nitrates are always up????

chiming into second this. Good advise.

good luck dude. the rock will help a lot.

 

i know. i really want ot get more believe me. a place near me sells it for 4'99 a lbs. is that a good deal. the other place i buy from is like 6.50 a lbs. both are purple. just wondering. thanks guys i guess it just the stuff i dont have enough money for right now thats getting me i'll make sure thats all i buy till i get enough. thanks again.

 

I would assume that for those prices that is live rock. You should get base rock, much cheaper. The live rock you already have will seed the dry base rock.

 

+1 - you can also get GREAT base rock from John at reefcleaners.org and I think his price is around 2.60 a pound and free shipping over 30 pounds. I got some of this and it was fantastic!

 

+1 to reefcleaners. I did my entire 200 with his rock. It's gorgeous. And he does have free shipping on orders of 30 pounds or more, which would put you right in the ballpark for what you need Gexx. That would be your best option by far.
Whatever you choose, do not do live rock. Adding that much live rock will restart your cycle, and you would be starting from ground zero all over again.

 

ok. i did add liek ten lbs of live rock to my tank all at once in the summer (after my first cycle) would this be enough to restart the cycle???

 

it depends..if you got from your lfs..fully live..kept it moist..brought it STRAIGHT home and put it in your tank..i don't think it would do much..but if you ordered it or it was out of the water for any length of time or it wasn't fully live when you purchased it then that's very possible

 

i got it straight out of the water there wrapped it up in paper towels, then came home and did the aquascaping.

right now im looking at converting my back part of my filter a 2in by 6in gap that is 7 in deep into a place for a mangrove or two. good idea or no? it would help i think to keep my nitrates down a little till i get my livce rock and skimmer. iwould then still use them but i wouldnt be screwed till i get my live rock and skimmer.

 

mangroves are a good idea..but they're not instantaneous..they still have to grow..when you get them there are no roots..no leaves..just pretty much a giant seed..

You can go ahead and get them..but be trying to get LR and/or skimmer asap

 

In my opinion the problem in your tank is that it is new and you are not removing nearly as much nutrients as you are putting in. You can get by without a protein skimmer, although you should reallly have one. But you should be doing water changes like twice a week and not once a month given what you've described about your system. At least initially do big water changes, then cut back to where you find a balance in your system. Get current test kits and do water changes and testing at least weekly.

Daily feeding is adding to the issue. You can do daily feeding if you think you must, but then you need to do something to get the nutrients that are being added out. I feed my fish and corals twice a week. after 9 months all fish are still fat and happy.

Whatever you are putting in the tank must come out or it will build up and cause you issues. Especially with nitrates.

You should never have any ammonia or nitrites at all in your system or there is something seriously wrong.

Increase your maintenance and testing and decrease the amount of food that you are adding and you should see big improvements in your system.

And at four months your tank could very well still be cycling. It took my 75 gallon close more than 3 months to finally get through it's cycle. Mine actually went through multiple cycles. Things looked good then I'd spike ammonia and go through another mini-cycle. Don't know why, but it definitely happened.

Spend less on new stuff to go into your tank and more on test kits, salt, and on taking care of the stuff already in your tank. You've got a lot of stuff in your tank and have things that I wouldn't recommend till your tank is older.

If you want to drop your nitrates to 0, also consider installing a DSB. They're not quite in favor like they used to be, but they definitely will take care of nitrates.