So I have caused coral bed. When u woukd do water changes I would siphon it and cause it to be stirred up.
Would you remove the crushed coral or let it be and just stick to water changes and hope nitrates coke down.
I’m not sure I understand, you have high nitrates, got that much, not sure what coral bed is? Why did they spike? Are you using rodi? What’s your tds of your rodi? How much water are you changing? How often? How much do you feed?
If it were me, I’d replace the crushed coral with something like carib sea’s special grade and keep it under an inch in depth for a SSB. I would also clean it with a gravel vac during each WC. If you’re going for a DSB, I’d suggest using a sugar sized oolite that is at least 4" deep, and don’t touch it. In this case, I’d get both the live sand activator, and the reef worm diversity pack from someone like Indo Pacific Sea Farms.
If going with the SSB, I would get the dry sand, and add the live sand activator from IPSF.
Crushed coral bed. My rodi filter are brand new etc and I had a bad habit of just stirring it up and using gravel vacuum causing stuff to get trapped.
Last night I used a gravel vacuum and put end into filter sock and did about a 20 min cleaning of just the coral and it was unbelievable how that sock looked at the end of the process. Plan to do again this morning and then do a 20-25% water change.
This is 1 of those things that splits hairs. Some people(including myself) don’t ever touch the bottom of the tank, that’s what snails,stars,hermits, and all the other life in the substrate are for. I believe this is the reason why. The problem your having now.
However if your using the wrong substrate most of tthose creatures can’t help if they can’t get under the gravel. So that could be another problem.
I agree , we’ll I cleaned it good and did water change and cleaned sump and pumps. So for now I’m gonna see how it is and refuse to touch the bed during changes. If it gets bad then I guess I’ll either clean it like I did every week or try to remove it all
If you don’t clean bottom how does the fish waste etc not cause issues?
[quote=“kcbigdogg3, post:7, topic:8245”]
If you don’t clean bottom how does the fish waste etc not cause issues?[/quote]
It causes an issue if you don’t have anyway to remove it ie. Snails,hermits,bristle worms and all that stuff that naturally appears there. Also not having enough flow in the tank and having dead spots for poop to sit and collect and rot.
I have snails and few Hermits but they might be too small. I think I have enough flow. But might need something better to actually get in there and clean up better
1-2 per gallon, my theory is if you want a clean tank you need a good janitor! What do you have for substrate? Male sure you get snails that will keep sand bed clean like nassusarus(not spelled right) but if gravel is too big they can’t burrow in.
When I bought tank I just got what they told me to get. Which was crushed coral. Obviously not the best choice. Is was probably more profit for them to sell me that.
Its all some sort of crushed coral, just diff brands and sizes.
Pretty sure it was aragonite crushed coral. May try the sugar dosing to build up bacteria
Ok so did your nitrates spike after you vaccumed your gravel? If so stop doing that and just do a few small wc and it should be fine.
after doing two full cleanings of the sand bed and sugar dosing the levels have dropped to 20ppm . also removed 1/5th of the crushed coral .
Why are you removing the coral?
Eventually want to switch to sand. And it was pretty nasty from the build up. Much better now
Becarful with sand. I had sand b4 and hated it untill I took it all out. If you have any significant flow it will blow around. And make a mess. Just be aware of what you could expect. Thats why I stick with the small araganite. It doesnt blow around and is fine enough for hermits,snails, stars to keep it clean and I don’t ever touch it.
Got ya. Aragonite reef sand correct?
Its not sand, it’s bigger then sand