hey guys... just need some input

[RockoC87]

Hey guys just pondering, i've had my 46 gallon bowfront reef tank setup for almost 2 years now and i have learned so much, as of right now all i have are softies and fish, and inverts. i have the outer orbit 36" w/ one DE 10k metal halide in the center, and 2 420/460nm 96 watt actinic power compacts. My tank has done well over the long time i have had it but it has had its ups and downs. I am running a fluval 305 canister filter, a seaclone 100 skimmer, and a hang on the back refugium w/ miracle mud and cheato in it. My main problem over time has only seemed to be nitrates, and yes ive done considerable water changes and cut down on feeding to once a day or less of either flake or one cube or mysis or brine. I have about 13 fish and a brittle and cleaner shrimp. I have lowered nitrates slightly, but not as much as i'd like. I need some input on anything i should or could add to my canister to help, or should i get a better skimmer or what??? I use my own RO/DI water and it tests at 0ppm before i add my seachem reefsalt. SOOO sorry so long, i hadn't planned on writing this much but i wanted to lay it all out there so everyone can see where im coming from. Main question is, NITRATE HELP, advice? and second question, What is a good food for my softies, other than my powerful light, should i feed kent's zooplankton or phytoplanton, or should i only feed like DT's live phyto, or is there something out there better that any of these or what. Just a little help from anybody is greatly appreciated. Thank you, oh and the reason i want to finally really take care of my nitrates is because i want to keep at least a few acros, clams, and other such hard corals successfully, without having to worry if they will die or not. Thanks again and again sorry for so much to read...!!!!

[RockoC87]

oh and the metal halide is a 150 watt.

[txstateunivreefer]

what about flow
how often do you clean out the filter
how much rock you got?
running a deep sand bed? Y/N

skimmer help um YES upgrade your skimmer, the seaclone better known as the seaclown as mike and others call it will handle a small fish load but not 13 fish i have a 110 and 10 fish. first thing... if your willing cut down the fish load i would say and up your nutreint export w/ a better skimmer a prism and seaclone are about the same. ask around what the best HOB skimmer will be i bet you will hear deltec as the answer

[RockoC87]

Ive got 3 powerheads around the tank, and the flow from the skimmer, fuge, and canister.

[RockoC87]

i have about 60 lbs of live rock as well

[edawgm]

Tagging along for the ride on this one...I have the same problem. though I will have to cute down on feeding, I have a feeling that is alot of my problem. But would like to here other inputs. I think I might have to put more power heads as well. But tagging along for the ride for now.

[txstateunivreefer]

ok
first thing is you mention nothing about hermits or snails or any clean up crew 13 fish = lots of waste... where is it going? you need to get a clean up crew rule of thumb i often read is 1hermit/ gallon and 1 snail to every1.5 gallon for this i would try reeftopia low prices compared to the LFS i pd .30 for all of my snails instead of 1.99 at the LFS.

second thing is flow you probly need more flow, unless the pwr heads you speak of are hydors or tunze streams. most likely i bet yours are like mine i have in a drawer 200-300gph thats not bad to have those in there but you need more. the flow i speak of when i ask isnt really from the waterfall of the seaclone because thats not gonna do much for you. same from the fuge and the filter. i would add some more powerheads inside because you want to keep that fish poo off your rocks and off your sand. if you dont have enough flow that leads to the deadspots you always hear about and that will give you your nitrates.

in my opinion i would call that a heavy fish load (some call 3 fish a heavy fish load) but as long as you play fish store (i do it too i go thru fish like crazy cant fit em all in there) your gonna have alot of nitrates. from what i have heard about these hiatt filters is that it would work for that many fish IF you didnt have coral bu since thats what you want to do then no hiatt for you.

as far as doing sps and lps most tanks you see that have those have very few fish

my reccomendations would be

get a skimmer that is rated higher than that NOT a seaclone 150
if your budget is tight i know some folks hate these but some swear by them (me) coralife super skimmers you could get a 125 and it would work alot better ($113 @ bigalsonline.com)

clean out your filter everytime you do a h20 change and clean it in your change water that way you dont kill any beneficial bacteria because after awhile all that fish poo in there will do the same thing that i does in your tank just sit there.

sorry but get rid of some fish thats alot of fish for a tank unless they are 13 fingernail size chromis

get ya some pwr heads the best thing on the market right now are the hydor powerheads there are some other posts for those as well get some of those and you will be able to keep everything off your sand

[Ping]

To add to what the others have said, you could install a large sump with more live rock. The Anaerobic bacteria deep in more live rock will help.

