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Bio Pellets / Avast Swabbe

mray2660

mray2660

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Is any one using Bio Pellets to reduce Nitrates? We have been struggling to lower nitrates to no avail on our 120g with 50 g sump. The system is now 8 months old with rockwork and other items transfered from our smaller tanks. Our corals seem to be doing okay. We have hair algae problem that we are still battling. From time to time I physical remove the it to try to keep in control. Our nitrate levels average 20-80 ppm using red sea kit during a single week. Usually do a 30g water change weekly (15-20%). After water change nitrates are around 20 and they slowly creep up during the week and are usually around 60-80 ppm at the time of water change. We are watching the feeding very closely.

Should we look at larger skimmer for our system? We have ASM G2 (rated for 200g tank) that we got with the tank and it produces a large amount of sweet smelling material that currently I am cleaning the cup every 3rd day. Really would like to reduce this maintenance chore to at least 1 time per week. Is any one using the Avast Swabbe on their skimmer with their skim mate locker? On paper it looks like it will do the job just don't know how reliable they are.

Mike
 
It sounds like you may be feeding too much or have a large bio load.
How many fish are in the system?
Do you run carbon or phosphate remover?
Do you have a fuge with cheto or other macro?
 
JAR said:
It sounds like you may be feeding too much or have a large bio load.
How many fish are in the system?
Do you run carbon or phosphate remover?
Do you have a fuge with cheto or other macro?
Click to expand...

Only have 8 fishes 3 chromis, small blue damsel, 2 clowns, blue tang and sailfin tang, yes run both carbon and phosphate (GFO), phosphates on are typically 0.1-.2 ppm using hanna checker. We have fuge with macro that is grow well. Very carefull on feeding typically only enough food the fish consume in less than 1 minute.
 
JAR said:
Are the fish fat and healthy?
Are you harvesting much out of the fuge?
Are you feeding corals?
Click to expand...

Fish look good I would not say they are fat but they are healthy. We reduced feeding of corals one time per week about 3 months ago. Little to no harvesting out of the fuge. Trimmed little right before the swap a month ago.

Mike
 
You could increase the size and frequency of your water changes.
How confident are you of your nitrate test kit and technique?

Feed your fish a small amount several times per day... like snacks
The solution to polution is dilution
good luck
 
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