nano sponge

[homertaz]

hi,


i have a 12 gallon nano reef tank. i do my weekly 2 gallon water changes. i use r/o water and tropic marin salt. my tank is over 1 year old. i also use a gravel vac. i am wanderind if the black sponge in the first chamber which i rinse it out weekly could be causeing the high nitrates/ my nitrates are at 40. i have only 3 fish. they are small fish.



thank you,


john

 

[drty811]

its definitly a great possibility. i would scrap it and see if our nitrates go away

 

[reefman23]

When you say you are using a gravel vac, are you disturbing the sand bed with it?

How often do you rinse the sponges> Like Erik said, it is a very good possibilty.

Jesse

 

[skinson]

I have a 12 gallon nano, 15 kilo's live rock, one power head for added water movement,1 large mushroom. 1 very large colt coral ( I keep pruning it and selling it bits back to the lfs!) 1 medium size multi button polyp rock with loads of mermaids fan on it. 1 feather duster, 1 unidentified red staghorn algae!!, 1 large polyp, 6 turbo's, 4 hermits, 1 fire Gobi, 1 damsel, 1 clown.
My nitrates never go above 2.5 and everything else is very very near zero. I do a 1 gallon change weekly and clean the pump filter sponge about once a month. The tank is like a garden things grow so quick in there. There are a plethora of little corals growing all over the live rock. I think you can clean tanks to much to often.
P.S. the tanks been running for about 5 months.
Dave

 

[Braxis]

Are you using carbon or any other chemical media? If so you might want to change it or add some that would help as well and the sponge would more than likely the source.