nitrate question

ok my nitrates have been sitting at 20 ppm for 1 week, even after water change and searching for anything dead. i have gone to changeing the feeding from once a day to everyother day to hopfully bring it down. now i have no invert or clean up crew will levels that high kill them? mainly just want a clean up crew to get red of the brown powder like algea

also have 9 small fish (all 2 inches or less) dont plan on doing coral, fish only dont have a protein skimmer as of yet still looking for the cheapest best one.
its a 55 main and 40 gallon sump with chaeto in the fuge part and have 6500k led lights on fuge and a basic stock hood with light. want to find a cheap way to convert to led as well on main tank. yes tank is done cycling.have 10 lbs of live sand but im sure it has spread since i put it in there over 2-3 months ago and about 2 lbs of live waiting on my DIY cement/aragonite ones to cure

 

Snails and Hermit Crabs will be fine at those levels. I know shrimp are sensitive to elevated nitrates but I'm not sure how sensitive. You say you have 10lbs of live sand, how much live rock do you have?

 

2lbs of live rock waiting on the DIY Cement/aragonite to finish curing 10 lbs of live sand used to seed 100lbs of pool filter sand (yes i know i made sure it didnt have silicate in it and washed the living hell out of it)

 

The brown powder like algae sounds like diatoms, which are common at the end of a cycle. I would go ahead and add the clean up crew minus any shrimp (or any thing else nitrate sensitive) and see how it goes for two weeks.

Nine fish, depending on what they are, sounds like a lot for a 55 gallon display to me.

 

You know what's frustrating about nitrates---->THEY SEEM TO COME FROM EVERYTHING AND EVERYWHERE Grrrrr

Snails should be ok but I too am not too sure about the shrimp.

You provided some good information so that helps. Having the chaeto in the sump is great; it could be preventing the nitrates from climbing higher than 20.

The number of fish could be quite a lot but it depends on what kind they are. If they are all 2" fish that are fully grown, you're maybe fine. If not, well, it's probably overstocked. I must qualify though by saying I'm a huge supporter of understocking all tanks.

I have one thought regarding your system. DSB tanks are a natural filtration system although they can cause problems if done incorrectly. BB tanks also work well as long as there is very strong flow to keep detritus in the water column. Doing so allows the skimmer to remove the gunk before it breaks down. Then there are shallow sand beds which I believe is what you have. IMHE these are tough because they trap detritus---no way to break down waste and just enough there to prevent it from staying in the water column. So, shallow sand beds need to be vacuumed very thoroughly so they stay clean. You may get a good cleanup crew but that's not enough. And, because you don't yet have a skimmer you definitely need to keep the sand clean.

Here's a suggestion: turn your pumps or powerheads or whatever off. When the water stops moving take a turkey baster and blast the rocks everywhere. Once all the detritus in the rocks settles on the bottom, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. You also can get rid of some of the algae this way in addition to cleaning the bed. You will decimate the infauna but could avoid some of that by only vacuuming one section at a time.

 

With 9 fish in a 55g tank, you definitely want to get a good skimmer ASAP. It will remove a lot of the dissolved organics, thereby reducing nitrate production.

 

+1

I also went back again and read your original post. If I'm reading correctly you only have a little bit of sand but are adding a lot more later. Is the additional sand going to be enough for a DSB?

 

I agree 9 fish in a 55 seems like an awfull lot especially if the tank has just recently cycled.I however do not like to vacuum the SB.Instead get yourself some Nassarius snails or a fighting conch.They will gently stir small areas of the SB without releasing a ton of organics all at once and consume detritus.It is important to know that if you plan on vacuuming the SB it should be done on a regular basis.Stirring a SB that has not been vacuumed or has lots of junk in it could cause a cycle as the sudden release of toxins will overwhelm the available bacteria.I have never vacuumed my SB and rely instead on Nassarius snails.It IMO is a much safer way to keep the SB clean.As far as your Nitrates it is important for you to list your fish but as I stated it sounds overstocked to me which will just be a roadblock to your success.

Heres some good links.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/minimum-tank-sizes-selection-animals-137158.html
http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hob...general-rules-successful-aquarium-126326.html

 

obviously having high nitrates is not a good thing, but you stated you plan on just staying fish only with no corals. I have seen many fish only tanks with much higher N03 then what you have do just fine. not sure if anyone else suggested this but adding a small biopellet reactor would help lower nitrates and phosphates. There's a long post in the warner marine thread regarding the ecobak biopellets and how to get them started. Even if you use a different brand the info in this post will help you alot if you want to go that path. I read it front to back and I don't even use ecobak currently.

 

I'm glad you added this as they're very good points. It seems that sand beds are always a hot topic for discussion. I may be missing or not understanding a critical piece of information which maybe you can help me with. I'm unaware of any toxins that can be released in a shallow sand bed; when deep beds are disturbed hydrogen sulfide can be released and cause a lot of problems. However, the detritus in a shallow bed isn't doing anything as far as denitrifying, but it is definitely holding nitrates. Is that what you mean about releasing a ton of organics? I too agree that a really good clean up crew is necessary, but I've never seen that to be enough. IDK, it's always been my experience that shallow beds should have a clean up crew and be vacuumed regularly. On the other hand, your method seems to work well too.