We could use some advice:
RedSea Reefer 250 g2 (50-60gal approx total volume)
This is a somewhat new tank and our first ever tank with a sump, early January set up. Used some established rock in the sump but display was dry rock and caribsea "live" sand. Used the redsea tank mature system to cycle. Tank has 5 small fish , a few snails and hermits but not many. A few small coral frags, pocillipora, birdsnest, stylophora, and a few zoas. I had some LPS, euphyllia and a tracyphillia in the tank but moved it all out to another system because it was not doing well in this tank. 2 radion xr15s, lighting schedule downloaded from WWC (same schedule I've been using on other tanks for several years, but this tank is deeper so I'm going to be borrowing a par meter this weekend from my LFS). I have had success with corals in the past but only in a nano system. I would love to turn this into a full mixed reef but I was hoping to get my nitrates under control before I started adding anything more. We feed minimally, frozen mysis and nori only, no pellets or coral foods. I feed probably 1/2 a cube of frozen per day split between 3 tanks (the other two are nano tanks) and 1/2 a sheet of nori every other day. There is zero visible algae in the tank. I have been adding pods from reefnutrition every two weeks. I have a 7 stage rodi system at home and mix my own salt using red sea salt. I'm dosing red sea foundation (2ml/day) and nopox (4ml/day). Filtration is a redsea reefmat and a redsea skimmer. I had wanted to add a refugium but really didn't have enough room with the current sump layout. I do a 10 to 15 gallon water change once a week. All of my parameters have stayed fairly spot on stable for over a month now.
How do I get my nitrates to stay lower? My phosphates stay between 0.00 and 0.03 so I really want to be careful not to let them stay or go too low, but it seems to want to stay at 35-40ppm for nitrates no matter if I do a big water change or skip a feeding or two.
Oh, and I sent off an ICP test and nothing came back too far out of line, I'll try to add a screenshot of my results to the post also
Also...... I'm not even certain I really NEED to get my nitrates lower, except for the fact that they stay lower in my nano tanks and my LPS all seems to prefer those tanks. I saw significant tissue loss on all of the LPS I originally moved into this tank and completely lost several colonies. None of the livestock in this tank have been known to bother coral. There is a clownfish, a royal gramma, a wrasse, and two half-dollar sized baby tangs (they have a forever home waiting for them next door before the tang police yell at me)
Nitrates are just the only parameter that seems to be out of line so it's my best guess for a problem.
RedSea Reefer 250 g2 (50-60gal approx total volume)
This is a somewhat new tank and our first ever tank with a sump, early January set up. Used some established rock in the sump but display was dry rock and caribsea "live" sand. Used the redsea tank mature system to cycle. Tank has 5 small fish , a few snails and hermits but not many. A few small coral frags, pocillipora, birdsnest, stylophora, and a few zoas. I had some LPS, euphyllia and a tracyphillia in the tank but moved it all out to another system because it was not doing well in this tank. 2 radion xr15s, lighting schedule downloaded from WWC (same schedule I've been using on other tanks for several years, but this tank is deeper so I'm going to be borrowing a par meter this weekend from my LFS). I have had success with corals in the past but only in a nano system. I would love to turn this into a full mixed reef but I was hoping to get my nitrates under control before I started adding anything more. We feed minimally, frozen mysis and nori only, no pellets or coral foods. I feed probably 1/2 a cube of frozen per day split between 3 tanks (the other two are nano tanks) and 1/2 a sheet of nori every other day. There is zero visible algae in the tank. I have been adding pods from reefnutrition every two weeks. I have a 7 stage rodi system at home and mix my own salt using red sea salt. I'm dosing red sea foundation (2ml/day) and nopox (4ml/day). Filtration is a redsea reefmat and a redsea skimmer. I had wanted to add a refugium but really didn't have enough room with the current sump layout. I do a 10 to 15 gallon water change once a week. All of my parameters have stayed fairly spot on stable for over a month now.
How do I get my nitrates to stay lower? My phosphates stay between 0.00 and 0.03 so I really want to be careful not to let them stay or go too low, but it seems to want to stay at 35-40ppm for nitrates no matter if I do a big water change or skip a feeding or two.
Oh, and I sent off an ICP test and nothing came back too far out of line, I'll try to add a screenshot of my results to the post also
Also...... I'm not even certain I really NEED to get my nitrates lower, except for the fact that they stay lower in my nano tanks and my LPS all seems to prefer those tanks. I saw significant tissue loss on all of the LPS I originally moved into this tank and completely lost several colonies. None of the livestock in this tank have been known to bother coral. There is a clownfish, a royal gramma, a wrasse, and two half-dollar sized baby tangs (they have a forever home waiting for them next door before the tang police yell at me)
Nitrates are just the only parameter that seems to be out of line so it's my best guess for a problem.
