Help! How do I clean my sump?

[miNiChher]

Hello I'm a super beginner, and jumped the gun =(

My water is as follows:
Nitrates: 10
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Calcium: 390
Ph 8.2

My tank is as follows:

110 gallon tank with a
30 gallon sump
180lbs of live rock
2 inches of sand
ASM g-1x skimmer
2x175w Metal Halides (14k), and 2
96w PC actinates.

aaaand... to make things worst I got super excited and bought livestock and am now fearing their lives as my Nitrates are reading at 10 and my SG is at 1.025.

Can someone give me specific instructions on how to clean my sump?

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! For starters, what all do you have in your sump? Depending on what's in there will determine how you go about cleaning it. Basic cleaning would be to siphon/vaccum up any detritus/waste you see sitting in there, but we'd need to know the details of your sump to know which direction to point you in. Also, how old is the setup? If the tank is newly setup, it will need some time to mature some to build up all of the necessary anaerobic bacterial colonies within the rock to be able to perform denitrification (converting nitrates into nitrogen gas) which means in the meantime, in order to get your nitrates down some, you will probably need to do some water changes using ro/di water. Just a few thoughts...Hope you get things sorted out soon

 

[miNiChher]

I just have a water heater in the sump, there are some bio balls in the oh gosh, in the thing behind my display tank, (where the water runs up and down the back) there is also a bubble maker... in there. I'm such a beginner it's embarrassing! I've had it setup since November 29th, 2006.

 

[mmkeeper]

How long has the tank when set up?

 

[mmkeeper]

You are in the late stages of the cycle, No3 of 10 is not that bad. The fish can handle it. You might want to think about slowly removing the bioballs, with them it is almost impossible to get No3 to 0.

Along with that water changes. Make sure you check the No3 of your replacement water.

 

[miNiChher]

ummm well the fish aren't the only things in there... I also have an acropora, a bta, a long tentacle anemone, a hammerhead, and a bubble coral (i added all these guys in the past couple of weeks) .... I do have access to RO water... when I run the tests on that all of it is at 0 so I don't feel so bad using it to do a water change.... it's just that it's hard to replace my water when it's SG is at 1.025.

Also I have been thinking of removing the bio balls... there's at least 20 back there... how many shall I remove at a time and in how many week intervals?

Thanks for all of your help by the way =) My anxiety level has decreased already

 

[Krish]

LOL! We've pretty much all been there with the anxiety so no worries As for the bio-balls, you said they were in the back compartment of the tank? Any chance to get a pic of what you mean? I'm thinking an overflow because you said where the water runs up and down the back, but I don't think I've ever seen an overflow with bio-balls. In any event, bio-balls (if used in a wet/dry environment) are nothing but nitrate factories as their end product is nothing but nitrates as they cannot perform denitrification that your rock can perform. So people tend to toss them out. How much to remove at a time...Well, you can probably move 20-25% of them every couple of days and you should be fine. The main reason why you don't want to remove them all one shot is because if your system relies on them heavily for the nitrifying bacteria (ie. the ones responsible for converting ammonia into nitrite then into nitrate) and you remove them all one shot, your tank can experience a "shock" so you want to do it slowly. As for your nitrate levels, they are quite fine for fish, but your corals on the otherhand, may not do so well. People typically try to shoot for zero nitrates so you will probably want to do a nice water change to dilute the nitrates some. Under most all circumstances, you want to use ro/di water as most well/tap water will be high in nitrates, phosphates etc and you don't want to add that in your tank. Those are the things you want to try and keep at minimum in your tank so ro/di saves you a lot of headache. One other thing I thought of that can be producing nitrates for you as well is are you using any sponges, filter socks, filter sleeves etc in your system? If so, how often do you clean or change them? In any event, you want to keep any sponges, sockes etc rinsed out in ro/di water or changed atleast every 3 days. The reason why is because a lot of waste and detritus gets trapped in there and if left too long, it will rott and degrade water quality shooting up nitrates etc. So keep that in mind

 

[mmkeeper]

The anemones are the most sensitive to No3. You wil it is not easy to keep them in such a young tank. How do you mix your saltwater?

 

[miNiChher]

I can post pics of my tank by about 7pm PST and yes the bio balls are in my overflow... hmmm I guess when I start to remove them it won't make that much of difference as to where they are =) As for the sponges, filter socks, filter sleeves etc in my system... well I don't know what any of those are so I can safely say no they are not being used. =) Should I be using them?

Also my Nitrates have been between 5 and 10 for the past 4 days that I know of... how much longer before my coral dies????

I will do a water change as I do have my own RO/DI but since my sg is at 1.025 should I mix the RO water with enough salt to make it match the same HIGH salinity? Before my nitrates and SG went up the SG was at 1.022 and my nitrates were at 0.

