- Joined
- Jan 2, 2018
- Messages
- 126
- Reaction score
- 71
I'm an old school reefer who's been in the hobby for over 20 years.
The reason for my need to understand it is so that I can get my SPS to color up without causing an algae outbreak. The colors on all my SPS (montis, acros, stylos, birdsnests) are fading. They no longer have any pop in the coloration. Most of the softies are fine, such as zoas. The LPS are loosing some color and retracting a bit. The growth on SPS are slow but there is steady growth.
Parameters using Salifert test kits:
Calcium: 490
Alkalinity: 8.7
pH: 8.1
Mag: 1420
Nitrates: 0.10
Phosphates: 0.0 using salifert and Hanna Checker.
Temp 79
Tank size is 150 gal with 35 gal sump. I upgraded my tank from a 90 gal (was running for 15 years) to this 150 gal in March 2020. I just did a tank transfer and kept all the live rocks and livestock. 5 fish. mixed reef. CUC consists of 10 hermit crabs.
CUC size is small because they always die off after a while and prior to tank upgrade I didn't have algae.
In the old days everyone wanted zero or close to zero nitrates and phosphates. But in the past few years I understand that this is not so good for corals, especially SPS. So now I need to have low levels of N&P to keep corals happy.
Many people still grow macro algae, cheato reactors, or algae reactors to export N&P. In fact, I was growing cheato for a while but I think the nutrients were too low after some point and they started to melt away. Another form of removing N&P is using a protein skimmer. I have a skimmer and usually run it on the wet side such that I empty and clean the cup every 2 to 3 days.
Since the colors started to fade in the corals in the new tank, last month I decided to raise N&P by feeding more and using reef roids, reef chile, and frozen mysis as well as a bunch of flake food. I feed 2-3 times per day, instead of once every other day.
I've also stopped skimming wet and skim extremely dry, ie I don't even have a full cup of skimmate in 1 week. I've discontinued the GFO reactor. I have no macro algae in the sump.
For the past month, the readings of the Nitrate and Phosphate has not changed a bit. The coloration has not improved. But my big reward is an ugly algae bloom. It looks like brown hair algae.
So my questions are:
1. Should I dose Nitrate and or phosphate?
2. Why are my N&P readings still 0.1 and zero?
3. If I dose N&P, won't that make the algae bloom worse? I'd almost rather have faded corals than have algae growth!
4. Should I continue skimming? wet or dry?
5. Should I grow cheato? what is the benefit of cheato when N&P is measuring so low?
6. I see people growing cheato and using their skimmer and adding N&P on a regular basis, but isn't that counter acting to each other?
I'm sure I'll have more questions but these are the main issues at the time for me.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
The reason for my need to understand it is so that I can get my SPS to color up without causing an algae outbreak. The colors on all my SPS (montis, acros, stylos, birdsnests) are fading. They no longer have any pop in the coloration. Most of the softies are fine, such as zoas. The LPS are loosing some color and retracting a bit. The growth on SPS are slow but there is steady growth.
Parameters using Salifert test kits:
Calcium: 490
Alkalinity: 8.7
pH: 8.1
Mag: 1420
Nitrates: 0.10
Phosphates: 0.0 using salifert and Hanna Checker.
Temp 79
Tank size is 150 gal with 35 gal sump. I upgraded my tank from a 90 gal (was running for 15 years) to this 150 gal in March 2020. I just did a tank transfer and kept all the live rocks and livestock. 5 fish. mixed reef. CUC consists of 10 hermit crabs.
CUC size is small because they always die off after a while and prior to tank upgrade I didn't have algae.
In the old days everyone wanted zero or close to zero nitrates and phosphates. But in the past few years I understand that this is not so good for corals, especially SPS. So now I need to have low levels of N&P to keep corals happy.
Many people still grow macro algae, cheato reactors, or algae reactors to export N&P. In fact, I was growing cheato for a while but I think the nutrients were too low after some point and they started to melt away. Another form of removing N&P is using a protein skimmer. I have a skimmer and usually run it on the wet side such that I empty and clean the cup every 2 to 3 days.
Since the colors started to fade in the corals in the new tank, last month I decided to raise N&P by feeding more and using reef roids, reef chile, and frozen mysis as well as a bunch of flake food. I feed 2-3 times per day, instead of once every other day.
I've also stopped skimming wet and skim extremely dry, ie I don't even have a full cup of skimmate in 1 week. I've discontinued the GFO reactor. I have no macro algae in the sump.
For the past month, the readings of the Nitrate and Phosphate has not changed a bit. The coloration has not improved. But my big reward is an ugly algae bloom. It looks like brown hair algae.
So my questions are:
1. Should I dose Nitrate and or phosphate?
2. Why are my N&P readings still 0.1 and zero?
3. If I dose N&P, won't that make the algae bloom worse? I'd almost rather have faded corals than have algae growth!
4. Should I continue skimming? wet or dry?
5. Should I grow cheato? what is the benefit of cheato when N&P is measuring so low?
6. I see people growing cheato and using their skimmer and adding N&P on a regular basis, but isn't that counter acting to each other?
I'm sure I'll have more questions but these are the main issues at the time for me.
Thanks for all your suggestions.