substrate in marine and nitrate

Question
i m an Indian, i had started marine aquarium after my six year fresh water tank 18 months ago.dimention are 6x1.5x2 foot having red sea argonite reef base as substrate , 100 kg live rock. water parameters are NH4 -0, NO2 - 0, NO3 - 100, 1.024 SG.i had no sump, filter -  eheim 2080, having some carrot anemones, hermit crabs, carrot anemones, percula clown, clown wrass, bird wrass, cleaner wrass, blue damshell, tomato clown,hawkfish, sailfin tang. my problem is due to non availability of enough accessories i m unable to hold my aquarium in good condition.my tank is always giving bad smell, green spots all over front glass, substrate is green allover. my dealer provided me some corals such as leather finger, green closed brain coral, zoanith polyp, having metal halogen light but all corals dies everytime, irregulary change 10 % water weekly, installed 2 venturi skimmer and run carbon continously.base is of 4'' red sea argonite reef base with live rock.Now i wanted to use live sand as substrate to develop anaerobic bacteria.sir my question is how to set the live sand .is it possible to set sand base, only near front glass and rest of argonite reef base as it is not possible to disturb live rock structure and other inhabitants.Please help me with ur valuable advice in details thanks  

Answer
Hello Jasvinder,

Thanks for writing, I am sure it is difficult to maintain an aquarium when you can not get supplies and equipment easily.  this is a challenge on top of a challenge.

The NO-3, is Nitrate.  This is the big issue with wanting to keep corals.  I mean, you can not have Nitrates=100 for corals.  Your success will increase as the nitrates reach ZERO,

There are many things that affect this nitrate removal process.  Some may have to do with the 'eheim' filter. Some may have to do with the substrate you choose.

(QUICK NOTE:  I am from the US, and i have heard that EUROPE and elsewhere in the world, love and use the substrate you chose. So, i will have to defer to my experience as the only thing i can suggest)

And with that substrate experience being limited to sand, i will have to recommend that you replace the substrate with sand, or at least remove the aragonite that you have.

I believe this to be the big issue you can be having, as it will trap detritus, (fish waste) and not digest/convert it.

How you do this will be the challenge. I would get large storage containers and fill them with saltwater and then relocate everything, fish and rock and critters to these containers.

Place heaters and powerheads in the containers to keep the water flowing and oxygenated.

Then suck, vacuum the substrate out, and place the sand back into the tank.

And fill it back up with mostly new water, put the rocks back in, and some old tank water.

(I would 'swish' the rocks around in the old tank water to get detritus off, and you have a soft bristle brush, you can brush off any algae at this time.

I would let the sand settle overnight before replacing the fish.

And then work on getting the nitrates down.


WARNING, you will experience a new tank cycle after doing this, so be prepared, just like setting up the tank the first time.


I would also recommend a few other things from the info you included.

the salinity, SG, is best at 1.026   This is an average of the salt water levels throughout the oceans,  But if you know where most of your fish and corals come from, you can target / try to achieve that SG.

I would also recommend getting a sump/refugium.  This will be better at filtering and reducing the nitrates.

If you don't do that right away, I would pay more attention to the EHEIM filter.  remove the filter pads, and the beads, and maybe break up a small rock with a hammer and place the rubble into the filter.

I would rinse the pads every two weeks, or if you have rock rubble, then rinse the rocks once a month, by just dipping them into old salt water one time quickly to get the loose stuff off.


All these things will help reduce the nitrates, what you can do will help your efforts.


good luck, let me know if you have questions regarding anything discussed here, and please let me know how you do.




Mr. Bill