Almost Quit . . .

I've been reading the forums for years and this is my first post. I'm sorry it's so long, but i have a lot to get off my chest. ;0)

These are the questions i am asking:
Am i just being impatient?
Are my foods of poor quality?
Is my fuge large enough?
Could my test kits be whacked?

For months i've been threatening my wife with selling our 2 90gal systems (reef & aggressive fish).
Last month i started the process of selling . . . and to make a long story shorter . . . i now have a 120g island overflow and 2 90g systems for sale on Craig's list.

The reason i was looking to throw in the towel was due to a losing battle with high nitrates, a plague of red bubble algae and TONS of scratches on the glass.
The systems were 6 years old - reef system plagued with the bubble algae but button polyps, green fluorescent mushrooms, and giant cinnamon polyps thriving; tube anemone doing okay and fish well.
The aggressive tank was a no brainer - stable, no problem algae, nice crop of calerpa that never went asexual.

I had always wanted to have a refugium - thinking that was why my nitrates were so high. Both tanks had a Deep Sand Bed with plenty of worms.
My initial purchase was from a LFS before i found the value of forums and craigs list - the set me up with Wet/dry and about 6 bottles of additives - jeesh!

So, i combined both systems, in desperation i pressure cleaned the reef rock to remove the majority of red bubble algae, made my sump/fuge, took over feeding (my wife is Italian, so i accused her of overfeeding) - and still my nitrates are off the charts.

Granted it's only been 3 weeks . . . but damn! I read all over the boards of people complaining of high nitrates and citing 60/ppm - 80ppm - mine are in excess of 100 or 200! (i used twice the amount of sample water to try to get the actual reading and it still looked blood red).

The Thing is - no green water, no other problems with algae ( i don't have to clean the glass much at all!), all the life is happy and expanding fully.
Am i just being impatient?
After reading 100+ nitrates 7 days after the tank migration - i did a 40% water change. Tested again - still 100+!!!!
Tested my RO - 0 nitrates.

I must say . . . i LOVE the island overflow and so do my fish - they used to run and hide, stay in one place . . . now, they are actively swimming in and out of the many caves and crannies, perculas swimming laps and courting each other, damsels are looking to mate, snowflake eel loving all the different positions he can find, everyone loves the new tank! And the ability to see all 4 sides of the tank is awesome.

Here are the details:

120g (4x2x2') DT with island overflow
20g sump/fuge (1/3 space for fugue - stocked with calerpa lit 24/7 with 75w growlamp incandescent - recently added Chaeto & Ulva)
BRS reactors - Carbon and GFO
2 skimmers - Sealife systems
recently installed 9watt UV (fed off the GFO out)
Lighting - Hamilton Tech 2x175 Halide (6700k) + blue LED (having a hard time finding T12 Actinic Bulbs for the 10year old lighting system purchased off Craigs List)
DSB - 6 inch
~200lbs live rock

-lightly stocked (in my opinion):
24" Snowflake Eel
5" Dragon Wrasse
4" copperbanded butterfly
4" Tomato Clown
4" Freckled Hawk
2 3" perculas
2 3" humbug damsels
2 green brittle stars -mature
1000s of tiny brittle stars
multiple bristleworms
Hermit Crab
newly added cleaning crew

Cinnamon Polyps
Button polyps
Green mushrooms
Green Fluorescent mushrooms
Tube Anemone

Ph- 8.2
Salinity - 1.025
Calcium - off the chart 485
Kh - 10
Mag - 0 (got a reading of 345 - been added 120oz over the past week and now can't detect any with my test(!?))
Phos - 3.5
Nitrate - off the charts over 100
temp - 76-80

Feeding:
average - 1-1.5 cubes + 1 silverside + 1 shrimp
once per day

I built the stand 42"' high so i don't have to stoop to view - also a ledge to lean on. I have to paint & skin it yet.

 

It's looking good! I like the condiment pump human dosing system!

 

Its a good looking tank, what kind of test kit are you using and how old?

 

Sounds like you need some new test kits.

Salifert Test Kits

 

Nice tank, you must be doing something right. Hang in there we all go through our trials. It makes us better reefers.

I would suspect your test kit but you stated Phos 3.5 and high nitrate. That makes me think you have phosphate and nitrate bound up in your live rock. If that is true, about the only thing you can do is replace the live rock or cook it really well. Where did you get the rock and has it ever been used with tap water instead of RODI?

Jack

 

Yeah, I have to agree with new test kit. I'm currently using the api but don't really like it and will buy Salifert sometime this week.

Have u tried taking a water sample to your LFS to be analyzed?

Sent from my phone using my two opposable digits

 

Phosphate can bind to rocks, nitrate can't. Nitrate can leach from rocks if organisms on the rock die off, but there would have to be a lot of die-off.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Also, most of your other test readings don't seem to make any sense whatsoever. I suspect test error.

 

First off, the tank looks great. i prefer the island aquascape as well.

How is your flow? i have found that in the past, when my nitrates started to rise it was because i had dead spots. when i increased my flow, the nitrates lowered.

Also, and you are not going to want to hear this but i'm not sure that a 6.7 gallon refugium is going to be able to hold enough macro algae to have a significant effect on a tank your size. i did the same thing in the beginning and had a small refugium as part of my sump. i eventually had to add a 20 gallon refugium to decrease my nitrates.

 

+k to this

Awesome build! love the high stand!