I am sumpless, with limited space- how can I keep Nitrates at bay?

[oceandeep85]

Hello, friends and fellow-reefers. Freefers.

I'm looking for suggestions on how I might best keep nitrates low in my 10 gallon standard. Those of you who know me know that my tank is just now maturing (roughly 6 months old now) and it has been through a lot of beginner mess-ups and difficulties.

I do not have a sump, nor do I have a lot of space for a big HOB refugium with additional lighting and all that. Further, admittedly, I really don't like the look of a HOB refugium.

I do regular water changes, 10% - 15% a week and I only feed the tank 2 or 3 times a week.

Any suggestions? Should I be looking at going the HOB refugium route anyhow? Are there decent reactors or medias out there that could help?

Ammo-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate- 10ppm and rising throughout the week

Livestock list:
1 adolescent blue damsel
1 juvenile orange OC clown
1 juvenile/adolescent darwin OC clown
1 BABY (maybe between the size of a dime and nickel) RBTA (doing really well and growing!)

1 Frogspawn Frag - one head, doing well
1 Superman Rhodactis head- HUGE and doing quite well
1 Duncan frag with 1 large head, one medium head and one tiny head
1 Trumpet frag with two heads (just got from The Fish Store on Sunday, still not opening.. )
1 small green birdsnest frag (doing really well, polyps fully extending, very colorful, new growth noticeable)
1. Orange Montipora Digitata frag (Turbo snail keeps knocking it around, has a dead spot now, but otherwise doing well)

I also keep heat steady at 78 degrees, SG at .025 and have a 75 gal rated Eshopps HOB skimmer and a small 10 gal rated HOB filter where I just run floss and carbon.


Hope everyone's well, looking forward to the advice!

:up:

 

[ringo®]

Welcome back! I think the easiest route will be upping your water change frequency or ammount. There are other options available, but I wouldn't really recommend any of them to somebody just starting out.

How good are you at staying on top of keeping the HOB filter media clean?

Have any detritus settling on the bottom of the tank?

 

[jdavid]

10 ppm is not super high. Nothing that's gonna hurt what you're keeping

 

[ringo®]

JDavid;986006 wrote: 10 ppm is not super high. Nothing that's gonna hurt what you're keeping

Didn't even read the level. Yeah, 10 isn't really that bad.

 

[marquiseo]

In my current tank, I use Seachem purigen and phosguard which has been working well so far. No skimmer. I try to do a 5g WC every week but sometimes it ends up every other week. My nitrates are 2 (red sea kit) and phosphates (salifert) are undetectable. I will get a hanna tester for my phosphates to get a definite answer.

 

[oceandeep85]

Ringo®;986004 wrote: Welcome back! I think the easiest route will be upping your water change frequency or ammount. There are other options available, but I wouldn't really recommend any of them to somebody just starting out.

How good are you at staying on top of keeping the HOB filter media clean?

Have any detritus settling on the bottom of the tank?

Hey, Ringo! Thanks.

To answer-

I try to be a responsible owner and change the water every Saturday. The primary reason for this is that, between work, school, GF, Dog and Family and Friends.. at least half the day on Saturdays is the only time I really have to myself. I probably clean out the filter media once every few weeks.

I DO have a lot of detritus settling.. and it's driving me crazy. I blame it on my sugar sand making it impossible to vacuum. I really wish there was a way I could just suck all the sand out and replace it with something that has a larger grain-size. I can't do barebottom.. just not natural enough looking for my taste.. but I'll NEVER do sugar sand again. EVER.

 

[oceandeep85]

MarquiseO;986008 wrote: In my current tank, I use Seachem purigen and phosguard which has been working well so far. No skimmer. I try to do a 5g WC every week but sometimes it ends up every other week. My nitrates are 2 (red sea kit) and phosphates (salifert) are undetectable. I will get a hanna tester for my phosphates to get a definite answer.

How do you run the Purigen and the Phosguard, Marquise? Is it in a filter or a reactor?

 

[oceandeep85]

Ringo®;986007 wrote: Didn't even read the level. Yeah, 10 isn't really that bad.

Hey, JOSH!! Hey RINGO!! :up:

the nitrates are 10ppm subsequent to a water change.. they're a lot higher a week later.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with why my trumpet is still not opening... it's a beautiful frag.. I'm hoping something's not wrong with it.

 

[jdavid]

I really don't worry too much about nitrates to be honest but I know the best way to keep them low!

You're probably not gonna have 0 nitrates ever in a fully stocked 10 gallon tank.

Can you guess what my method for keeping them at bay is?

 

[twhaddon]

I have a 29 gallon biocube and use Purigen and Chemi pure with filter floss in a media basket. Maybe you can put them in your filter. I do a water change about every two weeks and nitrates stay at 5 or under.

 

[oceandeep85]

twhaddon;986014 wrote: I have a 29 gallon biocube and use Purigen and Chemi pure with filter floss in a media basket. Maybe you can put them in your filter. I do a water change about every two weeks and nitrates stay at 5 or under.

How often do you change your filter media [the Purigen and Chemi pure], Haddon?

 

[oceandeep85]

JDavid;986013 wrote: I really don't worry too much about nitrates to be honest but I know the best way to keep them low!

You're probably not gonna have 0 nitrates ever in a fully stocked 10 gallon tank.

Can you guess what my method for keeping them at bay is?

get rid of my damsel and do 50% water changes every 3 days? :dunno:

 

[ringo®]

What are you using for circulation?

 

[enderg60]

4 choices

water changes.
carbon dosing
hang on bio pellet reactor
sulphur denitrator

 

[oceandeep85]

Ringo®;986019 wrote: What are you using for circulation?

one big old cheap 160gph circulation pump and a Koralia Nano, along with the return from my 75 gal skimmer and the return from my HOB filter. The pump and the koralia are both connected to a smartwave that fluctuates power to one or the other every 10 seconds.

ordinarily, the return from the skimmer and the return from the HOB might not matter, but with so little real estate, it's not hard to get water movement.

 

[oceandeep85]

EnderG60;986020 wrote: 4 choices

water changes.
carbon dosing
hang on bio pellet reactor
sulphur denitrator

newb question, Ender.. but is Phosban the same as I biopellet?

 

[skriz]

With only a 10g tank, you can easily (& cheaply) do large water changes. Depending on how much rock you have, a 5g wc would be pretty close to a 75% WC!

Remove a cup of sand a week and replace it with a more coarse sand. Over time, you'll be left woth mostly coarse sand whoch you can vaccum easier. A cup a week won't affect your system stability.

 

[twhaddon]

I change the chemi pure about 1 every 2 months and the purigen about every 3 or 4 weeks. I did just add the Tunze DOC 9001 skimmer - works well.

 

[oceandeep85]

twhaddon;986028 wrote: I change the chemi pure about 1 every 2 months and the purigen about every 3 or 4 weeks. I did just add the Tunze DOC 9001 skimmer - works well.

yeah, like I said, I've got a MASSIVE skimmer in comparison to my tank, so that has helped tremendously with oxygenation, clarity and overall cleanliness of the water in terms of parameters.. but, like JDavid said, I have a fully stocked 10 gallon and want to make a suitable home for corals to finish filling it out, so I want to keep Nitrates and phosphates as low as I can.

 

[jdavid]

OceanDeep85;986018 wrote: get rid of my damsel and do 50% water changes every 3 days? :dunno:

Nope. Matrix.