"Dilution is the solution to pollution". Conducting weekly large water changes will help with the large fish load.

"I" would stop feeding the coral and just feed the fish.

[Bill S]

When you say 13 fish, what are they? As noted above, work on your export process: upgrade your skimmer, a HOB fuge is probably too small (my 10 gallon fuge for my 55 is too small, and I'd upgrade it IF the tank wasn't doing so well...). Do you have any MECHANICAL filtration - something with filter material, etc? If so - and I believe one should - clean it on a regular basis. A couple of times a week is not too often. Everything you rinse off of it doesn't have to be biologically removed. And, do BIG water changes. 50%.

[RockoC87]

sorry, just got to read all your responses and thanks so far. First to answer the snail and hermit question, YES, i have at least 20-30 snails, and 20-30 hermits. I have a lot of nassarius snails. And about the Fish, I have 4 green chromis, 1 yellow tang, 1 Blue Hippo Tang, 1 bicolor pseudochromis, 1 Flame Angel, 1 ocellaris clown, 1 Diamond spotted yellow goby, thats all i can think of right now, and i have a cleaner shrimp. thats 10 total, note i don't live at home right now, i live in san marcos and go to school at tx state, but i work weekends in san antonio, where my house and tank is, and see my tank about once a week, or once every 2 weeks, so i maintain it whenever i see it now, ill change water about once a month, but recently i have changed 30-45% of it about every week for the past 3 weeks or so. Lastly what is running on my canister as far as mechanical filtration goes is four big blocks of filter foam, and chemical is carbon, and biological is those bioglass ceramic cylinder thingys, and i have phosgaurd, and just yesterday put in purigen, to hopefully help with nitrate reduction.

[RockoC87]

My sandbed is about 2 and 1/2 inches, and i have basic powerheads around the tank the thing is i don' have a bunch of room, the way that the stand is set up, itis kind of made for a canister filter, the only way i could get a big sump or fuge working would be to put it off to the side of my aquarium below it, and that mught look kinda tacky, but if it would make that much of a difference on nitrates, i would save up and out my money into setting that up.

[bluewalk20]

1st you have so many fish for 46 gal and also their is not need to feed your fish every single day three times a week is more than enough to feed your fish and watch the amount of food that you feed them also and a sump as well to increase the volume of water, plus when you do water change get an output or power head and stir up the water all around the tank or get a pitcher and remove some water then drop it back into the tank to make some strong current to get all the junk off the rocks and gravel the remove the 35% or water amount of water you are removing and you will be removing all that junk in the water most people just remove water from the tank then add new water but they remove undisturbed water from the tank with low nitrate level but if you stir up the water then test it that water has a much higher reading just a few things to things about i have a 72 gal with my nitrates at 0 all the time

[Tim Marvin]

If your going to add another tank put in a 20 gallon refugium and keep it full of caulerpa, but be sure to harvest often. Plants will eat up those nitrates in no time. When I was farming acropora, ricordia, zoo's and other various corals all in the same system I ran a 100 gallon refugium and it handled all the fish, coral cutting, and heavy feeding.

[RockoC87]

I have done water changes like that, blasting rocks to gets stuff off, and it did remove a lot of junk.

[RockoC87]

is it hard to set up a 20 gallon refugium, it seems like it would be pretty hard, and maybe costly, any help or advice.

[txstateunivreefer]

if cost is in question the easiest way to lower your nitrate problem is to lower your fish load cut down on feeding. then if you want to buy something pwr heads would be the next stop to keep your dead spots down. you say you do the h20 changes so that option is out. like stated above get a diffrent skimmer too

[bluewalk20]

it easy you can run it with an overflow box down into a 20 gal tank then from there make a divider from the overflow box with piece of plexi glass use aquarium glue to glue it in place then place every thing you want in the refugium and i belive coralife has a mini light fixture you can place then for you return you can use your fluval to return the water back into the tank

[erikharrison]

with 13 fish, you're going to need it. HOB overflow, sump and return, not too hard, not too expensive.