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Three week old Evo 13.5, complete Noob


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This may be a slightly longwinded post, so bear with me, please. I started a brand new Evo 13.5 3 weeks ago, and it has been rocking along. Only problem has been nitrates that seem to come and go. I do pretty frequent regular water changes and clean the sand, around the rock and tank walls, but this nitrate issue keeps reappearing. The ammonia is usually 0 and the nitrites are always 0. Phosphates almost non detectable. I have made a couple of modifications to the tank so far because the PS2 skimmer wouldn't cooperate, so I put it in chamber 2. Since then, that silly thing skims like nuts. I put my filter and bio media (Fluval 100gm carbon, Fluval clearmax, Fluval biorings) in a big media bag in chamber 1, but am waiting on an In Tank basket to arrive hopefully tomorrow to sort those out. I also have some filter floss stuck down at the bottom of both chamber 1 and 2 at the outflows, which seems to have been catching a lot of nastiness. The pump is the stock pump so far. I just replaced the hood with a Current Orbit Marine LED and an Eflux Wave pump to get more flow in the tank, because I read that it helps keep the rock clean and push particles back to the filters. The corals seem to like the surge function too. The tank is stocked with two clowns (black oscellaris, true percula,) a blue spotted watchman goby, a scarlet shrimp, a snapping shrimp, 4 trochus snails and 10 dwarf red tip hermits. Have a single zoa, two slightly different palys, and a couple of star polyps, also some hairy mushrooms that are pretty active. We started the tank with live rock and live sand and water from the same store, all bought at the same place we bought the livestock. We get all our saltwater there as well. I think there's close to 15lbs of live rock in there, maybe slightly more with the smaller pieces making me lose count. 

 

So as I said, I do regular, frequent water changes and siphon the sand with the water changes at least twice a week. The nitrates will drop to nothing and then come back to 20ppm or 40ppm depended on how many days in a row I've worked at the hospital and haven't been able to be home playing with my hobby. The skimmer is working well, the floss appears to trapping badness, so I guess what do I need to do to get this nitrate issue to level out so I can get down to once a week water changes? Or do I just need to learn how to make my own salt water? I love a good challenge and experiment, so this has had me in hog heaven for weeks, but I do want to succeed and grow from here. I can't very well sell my children to buy more supplies for the fish tank... 🤦🏽‍♀️ So what else do I need to be doing to make this nitrate issue start behaving? I don't feed every day, and only once a day when I do feed. I count bodies every morning to make sure there's been no deaths during the night that need to be addressed. I've considered changing the stock pump to a sicce 1.0 for better return pull thru the sump pathways. Are there any other ideas I could hear that could help me out with this annoying problem? it's my only drag so far-everything else has behaved well, and I'm still learning so much as I go. I know I'm fully stocked now, no more fish or livestock. most likely no more corals either if I had to guess. so I just need advice on how to get the tank happy and keep it so, so that they actually grow up now and stay pretty and interactive. Any advice is awesome!! Thanks for listening to my epistle.

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Christopher Marks

Welcome to the community @Nursecop818! 👋

 

It's not unusual for nitrates to rise over time after a water change, that's one of the primary reasons we do partial water changes, to reduce them regularly. It does sound like your filter floss could be exacerbating the issue though, if you're seeing high readings after just a couple days, it's important to change filter floss frequently so the trapped detritus doesn't accumulate and decay. Consider using it for just one day after a water change.

 

I also see two pieces of old coral skeletons in the foreground, did those also come from your LFS or were they dry before being put in the tank?

 

Double check that you haven't lost a snail or crab in there as well, a dead one could be a culprit.

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The coral spines came from the LFS to be used as small rock pieces, something different. They've come in handy for shaping out caves for the goby, Scarlett shrimp and clowns to hide and play in. And they're easy to move around to change the scape up and clean around. I religiously count crabs every day because of that very reason- I dont want to have one die on me and not realize it. So far, there hasn't been a single death. But that being said, I've obsessively done water changes and cleaned sand like a crazy person. My husband keeps telling me I'm going to make the fish sick from the stress of me having my hands in there messing with stuff. The other problem is I can't find a siphon vac that I like yet for getting inside my rock scapes and cleaning the detritus out from inside the arch and the hidden places. Maybe just use the hose? Do they make a siphon with a sand cleaner that is super narrow? I've already splurged on so much to get myself to a point where I feel the tank should be pretty much ready to start sustaining and requiring less tinkering from me. But there are days like yesterday when I got a 40ppm read and had to break down at 10pm after working a 14 hour day and do a water change that I just want to scream TAKE MY MONEY at some big tank dealer so this will get somewhat easier. 

 

I did pull out one obviously filthy filter floss pad and change it tonight. the other looked okay so I left it in for a little longer. What are your thoughts about upgrading the return flow pump to a sicce 1.0? would that help the filtration? 

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