Stocking question

[convictblenny]

I have a 55 gallon tank.

Only filtration is !/3 tank well established live rock,1 inch live sand, cpr backpack skimmer with plastic curlyques as media. I use a rio 1100 380gph powerhead for circulation.

I always have nitrate problem, no other real issues that are a constant.

1 small puple queen anthia (all fins and tail missing) still does great.
1 tomato clown
1 blue hippo tang
1 yellow tang
1 or two convict blenny (they are always under the sand or rocks)
1 choco chip star
1 black brittle star
1 green sea star
1 sand sifting star
4 peppermint shrimp
several blue and red hermits
assorted snails cerith and astro
lots of red and blue bristle worms

Is my tank too full of stuff? I thought a full tank would have amonia problems. Does the nitrate issue mean my filtartion is adequate?

 

[mmkeeper]

Welcome to RF. How old is the is tank? What are you water parameters? one place to start with removing nitrates is the bio-bale in your cpr skimmer.

 

[Meche]

a new tank will have ammonia problems, a full tank will have nitrate problems (what ammonia breaks down to).

I would get rid of the "plastic curlyques" in 3-4 installments.

Also, weekly water changes should be in your schedule.

P.S. prepair yourself for some black-lash about putting a blue tang in a 55gal.

edit: Welcome to RF!

 

[returnofsid]

the Blue Tang in a 55 isn't really as bad of a deal as the Blue Tang AND a Yellow Tang in a 55. Those 2 fish alone are going to create too much of a bioload for that size of tank. I agree with the above....get rid of the bio-bale in the CPR. That's a Nitrate Factory!! I'd also look at increasing your flow. 380 gph isn't really enough, especially for a Blue Tang. They need oxygen saturation and the more flow you have, the more oxygen. Aim for 10X your tank volume per hour....at a minimum. So you're looking at 500-600 gph minimum. Add a couple more powerheads such as Maxijet 1200s. They each do just under 300 gph and are small and inexpensive. Just one would almost double your flow rate.

 

[convictblenny]

Other than putting orca the blue tang in a 55, (she seems to love it), is this a sustainable load for this tank? It is about two years old since the rock cured, and the rock is half actual liverock with half tufa, that has become live. I planned on taking the filter media out of the bak pak. will this make it less efficient? why do they put it in there if everyone takes it out?

 

[convictblenny]

I just ordered a zoomed powersweep 228 for wave creation and water movement. I will leave the air attachment on for oxegenation. I had no idea the blue tang was such an issue, I have had the tangs for like three years, they used to be in a 20 gallon tank.

 

[convictblenny]

Why take the biobale out in phases? what happens if I just take it all out once?

 

[Meche]

Why take the biobale out in phases? what happens if I just take it all out once?

Bacteria lives in there. Taking it all out at once would cut your tank's ability to break down the ammonia in half (just a figure for arguments sake). You would have to wait till the bacteria that lives in the LR multiplies to support the same ammount of bio-load. This would be like when you first set up your tank, only not quite as long.

You want the bacteria in the live rock so that it converts some of the nitrate into nitrogen, as opposed to only nitrate.

edit: I just realized its only in a CPR backpack. So there probably isn't much in there. Maybe do it half and half?

 

[convictblenny]

I took out half the media in my skimmer, gonna do a five gallon water change tomorrow, when should I take out the other half? A day? A week? how long for the bacteria to increase populate the rock? can I just pull it all out and throw in some cycle?

By the way, when I decided to go without my cascade cannister filter last month, I just pulled it out. Did I probably amonia spike my tank?

 

[Krish]

I took out half the media in my skimmer, gonna do a five gallon water change tomorrow, when should I take out the other half? A day? A week? how long for the bacteria to increase populate the rock? can I just pull it all out and throw in some cycle?

IMO, you can take out the other half once you aren't reading any ammonia or nitrite. If you are, then that means pulling out the first half of the bio-media had some impact on your nitrifying bacterial colonies and so you'd need to wait it out a bit until the multiply back up again. However, the fact that that skimmer doesn't hold much bio-media at all anyways, I figure you should easily be able to remove it all one shot, but test now to be safe. As for how long it takes for the bacteria to populate the rock, it shouldn't take any time at all. Bacteria is already in your rock and will multiply real quickly (if there are any traces of ammonia or nitrite present which I doubt) and also, I wouldn't add any chemicals like "cycle" to the tank to aid things. Just allow the tank to run it's course on it's own as it will build up the right amount of bacteria it needs to support your bio-load. Just my 2 cents...Good luck