Nitrates! Is our filtration to little?

[u418936]

Originally posted by cfmx

We have had a nitrate issue ever since we setup our 72 gallon bow front aquarium. The aquarium was bought from someone that had it running for 4 years. So we kept all the water, sand, rocks when we bought & set it up.

I know what's going on here.

I had the same exact problem. When I upgraded my 75g to a 125g and kept the sand, my tank developed a nitrate problem. When I removed the old sand and added new sand, my nitrates went back to zero pretty quickly. If you're unwilling to take your tank apart, I'd bet that siphoning the sand would help a lot.

Your sand is definately the culprit here. If you move a tank, a lot of detritus from your live rock gets stuck in your sand. When you put your old sand back in the tank, you bury a lot of this detritus, and essentially create a nitrate factory.

I've heard that trickle filters are bad, too, so I don't have one. I'd highly recommend getting rid of yours: I have less rock, (probably) more fish, and a bigger tank than you, but I've never had any problems with nitrite or ammonia. All you need is live rock, good current, and a good skimmer.