nitrate issue in 14g bio cube

[monte87ss]

Hello so I'm new to ARC and also to saltwater aquariums always had a freshwater growing up and my dad had 2 saltwater tank. My question is my nitrates are high in my 14g BioCube since last weekend. Long story short girlfriend thought the fish may get hungry while we were out of town for 2 days and that all the copepods and such wouldn't be enough for them for such a short period of time. Well during the week i have done numerous water changes roughly 7 to 8 gallons total have been doing roughly 2 to 3 gallons every other day or so. Well the nitrates have lowered slightly and i have also removed the filter pad going from the 2nd to the 3rd camber as i have read in numerous threads on nanoreef.com. I have also heard that the bio balls can cause nitrate issues in these tanks. Is there any advise to remove the bio balls besides slowly. Also don't see anything dead all are accounted for except for 2 peppermint shrimps but i honestly think something is eating them.

 

[eliphant]

just slowly remove the bioballs, a little bit at a time. You can turn the middle chamber into a fuge with chaeto which would also help with your nitrates.

 

[coolsurf]

What are you nitrates reading? I would just continue with water changes if they are really high and slowly remove the bioballs. I would replace them with Matrix or LR rubble.

 

[monte87ss]

nitrates are about 20 ppm using api test kit

 

[coolsurf]

I would just do the bioball reduction at this point. 20 is not going to hurt anything really as long as your not running it at a constant. API seem to run high IMO versus seachem so it's a good possibility that they may be lower.

 

[monte87ss]

i think i will try that thanks

 

[eliphant]

I wouldnt even bother with live rock rubble in the back chamber. it could end up just doing the same thing as the bioballs. You can cut out a piece of eggcrate that fits perfectly back there in the 2nd chamber and just throw in a bag of chemipure under it, and chaeto on top of it. I scraped a square shape out of the back glass (its just painted black) and put a pucklight on there. Chaeto grows decently. If you check Nano-reef.com and check the all-in-one forum, theres a bunch of threads of modifications people did with their biocubes.

 

[dawgface]

Get some seachem nitrate test kits, it may be the API.

 

[hammcd]

i have gone through the same thing...i first had the bioballs, then switched to liverock rubble with cheatoh..botu gave me high nitrates...i took the sponge out between the second and third chamber at one point but put it back in because it seemed to help make the water a little clearer...the cheatoh and live rock rubble basically made things too messy for my taste in the seond chamber and i had to clean up lots of debris and such when i removed them

right now im running a stealth 50w heater in the first chamber, a media basket in the second chamber with filter floss on top, chemi-pure elite in the second chamber and purigen in the third...then theres the stock sponge in the little area seperating the second and third chamber ( that i rinse with with near boiling water every couple weeks) and the return pump in the third chamber

this setup with the media basket has been amazing and a lot less messy than live rock and cheatoh...water parameters are perfect

i replace the chemipure and purigen every other month and the filter floss every week or so...i also do 2 gallon water changes every week

hope this helps
heres the link the the awesome media baskets if ya need one:
http://www.mediabaskets.com/">http://www.mediabaskets.com/</a>

-hamm

 

[hammcd]

holy crap my spelling was off there...too many Harps tonight i suppose :wine: