Also is 27.4 degrees too hot because of got it set at 26 degrees. I have just turned the heater down to 24 because I think it will keep a temperature closer to 26 as it is always in the 27 range

[Clown79]

Your phosphates are high.

 

What is your water source?

 

Rodi, ro, tap, distilled.

 

Maybe the gravel vac you use has to big of a hose which pulls out water very quickly.

 

I use the python with a small hose so that the water while vacuuming is drawn out slower.

 

Then I switch to a larger hose to remove the remaking water.

 

Temp should be between 77-80 ideally

[DominicDuffy]

My phosphates where lower before the water change but with blowing the rocks and vacuuming the sand it has increased. I also use the nano python with a thin tube but it's only a small tank so the water decreases vastly anyways 

[DominicDuffy]

I only use RO water from my LFS but if tested it with my tds METER and I'm getting a reading of 25 which is bad. I think I will need to invest in my own rodi system

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, DominicDuffy said:

I only use RO water from my LFS but if tested it with my tds METER and I'm getting a reading of 25 which is bad. I think I will need to invest in my own rodi system

Ro water is meant for drinking. It still has tds in it.

 

It is different than rodi.

 

Not all lfs change their filters regularly either.

 

It's your water source. It's why I asked what water you were using.

 

So no matter how many or how big your waterchanges are, your nutrients will not lower because you are adding more in with the water.

 

Either get an rodi unit or use distilled water.

 

It's not from vacuuming sand or blasting rocks. Both are common practices we highly advise.

[DominicDuffy]

I'm not sure if what I'm about to do will work at reducing my nitrates bit I think it will function better than my AIRSTONE skimmer. As my skimmer is a hand on the back type I have decided to fill it with cheato and add a refugium RED and blue light. Does anyone have any experience at doing this and does it work.

 

[Tamberav]

Probably too small of an area. Can you buy display macro algae there? If so, you can grow a garden right inside the tank.

[Clown79]

It don't help much especially if you continue to use water with 25 tds