Similar experience buying a used system over 6 years ago. Previous owner only had 2 very small powerheads going so very low flow. Took years to get the hair algae to the point where it's now bearable and controllable with regular maintenance. I'd say it's quite possible that there's a good amount of gunk in your sand bed that is contributing to the nitrate issue. What size is your tank & how much sand is in there? Something that may help is to ensure you vacuum down into the sand bed at each water change, not all of it at once, but a section at a time. This will help remove some of the trapped detritus down there, if that's an issue. Pulling all the sand & rock at once is definitely not recommended. You need to be patient & soldier on. Perhaps start your new tank with some fresh LR & sand, then gradually transfer sand, rock & livestock from the current system. Oh yeah, although you may not have sps that need high flow at the moment, increasing flow will help a great deal in transporting nutrients by keeping things stirred up. So if you can add a powerhead or two, that might not be a bad idea.
Last edited by mike31154; 12-28-2013 at 03:03 PM.
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