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| Posted | Update on anemone |
| 22-05-2006 11:01 by billysfc |
Ok having checked the water, I have found all to be ok except nitrates were at 50.
I had a Seachem purigen filter bag ready to go in when I got round to it, so I thought I'd put that into the external filter to help remove the nitrates. When I removed the filter compartments from the canister you wouldn't beleave the amount of crud that came out. The water that was left in the canister was almost like a weak soup there was so much. I wonder why my nitrates are high when there is this much detrious rotting away in the canister of the external filter. Needless to say I got rid of this soup and added some new water to the tank to replace the water lost from the filter. I tested this morning and the nitrates are already down to 25. Much better, Not sure if this is down to removing the detrious or if the Purigen has absorbed that much nitrate itself overnight. I think this proves that canister filters should be cleaned out on a more regular basis, or that I should add food to the tank at a slower rate, so that the fish have more time to eat it before it is sucked into the canister filter to rot away. Probably both. Any way, does anyone think that a nitrate reading of 50 is enough to kill an anemone ?? |
| 22-05-2006 12:06 by Alan |
Yes if it has not been able to slowly adjust to this level of nitrate.
I dsilike the use of canisters on reefs intensely I was in a constant battle with nitrates when I used canisters. Now I use live rock a DSB and caulerpa my nitrates last night measured at 0.5 ppm. |
| 22-05-2006 13:35 by drummerduck |
Alan i'm assuming this is in a sump?
We have had loads of convos over this in the past and i go along with everything you say. Canisters do cause a nitrate problem. I cleaned mine out this weekend and still need to get down to STM to get my live rock. I just cannot afford to do the whole sump thing which leaves US meaning those that do not have the cash or room with canisters. But Billysfc i took Alans advise with the live rock. |
| 22-05-2006 13:47 by billysfc |
Got plenty of live rock, got it from a friends sump tank, it had been in there over a year, it's full of life. And now it's getting a good amount of corraline algae on it now it's been under the lights a couple of months.
The thing is. I have never measured more then 10ppm of nitrates and don't know if it's all the *** in the canister that's caused the rise, or the anemone breaking down that's caused it. The anemone must have contributed to a large extent as it was breaking down. I'll keep a daily eye on the nitrares and let you know what happens. The thing is I kind of need the external to allow me to run my surface skimmer. As if I don't use this I get a horrible oily film on the water. I may have to see if I can incorperate the surface skimmer with my closed loop water movement syatem. |
| 22-05-2006 13:48 by billysfc |
Sorry 'bout spelling  |
| 22-05-2006 14:19 by Alan |
It is possible to run a reef aquarium with only live rock as the filter and to get the nitrate down to barely detectable levels the key is open rock lay out and massive turnover to avoid any detritus. All you need for a reef is live rock and a good skimmer I have opted for the DSB caulerpa bed as a substitute for an over efficient skimmer this means I can keep plankton levels very high. |
| 23-05-2006 07:28 by billysfc |
Here's a photo of the surface skimmer in the corner. I've tried to stop the oily film on the top of the water by promoting lots of surface water movement, but to no avail. Needs must I guess.
I wonder if I could just remove all the filter media from the canister, that would enable me to run the external for the surface skimmer, but may not interfere with the nitrates ?? Am running deltec mc 500 skimmer as well. |
| 23-05-2006 07:30 by billysfc |
PIC
 |
| 23-05-2006 07:40 by billysfc |
Nitrates down to 15ppm this morning. |
| 24-05-2006 07:42 by billysfc |
Now down to about 7ppm reading between the lines, what does anybody think about running the external with no media in it, other than the occasional chemical media. ?? |
| 24-05-2006 11:25 by Alan |
Have you taken all the media out of your canister now then? |
| 26-05-2006 17:39 by billysfc |
Not yet, I've removed some to let me place a bag of carbon in there, and I've removed the sponge filter and floss and replaced it with seachems nitrate removal media. I don't want to remove the bio media in one go as I don't want to lose that much bio in one go. But may remove it over a period of time. |
| 31-05-2006 09:04 by Alan |
Removal over a long period is a good idea, incidentally you don't need a sump for a DSB I have seen tanks running with a DSB in the main tank and live rock and they do work you just have to put up with 4-5 inches depth of substrate in the main tank. |
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