I don't know what to do.

[Jaydog]

I keep the salinity between 1.021 and 1.023. I use a refractometer, not one of those plastice things. My Ph is between 8.2 and 8.4. I can keep snails, I just chose not to. They stink when they die and always cause a spike. I didn't really see what good they do anyway. I know there are several things. I just didn't see the pros out-weighing the cons.

The problem with the sump is that I can't get the water to balance out. My overflow is a HOB that has two 1 inch lines going into one 1 inch line. This drains into the sump. I use a Sedra 9000 pumping back via a 3/4 inch return line. Either the pump moves water too fast for the drain, or the drain moves too fast for the pump. I have ball valves on both sides, I just can't find the happy medium. My cheato is growing great. I have had it in the refugium for aboujt two weeks and I can already see it working. It just cant keep up with my high nitrates. The Nirtates is the whole reason I built the sump/fuge. I believe it was ScubaDrew said that I need to find the source of my Nitrates. I wish he would have given me an idea how. He recomended looking to see if something was rotting and I found nothing. I would like to get a better cleaning crew, but what do I get? I know that skunk cleaner shrimp are good to have, but I didn't want to add anything to the tank until I solve my Nitrate problem.

Any advice on what to get. Thanks

[Jaydog]

Just to give an update. I just tested my tank and my ammonia is back to 0ppm, Nitrite is at 0ppm, and Nitrate is now at 0ppm also. I'm not sure how this happened. Act of God maybe? I didn't change any of the water, the only things running was a heater, skimmer, and a Koralia 4 power head. I guess this makes me feel a little better about what I'm doing here. That tells me that all the bacteria are doing a pretty good job, right?

Heck I don't know?

So when I'm ready, does anyone have any sugestions on a cleaning crew?
Thanks!