New to 3reef

I have a 90 gallon FOWLR with Coralife compact lighting 10K, lunar lighting, 110 lbs of live rock, 125 gal Wet/Dry, 125 gal skimmer, mag drive 950 pump.

Set up tank in October 2007, didint introduce livestock until December. 2 Sebae clowns, 1 yellow tang, 3 green chromis. All fish doing great.

I also have 4 peppermint shrimp, boy they took care of the Aptasia in 2 nights.

I have turbo snails and margarita snails, seems that I have to continually keep restocking these, is that normal?

also red and blue leg hermit crabs.

Had a small bout of ich right off the start, treated with Kick-Ich, actually worked good.

I have good coralline algae growth on rocks. Had a problem with hair algae for a couple months (due to neighbor feeding fish while on vacation, never again) many water changes, and labor intensive cleaning of rock, but no hair algae in tank for over 3 months.

The biggest concern I have is my Nitrates, they are continually around 20, maybe a little less.

I do 35 gallon water changes every 3-4 weeks, I have a Maxxima 4 stage TFC R/O Deionizer (24 gpd). sure beats going to the lfs to get water. I was using instant ocean mix, but have went to reef Crystals, i would like to put some coral in tank but with my nitrate issues I dont dare.

I have tried Algone packets, didnt see any change, now trying the Purigen by seachem.

I have trouble keeping all invertabrates, lost a flaming scallop, a sea cucumber (never did find it), and just recently lost a anenome long tentacle had both about 7 months, I couldnt find the anenome either, what are happening to these?? I cant believe the cleaning crew eats these things that quick..

Anyway I use to have freshwater tanks for years when I was a younger. In 1980 I got my first saltwater tank, had for 3 years, then out of hobby again until last fall.

All in all I am happy with the progress of tank, but if anyone has any suggestions on getting the nitrates down please let me know.

Last week tests:
salinity 1.021
Nitrate 15-20
Phosphate 0
Calcium 430 ppm
KH 125.3 ppm
pH 8.4
temp 82

 

Howdy! and welcome to 3Reef.
As far is your nitrates they are acceptable at that range but you don't have much
room for mistakes there, you mention the loss of some of your specimens, my advise would be to
remove probably 50% of your water on wc's not all at once! but like so much every day for as long
as it take till you get any where from 40% to a 50% of it, then remove most of the top layer of your substrate since it could have a lot of anaerobic matter in it. and about the flame scallop they are very difficult to keep in captivity.

 

i would reccomend Kent Marine Nitrate Sponge, worked wonders for me, but it took a little while, and Welcome to 3reef, you have come to the right place!

 

Appreciate the response, will try

 

For the invert problem I would probably get cuprisorb, sounds like copper to me and as far as your nitrates, if everything stops dieing(use the cuprisorb) your nitrate problems will go away on their own, with regular water changes, of course...

 

i am feeding 1 frozen cube of food per day, the fish seem to finish it fine, do you think this is too much?

 

will try thank you

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>>>

 

welcome to 3reef