AZ-NO3 (Absolute Zero - Nitrates) - Thoughts?

[mojoreef]

Hi again Josh, Just keep talking with Keven at Aquatic dreams he will steer you right. The ammount of fish you have are not a problem, it is more the timing of introducing them. Your tank needs to cycle properly. What a cycle is basically is the building up of a population of bacteria. As you tank goes through the various stages in the cycle, the different bacterial types thaat reduce those product are building up populations as thier food source becomes available. The way you know your cycle is over is by all Get some more Live rock (not just Rock) dont both with the algae for now, it will just get in the way of the bacteria populating. You'll be back on track in no time. Feel free to post away any questions you have.

take care

Mike

 

[fishermann]

just my 2 cents worth it looks like you need more live rock and 40ppm of nitrate in a fish only tank is nothing to get excited over. the fish i saw in your pic can stand more than 40 easy. but you need to slow down and add some rock and do like mike says, your bact. population is building up now and if you don't put anymore load on your tank your nates well go down, atleast your building the good guys and not amon. or nites. again 40 in a fish only tank is not anything to get excited over and start dumping in a bunch of junk to upset your whole system. i use a remora on a 60 and they are great little skimmers.

 

[iamjosh]

w more plants in the refugium, I'm not so worried about the 40ppm for the fish but rather so I can have shrimp the Fire Shrimp seams to be doing fine, but I'd like to get down below about 20 and get a Cleaner shrimp.

Thanks for all the tips and advice today everyone.

I haven't heard anyone stand up and say the love the stuff so I'm gussing no one has tried it?

As for cycling the tank, the tank was previously setup, I purchased it used and so it was up and running. I've since pulled out al the old ugly brown sand and little jewels the guy had in the tank and replaced it with 60+Lbs of AcroTropic Sand, Also got a cup full of Live sand I think (Cup of sand with little things in it.) so that sorta started branching out worms and what not.

Someone said 1-2 Lbs per Gallon.. That's 55 - 110 Lbs of Live Rock.. that seams a bit excessive. I think I have 20 - 25Lbs of rock and that seams like a whole lot of rock in my tank.

Am I missing something?

hahaha no yeah your missing 30+lbs of live rock.

Thanks for everything,
-josh

 

[kevinpo]

Sorry for getting into this late. A little background:

This tank was set up for more than one year at another of my customers. It was moved quickly to Josh's house. The nitrate reading was very high when the previous owner had it (somewhere around 160ppm). With several water changes they brought it down to 80 ppm. Josh has done a good job to reduce it to 40 ppm.

I asked him to post here about the additive as I have never heard of it before.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[iamjosh]

Thanks Kevin

I kinda forgot about those details.

-josh

 

[mattseattle]

oh ok - i was assuming it was a new tank.

 

[iamjosh]

Someone said 1-2 Lbs per Gallon.. That's 55 - 110 Lbs of Live Rock.. that seams a bit excessive. I think I have 20 - 25Lbs of rock and that seams like a whole lot of rock in my tank.

Am I missing something?

hahaha no yeah your missing 30+lbs of live rock.

anyone ?

thanks,
-josh

 

[Scooterman]

I have about 200lbs in my 100g tank, it is also 5ft long, so it makes for nice rock work. I used about 75lbs of very large base rock to make caves etc. If you ever go BB with a Berlin set-up the extra rock is really needed as it is your main filter, along with a good skimmer. I still think 40ppm is high & could go lower to near "0". Now with that said you didn't try to reuse the old sand so that is a plus & already fully cured LR so these reduce some of your larger spikes probably but I'd say you could use a good bit more LR. Also before dumping any more sand into your system, let talk BB for a sec. or maybe a course CC base thin layered for the front only, Interested?

 

[iamjosh]

Sorry BB & CC are terms I don't know yet.

-josh

 

[iamjosh]

Crushed Coral and Bare bottom thanks to your newest thread...

I don't think I'd like the look of Bare Bottom, and Crushed Coral will look like gravel wont it?

Thanks for the info
-josh

 

[plumber_bob]

Josh,
What I've read is if you are stocking your tank with Fiji live rock, then you should add 2lbs per gallon; however, if you are stocking your tank with marshall island or vavau live rock, then you can get away with 1 lbs per gallon. This is because the vavau and marshall island are more poris, so this allows more water flow throughout the entire rock.

 

[iamjosh]

that seams like an overpowering ammount of rock, I guess I'll watch my nitrates for the moment and add rock here and there.. that's also a large investment being that I'd need another 75-90lbs from where I'm at.

75lbs*$5/lb = $375 + Tax

Plus I added another 5lbs last night and I'm not sure where I'd even be able to put another 75Lbs of rock, Maybe another 10-20 Lbs but I think the tank would feel super crowded.

Feels like I'm missing some secret... a step/idea way of making more space for rock?

 

[NaH2O]

The live rock doesn't necessarily need to be in the tank. You could put it in the sump, too.

 

[mattseattle]

i used about 80 - 90 lbs of live rock in my 55 gallon tank. i still have quite a bit of room. the only issue with my 55 gallon is the depth from front to back. it doesn't make stacking the rock and all the best situtation. it feels a little cramped sometimes...especially when i'm trying to add a new coral or something. but when i first setup my tank i did something silly and didn't really plan out my rock work and buy small flat pieces of rock. i bought whatever i could really find at local fish stores. some of the pieces are rather large for my tank.

remember that rock prices come down the more you buy. usually after 10 lbs the price drops depending on the place where you buy it, of course.

 

[Scooterman]

CC looks really nice but you can do like I did and use a coarse rubble, Crab-sea makes it, it will do you just fine, you will get a nice look that can easily vacuumed and that is key to keeping your levels clean. It is important to have water circulation behind and throughout your display tank, reason is to keep the poop up and floating until it reaches the skimmer to get removed totally. If you remove the problem before it becomes a problem then there isn't any problems, uaa ok carried away but hopefully you get the idea. It seems like a lot of rock but actually it won't be so bad, it all depends on the density of the LR which determines how much you use, also if your doing only fish you can get away with less but you will have to be aware of your total Bio-load ex..fish, crabs snails etc, it all depends on how much or what you want. If your not comfortable with all this then post as much details you can with your total equipment right down to your actual test kits and your plans on to what you actually want or plan on keeping in detail, then we can fine tune your system and even help you save money. This is a compressed version to help you get an idea of what to think about and plan your system, that is what we are here for. I know is can get overwhelming, I didn't have the help that is provided here when I started out and it cost me a fortune, not to mention the losses and failures I was having, that is why we want to help you get a better start.

 

[fishermann]

josh you are being helped by a really smart guy at this in Kevin, listen to what he says and you won't go wrong, you are lucky to live next to that much knowlage.

 

[iamjosh]

That's what I keep hearing. He has been very good, helping me with plans, and minor things. Nothing but praise for kevin.

Glad I got lucky when I went there. I've been very pleased with Aquatic Dreams as my LFS.

-josh

 

[reiple]

That is right. I even keep LR in the unlighted sump to lessen the rockwork in the main tank.

A matured DSB system works well in lowering nitrates. Mine however dropped it to almost zero but because of excessive feeding to a hippo tang (dang! eats a lot) it rose to 15ppm. Now stabilizes between 10 to 15ppm even with excessive feeding. Still not good.