Hi everyone, I'm Eric from Ithaca NY...thanks for reading the post. I've had my reefer 350 up for 15 months to general success. I've been able to keep most everything I placed in the tank alive and well up until very recently. For the balance of a year I've had some nice euphilia, zoas, nems and a monti growing and looking colorful. Things took a turn about a month ago when I attempted to add an acro frag. Within 4 days the bright yellow frag had dulled to a dark brown. Panicking (when I should have been reading) I moved it around the tank thinking it must be the flow or lighting. Needless to say, it died within 20 days of getting it. Shortly after this loss, my Orange Monti started fading. What had always been a dark orange/pink color with white tips was starting to grow jagged edges and lose its hue. I took some time to look up the potential issue, ruled out nudis as the loss of tissue was on the edges. I then recalled that back in August I had increased the amount of GFO I'd been using (which was 30g) to 90g. I did this to "combat" a brownish algae covering the rocks. This was a tight clinging algae and not hairy or flowing. APEX readings before the GFO change were PO3 average at .08...after the change the average is PO3 average .025. I started to think that this was the cause. I ruled out Nitrate as it has always been 0 for the life of the tank. So, I decided I would take down the GFO to 60g and see how things look after a week. I'm two days in and reading/watching a lot about nutrients. And I'm starting to think that I missed something crucial. I need nutrients. Not just PO3, but Nitrate as well. 0 NO3 for the life of the tank is hindering my progress. In the short term I want to allow phosphate to rise a little to see if this was the cause of the monti losing its color. However, even though I haven't recognized any issues with my 0 nitrate, this too is probably hindering my progress and perhaps I should aim to increase it? My question to the community is, do you agree? Should I attempt to raise my PO3 and NO3 to detectible levels for the long term health of my tank? Do any of you run 0 PO3 and NO3? Second question is, how should I do this? Take GFO offline entirely? Ween it down? Cut my marine pure block in half and take half of it out of the sump to raise my nitrates? Use the skimmer half of the time? Any ideas/recommendations are greatly appreciated. Some tank specs below. I will post a pic.
Tank: Reefer 350 (91 total gallons)
Lighting: Kessil AP700
Eschopps Skimmer rated for 200 gal
1 large marine pure block
GFO/Carbon reactor (60g GFO - rowaphos)
1 yellow tang
2 clowns
1 bi color blenny
1 Black Cap Basslett
1 Dwarf Angel
Tank: Reefer 350 (91 total gallons)
Lighting: Kessil AP700
Eschopps Skimmer rated for 200 gal
1 large marine pure block
GFO/Carbon reactor (60g GFO - rowaphos)
1 yellow tang
2 clowns
1 bi color blenny
1 Black Cap Basslett
1 Dwarf Angel