Am I over feeding?

[ChaseB143]

I’ve been struggling with nitrates recently, I just got phosphates down with a reactor. My nitrates have dropped down to about 40 ppm, but I can’t get them lower. I’m only doing water changes, I’ve used chemicals before and it was a disaster. I have a total of 112 gallons. In it, I have two clowns that probably are full grown, a 3/3.5 inch yellow tang, a coral beauty, sixline wrasse, Banggai cardinal, diamond goby, engineer goby(small, probably 3in.). I think everything except the engineer goby and the tang is full grown. I feed a cube of frozen Mysis every day, and nori on Monday and Thursday.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

You might be overfeeding a little, but I don't think so. It kind of depends on the size of the cube. I have seen 3 or 4 different size cubes of frozen mysis.

If both PO4 and NO3 were high, then using a reactor for the PO4 is going to limit the amount of NO3 that can be consumed by bacteria, coral, and algae. What were your NO3 and PO4 before you started using the reactor? Is this a FOWLR tank or a reef? Mixed, LPS, or SPS?

We can give you better advice with more info on your tank.

 

[doodledreads]

Why don't you try carbon dosing and add some bacteria? I use biodigest bi weekly and dose about 4ml Nopox each day to my nano. I also recently installed an ATS but I was able maintain Nitrates at about 10-20 with just carbon dosing. Make sure you wet skim.

As an added benefits of carbon dosing, you will notice various sponges growing, filter feeders flourishing. Downsides, you might have to dial it in slow or you will see proliferation of bacteria. I had to deal with white slime couple times when I was dosing too much and it usually fixed itself when I dialed down the carbon source. Good Luck!!

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Why don't you try carbon dosing and add some bacteria? I use biodigest bi weekly and dose about 4ml Nopox each day to my nano. I also recently installed an ATS but I was able maintain Nitrates at about 10-20 with just carbon dosing. Make sure you wet skim.

As an added benefits of carbon dosing, you will notice various sponges growing, filter feeders flourishing. Downsides, you might have to dial it in slow or you will see proliferation of bacteria. I had to deal with white slime couple times when I was dosing too much and it usually fixed itself when I dialed down the carbon source. Good Luck!!

The issue he may have with carbon dosing is that it feeds bacteria that consume the NO3. But, that same bacteria also consumes PO4, though not as much. If he is using a PO4 reactor and now has low PO4, it will limit the bacteria population and thereby limit the amount of NO3 it can consume.

 

[SPR1968]

I don’t think your over feeding particularly, but you need to have methods in place for nutrient export

The simplest solution to bring nitrate down is a series of water changes but you need to make sure the water you are using is 0 TDS RODI to make the new saltwater. Then do a series of 20% changes and that will bring nitrates down. 10% is better if you have corals etc so the parameters aren’t affected as much.

The other options include increased levels of biological filtration such as adding Seachem Matrix , De Nitrate, Marine Pure etc etc, and then their is carbon dosing such as Nopox which has already been mentioned Phosphate should be very low anyway (0.03ppm) so maybe give it a try. Just follow the instructions carefully and maybe start at 50% recommended dose and increase slowly.

You have to balance nutrient import with export and have enough systems in place to keep the levels down (I know!) and once set up it all works with very little intervention from you.

I use most of these methods combined as I have a massive bioload!

 

[ChaseB143]

You might be overfeeding a little, but I don't think so. It kind of depends on the size of the cube. I have seen 3 or 4 different size cubes of frozen mysis.

If both PO4 and NO3 were high, then using a reactor for the PO4 is going to limit the amount of NO3 that can be consumed by bacteria, coral, and algae. What were your NO3 and PO4 before you started using the reactor? Is this a FOWLR tank or a reef? Mixed, LPS, or SPS?

We can give you better advice with more info on your tank.

My nitrates had been around 100ppm( I had definitely been over feeding at that point, and I had a couple fish “disappear”), and I don’t remember where I wrote my phosphates down at, but I’m pretty sure they were pushing .3. After I started using GFO in the reactor, they fell to .02, but are now back up to .07. It’s a mixed reef.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

My nitrates had been around 100ppm( I had definitely been over feeding at that point, and I had a couple fish “disappear”), and I don’t remember where I wrote my phosphates down at, but I’m pretty sure they were pushing .3. After I started using GFO in the reactor, they fell to .02, but are now back up to .07. It’s a mixed reef.

Ok. I would follow @SPR1968's advice and do a series of water changes. I would also recommend taking the PO4 reactor off line while doing these changes to avoid zeroing out your PO4.

With a PO4 reading of 0.07, any NO3 reading between 5-10 ppm would be fine. If you got your NO3 down to 15, I might pause there for a while and see how things react. I would also recommend a PO4 reading of 0.05 - 0.1. Try to let you tank stabilize once you get in the above range and watch it for a while. You may get a few swings, but as long as everything looks good and happy, I wouldn't chase the numbers to much.

 

[ahiggins]

In case no one has mentioned this yet, mysis cubes are phos and junk-heavy if you’re just thawing and tossing it all into the tank. Rinsing and filtering those cubes, keeping only the meat will work wonders controlling your levels or not adding to it at this point. I didn’t see if you had a skimmer but most people see their skimmers go crazy when they feed whole cube or thaw in tank.

 

[Michael Gray]

In case no one has mentioned this yet, mysis cubes are phos and junk-heavy if you’re just thawing and tossing it all into the tank. Rinsing and filtering those cubes, keeping only the meat will work wonders controlling your levels or not adding to it at this point. I didn’t see if you had a skimmer but most people see their skimmers go crazy when they feed whole cube or thaw in tank.

dam i never heard that i got a small20g QT with fish. i better be careful when feeding mysis.i thaw a cube and use a pipette to slowly put a few in, make sure they eat it all or if they eat before i just dump stuff in.. my qt feediing is super slow as i dont want uneaten food.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Short answer is, yes. I’d cut the cube in half. There’s a lot of food packed into those cubes.

Alternatively, you could up your export.

 

[doodledreads]

Alternatively, you could up your export.

I highly recommend this instead of cutting down on the food.