How important is polyp extension? What do you do to get it? What steps do you take if you don't?

[Reefahholic]

So are you saying that low phosphate causes cyano? I'm fighting cyano right now. I'm very frustrated. I baught chemiclean but I'm trying to do this without chemicals first then if i fail I'll use chemiclean. So my po4 stays mostly at 0.03 I have to dose 30 MLS of neophos constantly from brightwell to get it to stay at 0.05 .. if I stop dosing phosphate it drops back down. I have a red sea reefer 300L mixed reef it's a small 3ft tank nitrates stay around 10ppm . I do water changes every 7 days. I do 5 gallon changes weekly so the more water I change and cyano I cyphen the lower my phosphate gets. I have 3 echotech xr15 g5 lights running ab plus at 73% intensity. Maybe I should lower the whites? Do you have any advice for me on getting rid of cyano?

Yes, so my advice would be to stop the water changes for now and focus on getting the PO4 up. If the NO3 stays at 10 ppm, dose the PO4 up to 0.1 ppm. Since you’re dosing 30 mL’s, put the PO4 on a doser and spread out the dose so that the amount of PO4 being dosed is not shocking the system, but is also available 24/7.

 

[Reefahholic]

I'm dealing with this now, what was your fix? Just bringing nitrates up?

You need to bring the nitrates and phosphates up together in ratio, and keep them in a good range. Focus on 100:1 ratio. If you have 10 N you need 0.1 P. IMO .06-0.2 P & 6-20 N is a good target range.

For every .01 P you need 1 N.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

Yes, so my advice would be to stop the water changes for now and focus on getting the PO4 up. If the NO3 stays at 10 ppm, dose the PO4 up to 0.1 ppm. Since you’re dosing 30 mL’s, put the PO4 on a doser and spread out the dose so that the amount of PO4 being dosed is not shocking the system, but is also available 24/7.

This tank has been up and running for a year and a half. I started it with dry marco rock. Is it true that dry rock binds po4 and that's why I can't seem to keep my phosphate up? One day all that rock will get so saturated with po4 that it will be a problem do you agree? I've also been dosing trace elements by red sea. The red sea trace colors program. It seems like cyano gets worse when I dose that product. Do you think cyano consumes po4 and no3 ? My alkalinity stays steady at 8.3 is it true that higher alkalinity helps with cyano?

 

[Reefahholic]

This tank has been up and running for a year and a half. I started it with dry marco rock. Is it true that dry rock binds po4 and that's why I can't seem to keep my phosphate up? One day all that rock will get so saturated with po4 that it will be a problem do you agree? I've also been dosing trace elements by red sea. The red sea trace colors program. It seems like cyano gets worse when I dose that product. Do you think cyano consumes po4 and no3 ? My alkalinity stays steady at 8.3 is it true that higher alkalinity helps with cyano?

I don’t want to derail this thread so if you want to talk about the dry rock and PO4 issues, from here out just PM me or reach out on Facebook “Reefahholic Houston.”

To answer your questions I do think Cyano consumes some nutrients. I’m doubtful that higher ALK will help with the Cyano, because your primary issue is the low PO4. If you’re dosing amino’s you should stop until you get it under control. Also, try to get a microscopic ID to make sure you are not dealing with a mix of Cyano and Dino’s. Dino’s love depleted nutrient environments as well. Our beneficial players do not thrive well in nutrient poor environments, so this gives Cyano and Dino’s unlimited real estate without much competition. Bring your PO4 up and this will strengthen the their competitors. Shift the balance.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

I don’t want to derail this thread so if you want to talk about the dry rock and PO4 issues, from here out just PM me or reach out on Facebook “Reefahholic Houston.”

To answer your questions I do think Cyano consumes some nutrients. I’m doubtful that higher ALK will help with the Cyano, because your primary issue is the low PO4. If you’re dosing amino’s you should stop until you get it under control. Also, try to get a microscopic ID to make sure you are not dealing with a mix of Cyano and Dino’s. Dino’s love depleted nutrient environments as well. Our beneficial players do not thrive well in nutrient poor environments, so this gives Cyano and Dino’s unlimited real estate without much competition. Bring your PO4 up and this will strengthen the their competitors. Shift the balance.

I appreciate the advice. I agree this is a thread about pollup extension. I notice with Cyano and dino I definitely get absolutely no pollup extension in my acropora. Acans close up torches too. I will definitely bring up my po4.

 

[bill.mccrary42]

I think I experienced the trace element issue just now. This is my 1st saltwater tank, ~6 months old. For the first 4 months or so I did weekly 10% water changes. Around month 5-6 I started automatic dosing of 2 part, and started doing less & less water changes to see what worked for me. Last water changes was ~1 month ago, this is the longest I'd gone without a water change. About 1 week ago I started noticing a few of my favorite corals have polyp extension issues. These are some of my most robust corals, polyp extension had always been just great (frogspawn, hammer, goniopora specifically as examples). They seems healthy enough, good color etc, but they seemed deflated or depressed or something. The frog spawn would retract fully once an hour so even. I do have a vermetid snail here and there, but no sign of any near the corals described). Suspecting micro nutrients of some sort, I did a ~30% water change, and the next day polyp extension is more or less back to normal... I use Fritz RPM salt. The box lists strontium and potassium explicitly, and Mark Levenson also mentioned potassium is very important. I have an ICP water test on the shelf, and I think I'm going to wait 2-3 weeks, not do a water change, then send that off and see where I'm deficient. I do eventually want to minimize water changes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

. I use Fritz RPM salt. The box lists strontium and potassium explicitly, and Mark Levenson also mentioned potassium is very important. I have an ICP water test on the shelf, and I think I'm going to wait 2-3 weeks, not do a water change, then send that off and see where I'm deficient. I do eventually want to minimize water changes.

FWIW, all salt mixes have about the same, natural levels of strontium and potassium, neither of which is, incidentally, a trace element.