Cent36 nitrate issues
- Thread starter cent36
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Didnt see that flow was blocked by the third baffle from the right. Definately not ideal, but you could work with the way you have it designed. Get yourself a several large pieces of foam and insert them into the first bubble trap. Every few days remove the piece of foam with a clean one so detritus can be removed instead of accumulating underneath the refugium where you cant get to it. Rinse the heck out of the dirty one and soak it in vinegar so it van later be reused.
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I was referring to the area right underneath the fuge section. Since water cant flow directly through that area to the pump section, a ton of detritus will build up underneath the fuge where you cant access it to remove it. A filter sponge in the down section right after the skimmer section will give you an easy place to catch and remove detritus before it accumulates. Once your tank cycles a bit more, you will need some detrivores right underneath the fuge to eat anything the sponge doesnt catch. A bottle of amphipods or a peppermint shrimp could work there.
Getting the shrimp out could be difficult, lol. Some of the amphipods will work through the gravel, but the tend to stay where the food is. I have some in every nook and cranny of my sump and they do good work. They will multiply to match the amount of available food and then their population will level off. They are one of the best critters you can have in your system.
You can pick them up in a bottle from a lfs, you can add them to your sump that doesn't have any predators and they will multiply. You can also culture them youraelf with that bottle but that will involve setting up another tank. Depedning on where you got and transported your chaeto yoy probably got some that were living in there.
If it's diatoms which is more than likely is yes it will clear it's self up in a couple of weeks, it comsumes all the silicates in your system and then goes away.
If it's diatoms which is more than likely is yes it will clear it's self up in a couple of weeks, it comsumes all the silicates in your system and then goes away.
They will likely die if you nitrates are high. At best, they just won't thrive and eventually die. They will come on their own as you add coral and live rock.
Just stop everything and wait. You will make stuff worse if you keep on trying to intervene. It takes months and months for a tank to cycle, not a few weeks. Just feed your fish and chill out until your nitrates come down on their own. There is no way to cheat this.
Just stop everything and wait. You will make stuff worse if you keep on trying to intervene. It takes months and months for a tank to cycle, not a few weeks. Just feed your fish and chill out until your nitrates come down on their own. There is no way to cheat this.