nitrates caused by digging?

[mysis]

i have a 40 gallon with a yellow headed sleaper goby, i am experiencing high lvls of nitrate 20-40 ppm, and the tank did cycle, so i put a few fish in. all was fine, then i got the goby.

I am thinking my nitrates could be caused by the never ending digging this guy does, i am in the middle of making it reef and nitrates must be undetectable.

I am going to buy more LR and try to cover most of the sand to stop him digging, and also to provide more biological filtration.

I am thinking of getting a better skimmer, aqua medic or asm or something, to try and pull out all the excess proteins.

i have a cannister filter filled with crushed coral, and use it for anerobic bacteria, it is cleaned once every 3 weeks, should i improve the cleaning and clean it more often, or is that fine.

water changes are weekly at about 10%.

i don't want to sell the fish, as it will be going in a 7 ft soonish.

 

[mojoreef]

It sounds like the digging is releasing nitrates from with in the sandbed. Sleaper gobies do dig, that is kind of the only thing they do, lol. So it might be tough to curb that habit.


MIke

 

[mysis]

IT's a yellow headed sleaper goby, also known as blue cheek sleaper goby. it is really annoying, and i need to solve this issue, do you think more LR will help, or what else can i do?

 

[Casperson]

One thing you might think about is, If there are no nitrates in the tank/sand bed to begin with then the gobi problem would matter. Could be poor skimmng, water flow/circulation, amount your feeding. How deep is your sand bed? and how old is your set-up?

Tom C.

 

[beaker77]

How much live rock do you have?
Do you have any other biological filters besides live rock?
Are you running carbon?
I would think the digging goby would be a good thing, stirring up the sand bed would suspend the detris do be removed by filtration.

 

[mysis]

Oh, tank is i guess 1 and a half months old, i have LR and coral sand, running the cannister which is regulary cleaned, the sandbed is 2 to 3 inches deep, i am not running carbon, upgrading skimmer to either a Prizm or a external berlin classic, i have them two options because unfortunately in Australia skimmers are expensive and ebay or online has not much variety or too expensive. i would really like a coralife or remora or ASM something on those lines but i can't find anywhere to get one under $200 and shipping from america seems to be about $40 US. Anyone have any ideas or know anyone selling in Australia.

 

[trekel]

as long as there is sand in your tank he will filter through it that is what they do its their nature there are more efficient ways to lower nitrate like more live rock and frequent water changes for starters either that or get rid of the fish

 

[mysis]

Yes, i have recently bought more LR, i got about double of what i had before and i am getting more in about 1 weeks time. Also do you think a Prizm would be adequate for skimming my aquarium (40 gallons).

 

[ethanriley]

Remember if your live rock is not properly cured it may raise your nitrate readings initially so don't stop frequent water changes. I say keep the goby he isnt the CAUSE of the nitrate evne though he may be releasing it into the water column this may help you to reduce nitrates faster through your frequent water changes.

 

[ethanriley]

I also went back and read your thread again. I can almost guarentee IMO that the cannister fileter filled with crushed coral is your nitrate nightmare. Like I said this is only my opinion

 

[ethanriley]

take the crushed coral out IMO and run carbon or phosban media cannisters don't make good filters for reefs IMO no matter how often you clean them.

 

[NeuroDoc]

I too have recently noticed the exact same thing. My nano has been running for ~6 weeks. I watched it cycle after I added my live rock, and had all levels (NH4, NO3, NO4) at zero before I added any livestock. I added a couple of ocellaris clowns at the first of March. Still all levels zero. I added a sand sifting Goby on Wednesday of last week. Now my NH4 and NO3 are still at zero, but my nitrates are reading ~20ppm. The only explanation I have is that all the stirring of the sand is preventing anaerobic conditions that would allow the conversion of nitrates to N2.

I have a 24g aquapod. I removed one of the sponge filters from the back and filled the back right compartment with LR rubble. I have a sock of carbon in the compartment with my pump. The carbon is changed every 2 weeks. I rinse the sponge filter every 2-3 days (as I see accumulation of grime).

Any further thoughts would be appreciated (sorry for resurrecting an old thread).