cleaning Live Rock

[mmkeeper]

My 46 gallon bowed has been set up since about a year. I cannot keep my nitrates down. I am running a ref with macro. I rushed my setup in the begining and paid the price. The tank is healthy and growing, however it bugs me that my nitrates keep running between 5-25. I do regular water changes with rodi that test 0 nitrate.

I have tried many things, I thought I would give my LR a bath. Can someone advise me on how to remove my rock and give it a good rinsing.

MATT

 

[dabears26]

I might suggest upgrading the size of your skimmer .Before you turn your live rock to base rock..That what i did in the past when mine where stuck at about 20.It might work..Hope this helps

 

[mmkeeper]

Wasn't planning on turn it to base rock. JUst giving it a good bath to remove the deitris and other junk.

 

[Skimmy]

just save the water from your next water change and they buy a firm scrub brush, take your rocks out one at a time and scrub the heck out of them, make sure you shake them violently to remove as much detritus as possible.
it would help if you had some clean saltwater from the tank to rinse the rocks off from the first bucket before you put them back in the tank. also make sure you siphon out as much crap from under the rocks as well.
you didnt mention what you have for filtration besides a refugium, and what do you have in the refugium? do you have a skimmer? a sandbed? is it a sump refugium or hang on?

 

[mmkeeper]

Skimmer, sump refugium with sand bed and macro. Tank is deep sand bed

 

[Krish]

just save the water from your next water change and they buy a firm scrub brush, take your rocks out one at a time and scrub the heck out of them, make sure you shake them violently to remove as much detritus as possible.
it would help if you had some clean saltwater from the tank to rinse the rocks off from the first bucket before you put them back in the tank. also make sure you siphon out as much crap from under the rocks as well.

I agree...Also, you have to consider or figure out what is causing the nitrate issues. Is there any reason in particular why you think it is the rock? Sandbeds can cause problems sometimes as well...I hope you get things sorted out

 

[mmkeeper]

I am not sure of the cause. I was just thinking if I gave my rock a bath it might help or point me to the sand bed or other causes. My real thought is my bio load.

 

[Krish]

I am not sure of the cause. I was just thinking if I gave my rock a bath it might help or point me to the sand bed or other causes. My real thought is my bio load.

Ahhh...Gotcha! Scrubbing your rocks will definately help drop them off a bit. The question is if it will keep it down...Maybe you can post a list of your bio-load and what you are feeding.

 

[mmkeeper]

1 OC clown
2 pink skunk clowns
1 achilles tang
1 velvet damsel
1 white goby
1 mandrin dragonette
1 banded coral shrimp
4 peppermint schrimp

feeding 1 half sheet dried seaweed per day
1 cube of frozen food every other day ( krill, mysis,brine,and others)
small amout of flake spirulina or nutrafin max on the off day of the cube

 

[DonW]

1 OC clown
2 pink skunk clowns
1 achilles tang
1 velvet damsel
1 white goby
1 mandrin dragonette
1 banded coral shrimp
4 peppermint schrimp

feeding 1 half sheet dried seaweed per day
1 cube of frozen food every other day ( krill, mysis,brine,and others)
small amout of flake spirulina or nutrafin max on the off day of the cube

Thats alot of chow for such small fish.

Don

 

[Krish]

Thats alot of chow for such small fish.

Don

I agree unless you stand there and feed them a small amount and keep adding as they eat. Otherwise the fish may miss quite a bit of it if it is dumped in all one time. Also are you defrosting the frozen food in ro/di water?

 

[mmkeeper]

i do defrost it in ro/di. i target feed to anemones and some corals with the frozen. The dried seaweed is eaten by the tang and damsel.

 

[Krish]

Cool...I'd go ahead and scrub those rocks anyway and see how it goes. Nitrates have to drop off for sure. When I swapped my tanks yesterday, I didn't even scrub my rocks. I just shook them off in a bucket of old tank water and after I was finished, the bucket water was brown with detritus. I could only imagine if I put a brush to it. Best of luck and I hope it does the trick for you

 

[mmkeeper]

I figure it cant hurt. Because when I set things up in the begining I just put in the rock and let cycle for about 3 weeks and nitrates have been a battle ever since. i didn't rinse or scrub the rock then.

 

[Krish]

I figure it cant hurt. Because when I set things up in the begining I just put in the rock and let cycle for about 3 weeks and nitrates have been a battle ever since. i didn't rinse or scrub the rock then.

Yeah, and also the rock could have had a lot of die off occuring in your tank as well. A new habit I have adopted lately that seems to work great for me is when doing a water change (weekly) I always shut off everything and get a spare maxi jet ph and blow off all of my rocks to get everything off. Then I run a canister filter with polishing cartridge for about an hour while I siphon up what falls to the bottom. This methods I think keeps my nitrates down as well as keeping the rocks clean...

 

[mmkeeper]

I have started blowing my rock off with turkey baster when I do a water change.

 

[Krish]

I have started blowing my rock off with turkey baster when I do a water change.

Try a powerhead sometime if you have a spare one. You'll be surprised at how much more will come off compared to the turkey baster as well as how much faster and then don't forget the sore wrist muscles from squeezing(LOL) You can blow algae clean off of the rocks if you wanted to with a ph.

 

[NaH2O]

How does your premixed salt water test for nitrates? Is your test kit good? Also, you can spot test for nitrates in your tank. Take a sample from the sandbed (make a divot, then suck a sample out with a turkey baster, place in a cup and remove water for test from the cup), take a water sample from other areas in your tank (rock, fuge, sump, etc.) and see if the nitrates are increased compared to the water column in any of these locations.

 

[mmkeeper]

My premix and makeup water test 0.