Nitrate problems please help me

You started this tank “end of October” so its 6-7 weeks old right ?

20ppm, as stated, is not horrible and thus far it sounds like you are taking the proper steps (including finding this forum)

How long have you been running that canister and what’s in it? I would have probably suggested cleaning out the canister all at once, but Steve would know best so definitely follow what he outlined above.

Just for poop’s and giggles – please test your nitrates coming out of that canister, this will let you know with certainty if it’s the culprit.

For what its worth, in my opinion your tank is to young for zoe’s and frogspawn and that hippo needs at least a 75 gallon tank.

Welcome to 3Reef !

 

Crimson Ghost
I would suggest cleaning it all at once in tank water- I think thats a good suggestion to see where that gets the tank in 1 weeks time

my suggestion was a removal of the media over a 4 week period in order to put the onus on the rock etc to do the biological work (bacteria on and inside the rock)

I say remove it over a 4 week period, in order that the bacteria on the rockwork, has time to increase in number to compensate for what has been removed with those ceramic or sintered glass Ehiem rings that I think he has in it at present

Steve

 

How long have you been running the filter for ammonia? And I wouldn't run a canister filter for the simple fact it will just pump out nitrates most of the time. A skimmer will be more then enough.


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steve you are right i do have the rings in the canister filter i have cleaned the filter everytime i have done a water change using tank water from the change. it seems to go down when i do the change for a few days and right back again im starting to believe that i need to get rid of the filter and see what that does. but im afraid to do it with the fish in the tank just incase the nitrates shoot up higher. i dont want to stress the fish.

Crimson Ghost i do understand that the tang will out grow my tank but im using the 40 gallon to get into the swing of things than i plan to upgrade to atleast a 75 gallon or higher maybe a 90 the frogspawn was in my hospital tank which was a ten gallon that was setup for 5 years i bought it off craigslist corals and LR just transfered them over to my main tank.

 

hey Steve, dont ya think it depends on the canister? I use a fluval 304 for mechanical only on a 29 that is "over full" , see my pics, my nitrates/trites are usually 0 according to my test kit. no algae, no problems. Mind you I also use a Bak Pak dual as well for skimming. I feel carbon causes more problems with canisters then it solves, but that is my opinion. This tank has a 4inch sand bed that has 12 years on it too.

 

alpha - they all have same potential IMO

The key here is your word mechanical
if your removing and throwing or cleaning the media that you have in there regularly, then I am not surprised at very low nitrates

biological media (of which carbon would become if left for to long, as its a good site for bacteria) is a different matter
and the rings IME are terrible to keep clean, no matter how many times you rinse them stuff gets caught up and stuck there, hence nitrates

It can be done with a cannister
its just easier to achieve it without one IME

removing some of those rings each week over the next 4 weeks
would IMHO , help to reduce your nitrates Socal86

Steve

Steve

 

thank you all for your advise i will try to remove the rings little at a time and see how it goes. i will be open for any words of wisdom i can get since i am new to this as far as doing it on my own. my step dad and i had a 29 gallon tank when i was 13 or so but he kept track of all levels and what not. so i am learning everything on my own never realized how much research this would be. seems worth every second i spend and look forward to see where my tank goes. i will keep everyone posted thanks again for the help