I am afraid that if I do a 20% water change the salinity decrease from 1.025 to 1.022 will shock my inhabitants.

 

[miNiChher]

Ouch! I love my anemones =( Their names are Mr. Bubbles and Penelope. I mix my water using a Sea Salt Mix... There's a big clown fish on the bag... basically it's directions instructed me to add 1/2 cup per gallon of RO water.

I'm sadly learning that I've jumped the gun.... Hopefully my inhabitants aren't in very much pain.

But thanks for all your help...

 

[LakeEd]

miNiChher,

When you get ready to do any water change, test the new water you are getting ready to place into your tank prior to removing any water from your tank. You will want to mix that fresh salt water up to a specific gravity of 1.025-1.026, heat it to your tanks temp (hopefully about 78-80???) and check its pH, to match that of your tank as well. Once that fresh mix water is ready to go, then you do your thang removing water from your system, to be re-filled by this new water.

 

[DonW]

miNiChher,

When you get ready to do any water change, test the new water you are getting ready to place into your tank prior to removing any water from your tank. You will want to mix that fresh salt water up to a specific gravity of 1.025-1.026, heat it to your tanks temp (hopefully about 78-80???) and check its pH, to match that of your tank as well. Once that fresh mix water is ready to go, then you do your thang removing water from your system, to be re-filled by this new water.

Dont forget to balance ca, alk and mg, if your keeping coral.

Don

 

[miNiChher]

Thanks a lot LakeEd. The temperature in my tank ranges between 76 and 78 degrees... Shall I increase it? I have two heaters =) They ROCK!

But about mixing the salt water... Do I need to shake it aggresively and leave it out for a certain amount of hours before the salt completely mixes into the water? For instance, if I check the Salinity immediately after I mix it will that number be different from the salinity that I check the following day?

your help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[LakeEd]

I mix up my water-change water at least the night before I plan on using it. In my change bucket, I have a power head going continuously, both mixing and aerating the water for that entire day, along with it being heated. This also allows me to do a quick "Final check" on it before I am ready to use it, and I can do any small adjustments that may be required from there.

 

[DonW]

Thanks a lot LakeEd. The temperature in my tank ranges between 76 and 78 degrees... Shall I increase it? I have two heaters =) They ROCK!

But about mixing the salt water... Do I need to shake it aggresively and leave it out for a certain amount of hours before the salt completely mixes into the water? For instance, if I check the Salinity immediately after I mix it will that number be different from the salinity that I check the following day?

your help is GREATLY appreciated!

You need to throw in a powerhead and heater. Let it mix overnight. If its IO add ca mg and your set.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

Nitrate of 10 isn't all that bad, although not great with the corals you mentioned and the anemone. Do some large quantity water changes with quality water. Definately remove those bio-balls but as mentioned above, slowly. They will soon become a Nitrate factory, if they haven't already. Removing them all at once might cause a spike in ammonia or nitrites though. Also, as mentioned above, we've all been in the panic stage you're in right now. Just don't do anything rash. It's been said many many times on RF, "Nothing good in a reef ever happens fast." or something like that...lol. Up the amount of water changes you do and change more water at a time, that'll probably help take care of a large part of it. Watch your feeding habits and over a period of time, remove those bio-balls. I think you'll find that those things will bring your nitrates down quite well.

 

[miNiChher]

Ok I've read about all this but it's all coming together now! thanks a whole lot. But, I have regular 5 gallon water containers,ummm they're pretty small for me as I would like to be able to do 20 gallon water changes... Is there anything at my local home depot or target that I can buy to house all of my water? Like a huge trash can or something?

Again thanks a MILLION for your help.

 

[Krish]

I see the others gave you some great feedback already on mixing water As for the bio-balls...If they are being used in your overflow submerged, then it is not the same as in a wet/dry environment and may be used for another purpose like catching some of the micro-bubbles so not very many will be transferred to the sump or something. In any event, you will need to periodically clean them out as well as they will trap detritus/waste and will degrade water quality. I'm just assuming here as I would need to see pics to see how they are being used. Typically though, bio-balls used any which way can potentially cause issues with trapping waste or shooting up nitrates in a wet/dry environment, so you have to be careful when using them

 

[LakeEd]

Is there anything at my local home depot or target that I can buy to house all of my water? Like a huge trash can or something?

miNiChher,

I have purchased a few of the Brute Trash Cans, for making & storage of my water. They come in nice BIG 44gallon size... or more helpful in your case, 32 gallon & 20 gallon sizes as well. The Brute containers are more expensive than most of their trash cans, but are made out of "food grade" plastics, so no worries about the container itself leaching anything unsafe into your water.

 

[miNiChher]

uhoh... is that the same as commercial grade plastic? are those trash cans safe?