A 100% waterchange -would that help?

[Katze]

Hello everyone,

After trying multiple ways of getting nitrates under control in my 100 gallon I have come to the conclusion to do a (nearly) 100% waterchange though I'm not sure whether that would help, and would the nitrates simply go back up in a couple of weeks.

Livestock:
Fire goby
Longnose butterflyfish
Sailfin molly
Squarespot anthias
(only 1 from each)
Corals:
Zoas -they look well but they don't grow
Mushrooms -exactly the same
LPS would wither away in just about 2 months or so

Aquascape:

About 30 kg of live rock
Bare bottom (sand was removed to decrease detritus, which did not help nor did it worsen anything, I mean there is no detritus on the bottom but the NO3 says otherwise)

Filtration:
Skimmer: Bubble Magus rated for 500l (135g)
Filter sock
Refugium -the algae simply won't grow, it never did I use a power head to make it tumble and a good quality freshwater light to give it energy
Some biological media for bacteria

Routine:

Refill with RODI water less than 1l a day, 0 TDS
Feeding the fishies 1x/day, no food falls to the bottom, or if it does the wavemakers take care of it
Cleaning the skimmer cup 1x/week
Cleaning the filter sock 3-4x/week
Testing NO3 and PO4 1x/week

Parameters:
NO3: 25-50 (salifert)
PO4: 0,08 (Hanna)
Salinity: 1025

Current algae in DT: some cyano but not much, I usually scrub it off with a soft brush

I think I mentioned everything, feel free to ask questions!
I'm longing to keep more interesting corals, but it never was succesful, I believe it's due to the nitrates...

Have a nice day/evening!

 

[rtparty]

“High” nitrate is not killing coral or slowing growth

Something else is at play. Light, flow, pathogen(s), chemistry (trace elements)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do we know what corals high nitrate kill?

I do not have any sort of list of more sensitive corals, or what levels might cause deaths.

 

[PotatoPig]

I’m not certain from your other post - are you doing regular water changes?

Also, are you doing basic calcium and alk tests?

 

[Katze]

I’m not certain from your other post - are you doing regular water changes?

Also, are you doing basic calcium and alk tests?

Rarely, but they are always spot on
And no waterchanges

 

[PotatoPig]

Rarely, but they are always spot on
And no waterchanges

If you’re not doing water changes and aren’t dosing micronutrients then a possibility here is micronutrients have been depleted by other biological processes.

This comes from my own experience where I had great “main” parameters - calcium, alk, nitrates, phosphates and magnesium so didn’t bother with water changes. But then a bunch of corals that had previously thrived were starting to suffer. Weirdly my zoas were hardest hit and I lost a few previously successful colonies.

Started doing ~5% water changes each week and saw a rapid and dramatic improvement.

 

[Dan_P]

Now that you mention it, yes ! My chaeto is mildly covered by the cyano.
I forgot to mention that the system turned 1 year old this month, so it is still rather young.
By slow coral growth I mean very slow for example: my rhodactis has been in the tank since september yet no new heads have grown, another example is my zoa frag I have had it since july and only 2 new heads formed.

i have a rhodactis colony that sat for years in my low light system and then it started detaching from the rock and increasing in numbers. I don’t have a clue why it decided to reproduce, Pulsating Xenia colony sat for months then started covering the entire aquarium. This seemed to coincide with dosing CheatoGro (trace elements).

 

[rtparty]

Rarely, but they are always spot on
And no waterchanges

Start with 10% weekly water changes and watch things. I bet things turn around pretty quick

 

[Katze]

Start with 10% weekly water changes and watch things. I bet things turn around pretty quick

Okay, hopefully things turn around swiftly, I may also dose some trace elements until the salt arrives

 

[Katze]

I do not have any sort of list of more sensitive corals, or what levels might cause deaths.

Hi!

So my salt arrived earlier this week (AF Reef Salt+), which should have elevated trace elements.
Since waterchanges would take long to show results (I'd think they'd rather keep things stable than increase anything), I could try Aquaforest's Micro E to increase the elements, contains: Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Cu and Fe.
What would you say?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi!

