Controlling excess nutrients

[carlos_fb]

I know this is out of topic but I would like to know what else can I do to eliminate the excess of nutrients in my tank?

So far I have, doing water changes every week instead of every other week, cleaning my skimmer cup every other day, chaging and cleaning my filter sock more often, stop running carbon 24/7 and just use it for 14 days.

Also how should I wash the frozen foods so that it does not become a source of phosphates because of all the liquids that come with it.

 

[Holygral]

I recently had diatoms, and some cyano, I increased my flow and added a Phos-Ban reactor and both issues cleared up in a week or two. Unit runs $50 or so and the material for it runs $15-20.

 

[leebca]

I moved your posts to a new thread. It may be further moved to a different Forum.

Fundamentally, hobbyists want to keep marine life, but what we really focus upon is the keeping of microbes/bacteria. Happy bacteria make for a good marine system. However, there are some microbes we want to favor and others we want to discourage.

A mature marine system can usually handle the discouraging part by the reduced availability of nutrients in the system. (The 'available' nutrients may be used by the 'right' kinds of bacteria or. . .read on). Building a marine system is the slow addition of marine life to allow the favorable bacteria/microbes to establish themselves and dominate the others. That is why I wrote this: The Mature Aquarium

First and foremost, slow down. Don't add marine life too fast. One fish every 6 to 8 weeks of medium to small size is the rate to go. Most hobbyists try to overstock their aquarium. DON'T. This is the single most contributor to a problematic microbe population. Adhere to being conservative and stock less and many of your problems will go away. Read this: Fish Stocking Limit – for FO and FOWLR.

Check the foods you put into the system for excess nutrients. If you are feeding pellets that contain wheat or any foods that contain land products, remember that the fish don't digest them. Thus these foods just add to the pollution. Rinse off foods like mysis and gut loaded brine shrimp. Remove excess juices from foods.

Check all things you put into the marine system, including source water, for slipping in/sneaking in some unwanted nutrients: Source Water. Don't overdo additives. Use the best source water you can.

Remove dead and dieing marine lifeforms. A dead animal can create a biological mess.

After you go through how things are getting into the marine system, now you turn to managing what is there = nutrient export. Start by good maintenance (water changes, cleaning the substrate, finding and removing detritus, etc.). Next be sure you have the right equipment: skimmer, mechanical filter, and activated carbon filter.

After you've done your best TEST the water. Look for phosphates, nitrates, and organics to see where you are at. Determine what kinds of unwanted organisms are present and read up on what it is they are living on and then move towards controlling those nutrients. If these organisms and nutrients are still not under control, you can turn to chemical filtration (phosphate removers, for instance) or change your maintenance (more and larger water changes, for instance), or put in a refugium or other device to take away nutrients.

Exporting the nutrients can be challenging, but if your stock is in the right place (not overstocked) it should fall into place.

That is as about as brief as I can be on a very long, long, and complicated subject.

 

[Snowboarda42]

Also how should I wash the frozen foods so that it does not become a source of phosphates because of all the liquids that come with it.

Brine shrimp nets work great for this, most of the regular green ones have too big of holes in them. I'll take a cube of mysis, marine cuisine, some cycopeeze, or whatever, put it in the net and rinse it under cold tap water. Depending on the food I'll sometimes put some Selcon on the food as well, let it sit for a minute and invert the net in the tank.

Been working great for me.

 

[csababubbles]

i bought one of those small strainers from bed,bath and beyond for like $3. put some food in it, rinse, and then strain it right in there too. dishwasher safe too

 

[carlos_fb]

Thanks a lot for the tips Lee.

I think my current problem comes from the feeding. I was not rinsing the frozen food before so that is most probably the source of phosphates. Since I have been running my Phosban reactor for months, I was never able to detect it with the tests. Other than that, I don't see any other reason for having excess of nutrients in my tank. I have used RO/DI water from day one, I monitor my TDS and I replace my filters when I need to. The only additives that I currently use are Reef Crystal salt mix and B-ionic.

Snowboarda42 and casababubbles, thanks for your replies. I went to Petsmart and bought a small white fish need and works great, I was able to rinse even the cyclops.