reduce nitrates?

Mr. Bill's point is the start. That Mr. Bill, always quick with the smart answers!

 

i have a 20 gallon tank with two damsles, a emerald crab and a couple corals. im using reverse osmosis water. and i have a fluval 305 canister filter. i have tested the water im using for nitrates and it shows 0. i have used two different test kits and they both show the same nitrate levels. in the filter i have the regular filter pads and a few pc's of small rubble rock. on tuesday i added a sea clone 100 protien skimmer. i clean the filter pads every other week. let me know if what you guys think? and theres about 35lb of liive rock

 

1) The pads should be cleaned more frequently or removed altogether. What gets trapped is food for something in your tank, and it also still breaks down into DOCs which ultimately elevates nitrate production. Same goes for the rubble- it's just a detritus trap as you have plenty of rock in the DT.

2) I'd recommend a good CuC; Check out ReefCleaners, and focus mainly on omnivores and detritivores to clean up waste and leftover food. Also, a few Nassarius snails will stir and clean the sandbed so it doesn't become a nutrient sink. Vacuuming the surface of the sand and rocks while removing water for a water change will help a lot, as well.

3) Lastly, your choice of skimmer is less than stellar; it will probably work ok for a tank that size, but IMOPE, it will need to be disassembled and cleaned frequently; otherwise, crud will build up in the reaction chamber and begin releasing more DOCs than the skimmer can remove.

HTH

 

what is (cuc)? i just removed the filter pads. and i do have nas snails and blue leg hermit crabs. The rock in the filter is crushed live rock i thought that was a good thing

 

Cuc is short for cucumber. They are great detritivores but they don't do well with crushed coral substrates. As long as you've got sand they will do well. Please research cucumbers before adding them to your aquarium.

Good luck.

 

LOL

Cuc - clean up crew

Cucumbers are a very different thing, but still, my tangs LOVE cucumber, just leave the skin for me to clean up.

 

Are we talking about sea cucumbers or salad cucumbers? lol

 

Oh boy...ok so CuC does in fact stand for Clean Up Crew, not cucumber. Yose is talking about the inverts, and Scuba Ken about the green things that grow in gardens.

Getting back OT, the problem with crushed live rock is it is another place for detritus to build up. That is what you want to avoid to keep your nitrates down.

 

That was exactly where I was going and was trying to stay on topic. Years ago, before acronyms became the driving factor, sea cucumbers were some fantastic detritivores, and that "OT" reducing the amount of detritus in the system reduces the total NO2. A lot of the problem comes from anaerobic bacteria which excrete NO2. Sea cucumbers stir the sand bed and sift detritus which helps to keep the sand bed free of releasing NO2 bombs into the water column. I was not trying to incite some sort of salad issue. I was only trying to explain what CUC might mean. Sorry it "IN FACT" is clean up crew when it is misleading to any new reef enthusiast. Guess it's time to look for a new forum. Didn't last long here. I thought this WASN'T Reef Central, and that people didn't attack you for opinions that help forward the topic.

 

Its just a simple misunderstanding, no need to jump ship.