So my salt arrived earlier this week (AF Reef Salt+), which should have elevated trace elements.
Since waterchanges would take long to show results (I'd think they'd rather keep things stable than increase anything), I could try Aquaforest's Micro E to increase the elements, contains: Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Cu and Fe.
What would you say?

I think that's a fine experiment to try. :)

 

[rishma]

Hi!

So my salt arrived earlier this week (AF Reef Salt+), which should have elevated trace elements.
Since waterchanges would take long to show results (I'd think they'd rather keep things stable than increase anything), I could try Aquaforest's Micro E to increase the elements, contains: Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Cu and Fe.
What would you say?

I’d say start with water changes and observe. Changing multiple things at once tends to leave me wondering what helped (or didn’t).

Nothing wrong with dosing of course, but water changes are my favorite place to start. They tend be simple and effective even if I don’t really know what the problem is.

Edit…hoping you already decided against a 100% water change. If I really wanted to do a big change, I’d do 5 20% changes back to back over a couple weeks. That would change about 2/3 of the water and I think not upset anything.

 

[Katze]

I think that's a fine experiment to try. :)

Well, my LFS doesn't have AF on stock but they do have a mildly cheaper (like 10x the volume with nearly the same dose) supplement called Coral Power Trace B which contains everything the aquaforest has except vanadium. Would leaving vanadium out be a severe mistake?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

While you could do a 100 percent water change, if you don't have bare bottom, you can disturb a lot of the substrate and would need to slowly clean this first.

However, I think for your situation as others have said, start with just 10 percent weekly. Then after a couple months see how things look. Then you can dose trace elements separate. But you will need to test.

Your nitrates currently are not an issue and can be cleared up with even small water changes like these over time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Well, my LFS doesn't have AF on stock but they do have a mildly cheaper (like 10x the volume with nearly the same dose) supplement called Coral Power Trace B which contains everything the aquaforest has except vanadium. Would leaving vanadium out be a severe mistake?

I have not heard of that brand, and I do not recall seeing a trace elements supplement that actually listed the chemical forms of ions present, but I have no reason to think that one is a problem. Vanadium is useful, but perhaps not as needed as some (iron, manganese).

 

[Katze]

Hi!
I've got an update:
I started dosing the coral essentials metal complex I mentioned, some zoas started to open up better (I have no idea whether it's due to the metals, but I haven't really done anything else so...) however others are unchanged same with my chaeto and a few discosomas. I'm thinking about adding iodine to the mix but I don't want to over complicate things.
I think I'll buy something containing iodine (like AF iodum) and continue to dose the mentioned metals

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi!
I've got an update:
I started dosing the coral essentials metal complex I mentioned, some zoas started to open up better (I have no idea whether it's due to the metals, but I haven't really done anything else so...) however others are unchanged same with my chaeto and a few discosomas. I'm thinking about adding iodine to the mix but I don't want to over complicate things.
I think I'll buy something containing iodine (like AF iodum) and continue to dose the mentioned metals

THanks for the update! Let us know if dosing iodine also seems to have an effect. :)

 

[Katze]

I got my AF iodum !
Unfortunately I'll be away for a week, so I can't precisely monitor anything, but I'll ask someone to feed and do the dosing. So a week or two later I could do an update

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I got my AF iodum !
Unfortunately I'll be away for a week, so I can't precisely monitor anything, but I'll ask someone to feed and do the dosing. So a week or two later I could do an update

OK, looking forward to it!

 

[Katze]

I have interesting news!
One of my zoa frags has been having very good polyp extension recently, same goes for my rhodactis.
But my other zoa frag and discosomas haven't changed
Atleast the chaeto grew !
I think the iodine helped so far

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have interesting news!
One of my zoa frags has been having very good polyp extension recently, same goes for my rhodactis.
But my other zoa frag and discosomas haven't changed
Atleast the chaeto grew !
I think the iodine helped so far

Thanks for the update!

So the chaeto grew faster? That’s a different result than I got, :)