HELP! MY SPS ARE PALING AND I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO

[twilliard]

Spectracide stump remover from lowes. It's 100% potassium nitrate.

Also makes nice smoke bombs when mixed with sugar.

Lol Matt this stuff makes all sorts of cool things.

 

[Mattrg02]

Lol Matt this stuff makes all sorts of cool things.

What else? I've got more of it and it's the weekend.

 

[twilliard]

I would tell but don't want the feds on me
For now I will just use it to raise nitrates and it sure does the job!

 

[Andyf30]

Sweet. Thanks guys. I just took my GFO reactor offline and I'm in the process of removing some other stuff that would be pulling too many nutrients out of the water.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Okay my turn. I have literally been exhausted this week and I cannot stop thinking about numbers....Can you guys please evaluate my situation here.

My corals look awesome. My SPS are growing at rates I have never witnessed before but I am scared I may be in the ULNS category and do not want to mess up here. So here is what I am running.

GFO/CARBON Reactor was on 24/7 but now I am running it during the day only to help reduce PO4 and keep my pH stabilized. I am fearful of it stripping my tank too clean.

Parameters:

dkH 7.95
Calcium 440
Nitrate 0-3ppm
PO4 Oppm (Hanna)
Magnesium 1500

I am scared to get my water too clean even though it has been running with GFO 24/7 for months now. I read all over the forums about people Pro GFO and against GFO but I just do not understand what I should or shouldn't do.

For bioload I only have a blue hippo, cleaner wrasse, ornate wrasse, and a diamond goby. So my tank is fairly clean for a 105gallon system. I am SPS dominated with some LPS. I read where Russ265 said to be careful not to overdose on GFO so of course I am terrified this thread may be an epiphany for something to come.

I do 20% water changes once every other week and am starting to think that may be too much for my low system. I have no hair algae but do have some red slime on the sand and rock but its very minimal. So my Hanna reads 0 for P04 but I have some bacteria...I am lost.

Ditch the GFO, keep the GFO, keep doing what I have been doing... who knows.

 

[twilliard]

If all looks well and only you will know this then I would keep doing what you are doing.
I personally have never used GFO cause my refugium always kept my numbers low.
I have .014 po4 (triton)
No3 4ppm red sea

 

[Battlecorals]

I am a lot more paranoid about what goes in so i went and got the food/lab grade sodium nitrate. at least makes me feel better if anything lol

 

[twilliard]

I just started using potassium nitrate.. gosh a little goes a long way!!

 

[twilliard]

I am a lot more paranoid about what goes in so i went and got the food/lab grade sodium nitrate. at least makes me feel better if anything lol

Where do you get it?

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I just want to say thanks to Russ for being a stand up guy and helping me out a ton. Thanks so much man!!!

Here was my head during the lesson I was being taught

 

[twilliard]

I just want to say thanks to Russ for being a stand up guy and helping me out a ton. Thanks so much man!!!

Here was my head during the lesson I was being taught

I have to take meds every night to shut my brain off cause all it does it think of numbers and solutions

 

[Russ265]

Could you (Russ) point me in the right direction for some more reading on the subject of Cyano in relation to Po4 being higher then No3?
I've recently took my gfo offline. I always used it sparingly but noticed some nuseince algae and panicked (not something I normally do) and added new Gfo after just replacing it the week before and adding a new scrubber about 2 weeks before. Let just say I had a couple problems lol so I got ticked off and said screw Gfo I'm gonna try and maintain low Po4 readings with just my oversized skimmer and Ats. But since I took it off line I've had some dark red matting Cyano on my sand bed and I don't like it! I'm hoping maybe the above info is my problem. 1 month no Gfo and my Po4 is still 0.01-0.02 and my No3 is still reading 0 even though in not carbon dosing. Just the equipment I mentioned and 20% weekly water changes. I'm now switching to biweekly water changes.
As a side note my Sps are super happy along with everything else. [emoji3]

oh man this is complex and should be for another thread.

you have cyano now. it is a bacterial infection. they love to come in when other bacteria are scant. if you had more nutrients. you wouldnt have had cyano try to take over.

dosing nitrate will not fix cyano. cyano eats or binds that stuff up so quick it is a losing battle.

imho. get chemiclean. run it for 50-75% of recommended doseage and get it out of your system.

after 48 hours promptly get your nitrates to 5ppm and run carbon. keep your nitrates above 1ppm at all costs.

if you see gha you gotta manually get rid of it.

then introduce seachem stability. if you want to go the extra mile dose mb7 as well. but stability did the most for me. this will allow that bacteria to stay the dominant strain.

 

[Russ265]

I just want to say thanks to Russ for being a stand up guy and helping me out a ton. Thanks so much man!!!

Here was my head during the lesson I was being taught

was great talking to you on the phone. if you need anything else just text or whatever broskie. sounds like you got things on track

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Great thread. I don't have a color problem but will be dropping my no3 down as it is higher than my po4. No3=0.50 po4=0.04

 

[Russ265]

Great thread. I don't have a color problem but will be dropping my no3 down as it is higher than my po4. No3=0.50 po4=0.04

no3 is supposed to be above po4.

keep it there please

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I hear you on that but I have a little cyno so wanted to drop it a little usually when I start to get it I need to top off my biop's

 

[Russ265]

I hear you on that but I have a little cyno so wanted to drop it a little usually when I start to get it I need to top off my biop's

ime. cyano will drop your no3 to 0 pretty quick. it is very aggressive.

 

[Russ265]

I am a lot more paranoid about what goes in so i went and got the food/lab grade sodium nitrate. at least makes me feel better if anything lol

such a purist. lol.

cant fault you for that

also sodium nitrate is the least risk imho.

 

[jasonandsarah]

oh man this is complex and should be for another thread.

you have cyano now. it is a bacterial infection. they love to come in when other bacteria are scant. if you had more nutrients. you wouldnt have had cyano try to take over.

dosing nitrate will not fix cyano. cyano eats or binds that stuff up so quick it is a losing battle.

imho. get chemiclean. run it for 50-75% of recommended doseage and get it out of your system.

after 48 hours promptly get your nitrates to 5ppm and run carbon. keep your nitrates above 1ppm at all costs.

if you see gha you gotta manually get rid of it.

then introduce seachem stability. if you want to go the extra mile dose mb7 as well. but stability did the most for me. this will allow that bacteria to stay the dominant strain.

Ty so much for the advice! It seems like Cyano is something I've ALWAYS battled with. I really don't understand it at all! My corals are happy and my nutrients seem in line?
I recently bought a spectrapure silica buster DI cartridge to see if that was my problem but it almost seems like it's gotten worse! Just on my sand bed but it still bothers me! I want white sand!!! Lol
Corals are doing great! [emoji3]

 

[Mattrg02]

So how do we get phosphates up JUST enough? I'd rather not dump a lot of food and wait for it to go from food to phosphates. Is this where amino acids come into play? Or, is all that amino acid stuff $$$ hype? Is over feeding where it truly is at?