- Joined
- May 17, 2018
- Messages
- 718
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So I'm finally getting frustrated with this tank.... Its a 75 gallon reef ready with a Trigger 30 sunp and has been up and running for 1 year and 2 months. I try hard to keep good husbandry habits. 15 to 20 gallon water changes every 7-10 days. I dose Redsea Alk and Calcium and run 2 Kessil 360WE lights. The latest parameters are...
Alk: 9.5
Cal: 400
Mag: 1340
Temp: 78-80 F
N03: 10 pom
P04: 0.02
Nitrite: 0.0
Ammonia: 0.0
Ph: 8.2-8.4
The N03 and P04 both swing in a matter of days, it seems. If I do nothing, the P04 will drop to 0.0 and the NO3 seems to rise. It used to be the other way around. I had trouble keeping N03 up and P04 was about 0.08 most of the time. Until hair algae and dinos took over my tank. It was terrible and I almost gave up. After A LOT of cleaning, adding a UV filter, and dosing Neonitro the N03 came up and everything stabilized. My tank was a beautiful thriving reef for about 3 months. With all corals happy and growing noticeably. Until my tang died and got stuck under some rock work. I didnt want to tear my beautiful reef apart to take it out and the crabs seemed to have eaten most of the carcass so I just did a bunch of water changes to get it out. That resulted in the N03 rising to 50 ppm and I lost all chalice frags, most acans, and most other corals are still angry about this. Also, if I let the P04 bottom out, or drop, I get a dusting of diatoms (I'm guessing diatoms but not 100% sure) and my corals seem to be happier if I keep dosing the Neophos. My question is... am I doing this right? If so, will it ever stabilize again this way? Any input is greatly appreciated because this is gonna be the end of my reefing for a while if I can't figure this out.
Alk: 9.5
Cal: 400
Mag: 1340
Temp: 78-80 F
N03: 10 pom
P04: 0.02
Nitrite: 0.0
Ammonia: 0.0
Ph: 8.2-8.4
The N03 and P04 both swing in a matter of days, it seems. If I do nothing, the P04 will drop to 0.0 and the NO3 seems to rise. It used to be the other way around. I had trouble keeping N03 up and P04 was about 0.08 most of the time. Until hair algae and dinos took over my tank. It was terrible and I almost gave up. After A LOT of cleaning, adding a UV filter, and dosing Neonitro the N03 came up and everything stabilized. My tank was a beautiful thriving reef for about 3 months. With all corals happy and growing noticeably. Until my tang died and got stuck under some rock work. I didnt want to tear my beautiful reef apart to take it out and the crabs seemed to have eaten most of the carcass so I just did a bunch of water changes to get it out. That resulted in the N03 rising to 50 ppm and I lost all chalice frags, most acans, and most other corals are still angry about this. Also, if I let the P04 bottom out, or drop, I get a dusting of diatoms (I'm guessing diatoms but not 100% sure) and my corals seem to be happier if I keep dosing the Neophos. My question is... am I doing this right? If so, will it ever stabilize again this way? Any input is greatly appreciated because this is gonna be the end of my reefing for a while if I can't figure this out.