To cover, or not to cover? Help with nitrates

[INTEGRAKID]

well its been 3 months and i've lost both my fish. I cant find them. tore down aquascaping . looked around tank and stand. could the hermits eat them so completely that i cant find them ? thats question 1 . now onto question 2.

my reading are as follows, Nitrates 20ppm ,Nitrites 0ppm, Amonia 0ppm, Phosphates 0ppm, Calcium 345 , Ph between 8 and 8.4 . I have about 18lbs lr.

AC500 converted to fuge has purigen,phosguard, lr rubble ,and cheato.

aqua c remora w/mj1200. Current orbit 80 watt light. Coralife 18 watt for fuge.

about 18 lbs aragalive sand. some gsp , shrooms, and zoos, and an acan.

I do weekly 1 gallon water changes. I have a glass top. could this be a problem with gas exchange. Do i have other options, as i do want to keep a firefish.

I am going fishless for the next 6 weeks. My sixline died from ich. Then my firefish died for no apparent reason. No signs of ich. Just vanished on tuesday.

Idid a 3 gallon w/c thursday , then a 1 gallon w/c today. Nitrates still at 20ppm.

Idont want to lose anymore fish . Any ideas. Remove glass top. I'm afraid of dust getting in tank.

[4251c]

Home Depot or the lot should have a fine plastic mesh screen. Get it home and cut it to size for that. I also believe that some means of surface agitation via a surface skimmer, or hydor flo will keep the gas exchange plentiful. Dust problem will probably be minute. A bag of your favorite chemical filtration and mechanical filter are there for. JM2C.

[distantfire]

You could also buy a furnace filter. And use the plastic from that on top of your tank. It will help keep your fish from jumping out. And it give's you better gas exchange than having a glass top.

[nanospoof]

I never really thought about this. but I also have a glass top on my 5.5 AGA. Is this a bad idea? my nitrates also sit around 20, could a glass top be the reason?

[Zaraxus]

I would make sure I had good surface aggitation to increase the area for gas exchange along with keeping the cover from sealing the tank.

[chieferich]

a few things:

 

-make sure your ph is correct.

 

-make sure your temps don't fluctuate.

 

-use eggcrate from the hardware store for a top. a.k.a "light diffuser"

[distantfire]

Salt creep on a glass top = more cleaning. It cut's down on your gas exchange. And the amount of light you have geting down to your coral's.

[neanderthalman]

A top will have no effect on nitrates. You have something dead in your tank.

[INTEGRAKID]

I moved all the rock around ...I cant find anything. no dead fish or snail, hermits . If i missed something will nature take its course with just weekly water changes? all my other readings are zero. if it were something dead wouldnt there have been an amomia spike ?

i use 4 different test kits , red sea ,api , dip strips , and salifert .

I used the salifert to confirm my other readings were correct. and it showed the same readings. since i dont have any fish in tank i've removed my glass top just now. will continue testing every 3rd day.

will post results. skimmer pulled really dark junk out the first three days.

i cleaned it yesterday. production of skimate is still there but really light shade compared to the previous production.

 

Oh yeah ph is always the same light on or off. i have my fuge lights on a reverse timer. temp always 79.5 -80 . i have 2 cleaner shrimp , a peppermint and 4 redlegs 2 blue legs , 5 nass and 2 astreas, 1 turbo.

all of them are doing well .