Ultra-High Nutrient Tank - No Scrubber Growth

[RkyRickstr]

you are in the wrong business my friend.. lol

[Floyd R Turbo]

Hey man if I could figure out how...I say I am in the right business!!

[Ace25]

I believe there are a few 'magic' bottles made by Dr. Tim that may help with your problem without having to do a water change. Just an option.

http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/natural-aquarium-cleaner


http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/probiotic-bacteria

[Floyd R Turbo]

I don't think either of those would cause a reduction in N and P, do they?

[tebo]

hi, Floyd

Why not try to vsv is really cheap and it works great, and more importantly do not need large water changes

Particularly attended an aquarium that although I had such high levels, were close to 100ppm NO3 and phosphate out of range of hanna

In conjunction with the ATS and vsv in controlled doses in four months it down to values close to 0

Saludos

[MorganAtlanta]

Tear it down and start new. 40B sump if that is all that will fit, a decent skimmer and new rock and sand. Otherwise, even if you do "figure it out", it will take months and months to get the nitrate down, and who knows how long to get all the phosphate out that has soaked into the rocks. Your client will end up spending a fortune on your time while you fiddle with it.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Well that is indeed the likely reality...

So it's sounding like Muriatic Acid bath for the rocks and a 100% water change. What about the gravel, is that going to be phosphate soaked as well? Probably cheaper to replace that then nuke it.

But, playing Devil's Advocate here...couldn't I just use GFO to suck the P down and then leave that in place while the P leeched out?

Dunno...the fast solution is to tear it down I suppose.

[sabbath]

My .02 It would think that if the ATS it is struggling to kick in with the nutrients TOO high. A bleach/acid bath bath to most of the rocks with a large or adding up to a large WC is in order. Then seed the ATS with a mature screen if you can. I would think that you could siphon the sand and get enough of the problem out. Sand is not cheep and i would hope at this point that the ATS could deal with it.

If is is difficult to make water at this site. Maybe a LFS could deliver it? As I have heard that we have a few in our area that can do this.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I have a 150 GPD RODI, 20x 5g buckets, 2x 44g Brute cans and an active club that I'm sure would be willing to help out - several people with 1000 gallon multi-tank systems with large RODI and SW holding tanks...

I would take out most of the rock to nuke, take out the non-reef safe fish and sell them, then QT the keepers while I gravel vac'd and took all the water out, replace w/fresh mixed SW (I might have to invest in / borrow a couple more Brute cans)...I just need the TIME to do all this now...rats.

[Bilk]

Have you considered the idea that the air quality in a Chinese restaurant is contributing to the heavy bio load and much of that is settling in the tank? I'm thinking there's a good amount of cooking oils that are airborne and may limit the effectiveness of the ATS. A larger skimmer may be necessary.