i need help please

[S.YERGEAU]

ok ther the problaime

first this is my set up

77gal whit 33 gal sump (whit spagatie alge)
80 p of live rock the thank is bare buton
2x seio 820 and 1 maxi jet 1200
skimer coralife 3004 on the main thank and rs 521 in the sump
250 w heater in the thank and 100w in the sump
phostban reactor on a maxi jet 400

the thank is runing for 1 yers
whater change ar donne 1 a monts 20% of the volume

live stock is i hypo tang small 1 yellow tang small 1 salfin tang smal 1 drawf angel key hold and 2 nemo

coral :much /zoo/ polyp /montipora cap/ acoropa /colt/zenia

clean up crue 10 big hermit crabs 10 snail 1 long spin urchin
cleaner shrimp emeral crab

the big problaime is nitrate i cant get it down it is now at 40ppm
and can go up to 100ppm

what do i do rong

[Dubbin1]

Weekly 10% water changes and some macro in the sump should help get it under control.

[BurntOutReefer]

1) Not enough Liverock to be effective as your main filter...77G with only 80 lbs....
2) Too much bioload for said filter (even with a skimmer)....decide on:
1)more rock, a mechnical filter to help, or, get rid of some of those tangs......because once they get bigger, you are headed for trouble.....
just my 2cents......(and watch out for the Tang Police).....

[S.YERGEAU]

so you are saing that 6 fish is to mutch for a 77g thank and that the fact that i have 2 skimer on the thank is not good

to add a mecanical filter ok i am fine whit that what do i put in the filter i have a spare fluval 404 that i dont use

[torque66]

I would suggest a refugium with a deep sand bed and macro algae. A decent sized fuge would wipe out your nitrates.

[mg426]

Refugium DSB is the way to go

[S.YERGEAU]

ok so a refugium and more algae will a 50g whit 6 inch of sand be ok
what type of algae do you recomande and how do i set up this refugium

my thank is in the living room and the sump is in my lundry room i do have somme space do i put the fuge on top of the sump or next to it

[torque66]

A 50 gal. would be awesome. You could put all kinds of stuff in there. I have a 30 gal. with chaetomorpha and some shaving brushes in it. I pump water from the drain side of the sump and let it gravity drain back into the sump at the return pump

[S.YERGEAU]

thanks

i will work on that this week end

for the pum to the fuge will a maxi jet 400 be ok or do i need more power

[BLUE OASIS]

We have a 90 gal with 135lbs of LR & 100lbs of LS and we do a 20 gal water change every Saturday as well as hand feed all our coral by hand. We never had problems with Ammonia, Nitrates or Nitrites since we do a weekly water change.

What we have to keep an eye on is our Calcium & KH as we are adding additives in twice a week to keep it in the proper range.

O yea, it takes us 2 hours every Saturday to do the above, but we love working on the tank.

N & G

[torque66]

Most people will tell you to keep low flow through the fuge but I personally like to keep things moving through there. I have a maxi jet 900 for my 30 and it works well for me. I did have it low flow originally but I dont think that works very well for nutrient export. Just my .02

[S.YERGEAU]

every.02 cent of info is good info

ok so this is what i think that i will do

i will conect the sump to the fuge and att the water level of the sump this will make the water go down in the fuge by gravity in the fuge i will put a 6 inch dsb and the return pompe monted on a L shape plexi glasse shelf so that the sand wont get in the pompe

in the fuge i will have 50lb of live rock and the dsb i will keep in sump the macro algae

[jimbo045]

Macros will lower the Nitrates, they use it as their food source. And water change too.

[torque66]

I would suggest keep the macro algae in the fuge otherwise you will have to light the sump as well as the fuge. Also pods like to hang around in the macro......

[20 20]

Fuge with macro algae is a great idea. Also, are you using tap water, or RO/DI water for your water changes?

[S.YERGEAU]

i do have and RO-DI whit an automatic top off system and a tds in line reading are 73ppm at the entry and 0.00ppm at the exit

i will do a test on the tap water to see what the reading are but i do belive that it will be fine

what do you guys think about mirical mud will that help maby i can use somme in the sump as well??????

[torque66]

I would think you will want to reserve your sump space for equipment like the skimmer, heater, fuge pump if you go that route, etc.....and also stuff like carbon or phosphate remover if you decide to use that at some point.

[S.YERGEAU]

man it was somme hard this week end

i went shoping for my fuge and hardware sand and somme live rock thank god my wife did not see the bill LOL

ther was a Sohal tang that i wnanted and it was chep 129.00 wow and he was on fier
man it was so hard to not to get it but i was strong and said no no no dont do it
i see in my futur a 180g tank coming my way grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr