silver97
Active Member
@Oxylebius thats great to know, don't want to spend money on one if its not worth it.
So I forgot to check my levels yesterday, checked them today and I saw that my nitrates were running pretty high
pH: 7.8
salinity: 1.025-1.026 (right in between)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 40 ppm
They were at 20 last time I checked 2 weeks ago, so something must have happened to get them to spike that much. I am going to be taking some serious steps in the next few weeks to get them down. But I have some quick questions first.
Would adding the fish and urchin have anything to do with it? Granted I know that would add extra waste to the equation, which technically would raise them, but in that short of a time? Keep in mind 3 days since adding them
How often could I do water changes? I know this is the primary way to get rid of them along with controlling how much I feed (which I am also reducing greatly) but I don't want to throw the biological filter out of whack and kill everything by doing them too frequently.
Also a big thing I have been seriously thinking about is upgrading to a sump/fuge (finally) and getting all that comes with it. I have looked at a few different websites and seen the basics of how to build one, although I'm still confused (this is going to sound so stupid) as to how the water is exchanged between the 2 tanks. I get that there is drilling involved in some cases, but drilling into my filled and fully stocked tank is going to be pretty difficult in my opinion.
This one website I was looking at had some pretty good looking kits for one, I don't want it to all be DIY, so this seemed like the next best thing.
http://oceanboxdesigns.com/product/dlux-sump-kit-for-20-gallon-long-aquarium-luxy/
They said the 20 gal long(which that link goes to) is for tanks up to 55 gal, which is perfect for my 40b. Only problem is where my tank is right now I definitely don't have the room for a 20 gallon tank. I do have room for a 10 gallon, which they also have a kit for, but they recommend that for only up to 30 gal. And I also have a few extra 10 gal tanks laying around I could clean out and get ready for a kit conversion. Haven't even looked at skimmers yet, will get there soon enough. Do you guys think it would be fine with a 10 gallon sump/fuge? granted it wouldn't be optimal (possibly) but I bet you could all agree it's better than my canister filter.
Any help on navigating this sump conversion would be appreciated greatly, because I am lost.
So I forgot to check my levels yesterday, checked them today and I saw that my nitrates were running pretty high
pH: 7.8
salinity: 1.025-1.026 (right in between)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 40 ppm
They were at 20 last time I checked 2 weeks ago, so something must have happened to get them to spike that much. I am going to be taking some serious steps in the next few weeks to get them down. But I have some quick questions first.
Would adding the fish and urchin have anything to do with it? Granted I know that would add extra waste to the equation, which technically would raise them, but in that short of a time? Keep in mind 3 days since adding them
How often could I do water changes? I know this is the primary way to get rid of them along with controlling how much I feed (which I am also reducing greatly) but I don't want to throw the biological filter out of whack and kill everything by doing them too frequently.
Also a big thing I have been seriously thinking about is upgrading to a sump/fuge (finally) and getting all that comes with it. I have looked at a few different websites and seen the basics of how to build one, although I'm still confused (this is going to sound so stupid) as to how the water is exchanged between the 2 tanks. I get that there is drilling involved in some cases, but drilling into my filled and fully stocked tank is going to be pretty difficult in my opinion.
This one website I was looking at had some pretty good looking kits for one, I don't want it to all be DIY, so this seemed like the next best thing.
http://oceanboxdesigns.com/product/dlux-sump-kit-for-20-gallon-long-aquarium-luxy/
They said the 20 gal long(which that link goes to) is for tanks up to 55 gal, which is perfect for my 40b. Only problem is where my tank is right now I definitely don't have the room for a 20 gallon tank. I do have room for a 10 gallon, which they also have a kit for, but they recommend that for only up to 30 gal. And I also have a few extra 10 gal tanks laying around I could clean out and get ready for a kit conversion. Haven't even looked at skimmers yet, will get there soon enough. Do you guys think it would be fine with a 10 gallon sump/fuge? granted it wouldn't be optimal (possibly) but I bet you could all agree it's better than my canister filter.
Any help on navigating this sump conversion would be appreciated greatly, because I am lost.