Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Rosseau - 20G Tank Thread ... Pictures, Pictures...

Rosseau · 09/11/2008, 08:14 AM

I had a nitrate peak last week (15ppm max) and I attribute it to the feeding of the clowns.

Fortunately they are eating well - at least the female is... The male is much more timid. The Female eats right out of the pipette I'm using.

They have been eating frozen mysis shrimp. The food is good however the 'ice' it comes in contains small particles of food which nothing is able to eat... this enters the water and pollutes the system. I'm now using a simple strainer to isolate just the mysis... It's a little more work, however for now it is necessary. Unfortunately, some nutrients must be washed away from the actual mysis which does not reach the clowns.

As a result of the nitrate spike I've had a lot of algae on the glass, rocks and even some hair algae popping up.

Solutions:
I finally found some Chaeto (none was available locally).
Kept the skimmer going, DIY'ed a skimmer in no-time with a MJ1200, a bottle and a bit of plumbing... have done many water changes and have outfitted my pumps with filter floss.

The problem went away overnight after the finer filter media was introduced. Nitrates went to 0 within a day of the peak (this I attribute to the chaeto).

09/11/2008, 08:14 AM	#16
Rosseau Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Kingston, Ontario Posts: 2,049	I had a nitrate peak last week (15ppm max) and I attribute it to the feeding of the clowns. Fortunately they are eating well - at least the female is... The male is much more timid. The Female eats right out of the pipette I'm using. They have been eating frozen mysis shrimp. The food is good however the 'ice' it comes in contains small particles of food which nothing is able to eat... this enters the water and pollutes the system. I'm now using a simple strainer to isolate just the mysis... It's a little more work, however for now it is necessary. Unfortunately, some nutrients must be washed away from the actual mysis which does not reach the clowns. As a result of the nitrate spike I've had a lot of algae on the glass, rocks and even some hair algae popping up. Solutions: I finally found some Chaeto (none was available locally). Kept the skimmer going, DIY'ed a skimmer in no-time with a MJ1200, a bottle and a bit of plumbing... have done many water changes and have outfitted my pumps with filter floss. The problem went away overnight after the finer filter media was introduced. Nitrates went to 0 within a day of the peak (this I attribute to the chaeto). __________________ Still fighting entropy.