125 gallon tank
60 gallon sump
purple, hippo, sailfin, powder brown tangs
Also a foxface, firefish and a half dozen clowns.
Have a reef octopus protein skinner rated for 250 gallons.
After months of negligence, I was doing the bare minimum to keep the fish alive. Fish are all fat and happy.
I have anenomes that do “ok” but the coral “frags” I have are poor.
I used just the test strips and noticed nitrates as high as 200. holy cow, I know. I use RO water. Did water changes of 30 gallons and little to no effect.
I bought the Red Sea NO3-X stuff and tried that. Little to no effect.
I completely emptied the entire sump, even vacuumed it using a shop vac and getting rid of all the sediment that collected on the bottom. I replaced all the filter media. Here I am 3 days after the filter media and I’m still seeing excessively high nitrates.
Idk what to do. I need a good clean up crew but a good crew is going to suffer in such high nitrate water.
Changed filter pads, socks, increased protein skimmer output, changed filter in return pump. I’m getting discouraged. Idk what to do to get my nitrates down to a reasonable level.
I don’t have a dosing system/apex system, anything fancy. I’m trying to do my best on a budget if you know what I mean.
But right now I’m trying to do everything I can to get my tank back on track and I can’t seem to figure out HOW…
60 gallon sump
purple, hippo, sailfin, powder brown tangs
Also a foxface, firefish and a half dozen clowns.
Have a reef octopus protein skinner rated for 250 gallons.
After months of negligence, I was doing the bare minimum to keep the fish alive. Fish are all fat and happy.
I have anenomes that do “ok” but the coral “frags” I have are poor.
I used just the test strips and noticed nitrates as high as 200. holy cow, I know. I use RO water. Did water changes of 30 gallons and little to no effect.
I bought the Red Sea NO3-X stuff and tried that. Little to no effect.
I completely emptied the entire sump, even vacuumed it using a shop vac and getting rid of all the sediment that collected on the bottom. I replaced all the filter media. Here I am 3 days after the filter media and I’m still seeing excessively high nitrates.
Idk what to do. I need a good clean up crew but a good crew is going to suffer in such high nitrate water.
Changed filter pads, socks, increased protein skimmer output, changed filter in return pump. I’m getting discouraged. Idk what to do to get my nitrates down to a reasonable level.
I don’t have a dosing system/apex system, anything fancy. I’m trying to do my best on a budget if you know what I mean.
But right now I’m trying to do everything I can to get my tank back on track and I can’t seem to figure out HOW…