How long until you achieved consistent success?

[Jettareefer223]

Heard good things about the NYOS kit. Best way to get my po4 up to .1? Continue feeding heavy and see what happens?

NYOS definitely provides accurate results, they aren’t cheap. They’re overly complicated and intuitive I always sound like 60 year old taking about how much they love their simple flip phone with my “basic Salifert kits” lol. I have Alk/cal/Mag/no3 NYOS kits covered in dust.
Yeah that would be my course of action more frozen meaty foods vs seaweed. If need be you can do wc’s to lower N, because P sequesters into everything it temporarily decreases then typically rises plateauing.

 

[michael giordano]

I don’t give two bleeps what it is anymore I tested it last Jan 2019 results werePo4 .19-.22 Hanna 774 / No3 20-25 ppm (salifert). Very much in line with you numbers!!

For anyone wanting further insight on the heinous crime of running high nutrients w/ sps.... My learning curve was a ultimately a realization of my desired results (rich coral color/vitality). I acknowledge my problem was focusing on the “way” or standard whether general or low nutrient which had absolutely failed to produce anything close. Now I literally let the coral relay the info, and observing them making changes in feeding/maintenance accordingly. Even my trace elements I don’t chase unicorns it’s stable I just an set acceptable range stay within it. (ex: ALK 7.5-8.5/ Cal 440-475/Mag 1300-1400/ K 400-420) so let’s call it a target, not life or death ruin your whole day type of arrangement. In 14 months I have stags growing out the water and big colonies.

NSW guidelines for traces is totally acceptable, but in a closed system the demand (or level) of nutrients is determined by a multitude of variables. A formal guideline isn’t exactly viable solution as not one tank is exactly the same. One example that is probably most prevalent hands down is lighting . If you have long durations of intense light higher nutrient levels will be needed vs. lower intensity of light/short durations require the opposite.

I don’t even own a po4 test kit for my sps and clam tank, honestly after the first couple cycles of a new tank, it’s a complete waste of money in my view. After a while you watch the corals and fine tune your methods upon their reactions/success. I test alk often because I have had issues in the past if it varies to much and calcium once a month. After being in hobby for a while you know what is an appriote amount of fish for each tank and how much you should feed them. If you get some algae relax, all algae comes and goes in cycles and the worst thing you can do is overreact in its presence. let nature takes its course and slowly manually remove if you like.

 

[jda]

Stay somewhere near these parameter with super stable methods for the inorganic and natural methods for the organic and you will excel:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Chasing is not usually good. Media and chemicals are not usually good, but can help in some acute situations.

.02 vs .08 phosphate difference? One is 2x more than seawater, but also within the error range for a test kit. One is 8x more than seawater. Is there a difference? Not so some corals, but yes to others. Would anybody keep their alk at 8x more than seawater at 56dKh when you did not have to? The comparison is really a false equivalency, but you get the point...

 

[blasterman]

Time for success? Only timeline I'm concerned with is age of the tank, and I won't bother with more sensitive SPS like Acros until a tank is at least 4 months old, and I prefer 6 months. Some hardier species like digipora or pocillopora can be added sooner, but likely under go more color and bleach outs than my last girlfriend until bacteria colonies stabilize.

 

[Admann]

2 years, patience, tank maturity, the wealth of info available on R2R and patience. Yes, I repeated myself on purpose. It took from creation to present day for reefs to even exist and survive. Don't expect overnight changes, some remedies for my different problems take many months. I do try natural remediation if possible. I have no SPS. Just favia, euphyllia, RBTA, rock flowers and some softies

 

[29bonsaireef]

If you have the patience to wait until you see healthy coralline growing (purples & pinks) you will have a much higher chance of success, imo. If you can repeat that and have that patience every time you start a system you will have consistent success. But being successful in the early stages of a reef tank and keeping that consistency long term is not the same.

 

[Elmervc15]

The myth says 2 years‍

 

[Ike]

2 years, patience, tank maturity, the wealth of info available on R2R and patience. Yes, I repeated myself on purpose. It took from creation to present day for reefs to even exist and survive. Don't expect overnight changes, some remedies for my different problems take many months. I do try natural remediation if possible. I have no SPS. Just favia, euphyllia, RBTA, rock flowers and some softies

Fossil records indicate corals have been around for 535 million years, corals are fairly rare as fossils until about 100 million years ago, and modern reefs are only 5k-10k years old. Consistency can be a tough one, even in nature