Dropping nitrates, progression

[Mrfresh]

My cheato is full in my fug but its only about 12 gallons of my 40 gallon sump... But true water vol is about 30 gallons...
That's besides the point....

Still not sure what caused the spike but I know it happened...



So I did another lrg water change which makes it 3.
It comes out to 110 gallons over 1 week.
I am up to 5mls a day in vodka dosing... 2.5 in the morning 2.5 at night right before lights out.
My tanks true water vol is about 100 gallons...

I checked my nitrates today and they are at 50ppm. It's still way to high but! It's a huge improvement from a week ago when they tested over 100ppm. My test kit maxed out at 100ppm with a pink color and the vial was dark pink with my water in it so I know it was well over 100ppm...


So I have a red planet that had almost no color with brown polyps. Right now it's still white washed but u can tell the under skin is turning gran and some of the polyps towards the top of the frag are turning red. When my cameras charged ill take some pics and load them...

 

[Mrfresh]

Update time.

Still dosing 5mls a day of vodka 2.5 in the morning and 2.5 at night.
I will be doing a 60 gallon water change tomorrow.
Hopefully my last lrg one. And back to just 20% weekly water changes.

I have had a slight alk issue with it dropping super low, but even with that happening my coral are starting to color up and the PE is great!!!
I didn't expect the coral to color back up so blast. I will post pics tomorrow.

Does anyone have before and after vodka dosing pics?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Nope, no before and after pics. Never thought of getting the shots.:squigglemouth:

 

[Mrfresh]

I have shots I just need to post them.

 

[Mrfresh]

Here's a strawberry short cake.
Galaxy s3 phone pic.
U can tell the skins white and the tips are barley pink.

With the same phone but not the greatest but u can see more

 

[Mrfresh]

Hopefully in the next month or two the corals will look even better!

 

[Mrfresh]

 

[Mrfresh]

This one was hit hard when the nitrate spiked....

 

[Mrfresh]

Thank you for looking reading and input.
Hopefully I can post pics from the slr next time.
And hopefully there will be some coloring up and growth

 

[Mrfresh]

I need to get a Hanna checker to get a better reading but nitrates are less the 10ppm.
Need a Hanna checker again for phos but still showing .5 or less on the phos
Still doing 6mls of vodka a day and will be going back to 15 gallon water changes every Sunday.
Feed is almost none existent, I have mainly tangs, so all my rock is picked clean
(pellets maybe 3 times a week)
Carbon no longer in a reactor, and changed out every month

Salt grav 1.024
Alk level 8dkh
Cal 440

Ill try taking photos with the DLSR so there more color accurate.

 

[bucksfan1976]

I had the exact same issue, a HUGE spike for no reason. I did exactly like you did with the large water changes. At that time I had a 150 and I was doing 75 gallons every other day. I started to get the same spike on my 92 corner but I started running biopellets and cheata and after a week they were gone. Hope the drop continues.

 

[Reefing Madness]

While Dosing, you hsould be feeding your Tangs every day, no reason not to.

 

[Mrfresh]

Now that there is nothing for the tangs to eat in the tank I will start feeding them again.
It's really nice that my rocks aren't covered in algae.
I love having cheato but I have heard more horror stories about bio pellets then positive.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Positives and Negativs to just about everything we do to our systems.

 

[Mrfresh]

Very true reefing madness


Ok small update.
I am now using the Red Sea pro test kit. Really nice and I feel like its more accurate.
Nitrates are reading 0.00
Phosphate is reading 0.08
I think that might be high for phos but knowing where the tank was at only a month ago I feel like this is a huge improvement.

I've been dosing 10mls a day and things see,m to be happy.
I will be selling some corals off to make room for frags. So hopefully I won't have to dose 120mls of alk a day.
Also switched sale from tropic Marin pro to Red Sea pro

 

[Reefing Madness]

Very nice sir!!

 

[Mrfresh]

Question for u RM so now that may water is at "ideal" water conditions. ( I use that word very loosely )
Is it time to cut my dose in half to just 5mls a day?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yup, you got it. Thats now your maintenance dose.

 

[Mrfresh]

Ok good
Now all I have to do is get me alk and cal back under control and it should be easy sailing after that.
Current alk 10.5
Red Sea alk is 12dkh

I think I'll just start out with 5 gallon water changes and that should help raise it slow.
I feel like a lrg water change like 20-30 gallons would make the alk jump to much.
Also with removing some lrg mother colony's I know my dosing amount will be changing.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Right on, thats a sound plan.