How much is too much of a swing? What should my goal be? (Also, alk to nutrient ratios.)

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Would it help if I shut my skimmer down or at the very least put it on a cycle where it shuts down at certain times?

If cyano is a concern, I wouldn't. I also like to keep skimmers going 24/7 for aeration.
 

DaveC

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Really interesting.

So, if I have lower nutrients alk should be in the 7's but higher nutrients @ alk can be higher 8 - 11.

Burnt tips on SPS could equal high alk with low nutrients.
 

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Higher nutrients means I need to add Nitrates some how, I am already seeing a slight Cyano out break which only occurs when I feed more, so I tend to cut back and it goes away. Should I continue to feed more and push thru the Cyano or is there another way I can add nitrates with out having to dump an entire bottle of "XYZ" additive in my system which is between 400-450 gallons?
JMO, but your tank is very new and started with dead rock and only 2 months old!
It can take months before your system is ready for corals.
If you start adding fish and corals without the proper bacteria levels you will run into issues.
I would slow down if I was in your shoes.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Randy Holmes-Farley

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Really interesting.

So, if I have lower nutrients alk should be in the 7's but higher nutrients @ alk can be higher 8 - 11.

Burnt tips on SPS could equal high alk with low nutrients.

Yes, if you have SPS.

The hypothesis is that coral skeletons grow faster in high alk water than the tissue can keep up if the available N and P are too low.
 

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Really interesting.

So, if I have lower nutrients alk should be in the 7's but higher nutrients @ alk can be higher 8 - 11.

Burnt tips on SPS could equal high alk with low nutrients.
Do some research and you will find that people running close to NSW big 3 levels have far less issues than people running higher alk, imo.
Myself as well as many others have exceptional growth at NSW levels.
All in all stability of all levels is what is needed no matter what levels you decide to run.
 

Gator_Reefer

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So what NO3 and PO4 levels are we talking for high nutrients matched to high alk?

I currently have 1ppm NO3 and 0.07 PO4 at about 9.4 dkH alk.
 

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This is really interesting. I too am dealing with low nutrients. I am actually dosing nitrates to try and keep it around 4-5, but phosphates are usually 0-0.1 (according to RS test kits). No matter what I do, I can get phosphates up. Now, my alkalinity goes from 8.6-9.1 at times. Still trying to figure better stability. I have a mixed reef...LPS is doing great, but SPS is kind of meh.

At this rate, I’m willing to try a new approach. Stop the nitrate dosing, let it drop, and lower my Alk to around 7.75, obviously slowly. Do you think this is an okay idea Randy? Or what would you do?
 
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This is really interesting. I too am dealing with low nutrients. I am actually dosing nitrates to try and keep it around 4-5, but phosphates are usually 0-0.1 (according to RS test kits). No matter what I do, I can get phosphates up. Now, my alkalinity goes from 8.6-9.1 at times. Still trying to figure better stability. I have a mixed reef...LPS is doing great, but SPS is kind of meh.

At this rate, I’m willing to try a new approach. Stop the nitrate dosing, let it drop, and lower my Alk to around 7.75, obviously slowly. Do you think this is an okay idea Randy? Or what would you do?
You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.
 

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I dosed nitrate and phosphate for a few months as my no3 was 1-2 and po4 was 0-.02 since startup with no issues.
This was when my tank was about 8-11 months old.
I ran my alk at 8-8.5 at that time.
Growth was good and colors ok.
I decided to reduce alk to 7-7.5.
No3 and p04 did not change but colors got better.
My no3 levels went up when I added more fish. P04 stayed low
02-.04.
I fed more and the no3 went to 10-15 and po4 went to .08.
Everything looked very good.
I was and am now feeding around 8 cubes a day for 14 fish in my 120.
I dose a small amount of carbon to keep my no3 at 5-10 and po4 at .02-.06.
This has been the best my tank has looked at the current alk level of 7.

I know many, including my friends, that run much higher alk, 9-10 with no3 at 10-20 and po4 at .1-.2 with excellent results, fwiw.

I just prefer lower alk levels. My growth and color is equal to higher alk levels, imo.

Bottom line, pick your levels and focus on keeping them stable and within your establish range.

Stability is the one thing all top tanks you will see have, imo.
 

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You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.

I am just dosing with Seachem Flourish Nitrogen. 1 capful when I see it starting to dip some. Nothing elaborate
 

fuelman

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You say you are dosing Nitrates, care to elaborate on your process? I seen the calculator but what is your ratio? Do you premix a gallon and just dose from that? I have never dosed Nitrates, so I am trying to learn as much as possible. This thread has opened my eyes so much. Randy has so much knowledge.
you have a large system so you might not want to mix it with a gallon, i have around 300 gallons of volume & dose nitrate & phosphate to keep levels up also using the http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm i mix 1 tablespoon with 500ml of rodi water, then dose 30 ml to bring my level up by about 0.3-0.5 this way I'm not adding so much rodi water to my tank independently of my ato system. if you need to dose often & continue doing so for some time adding more rodi with your dosing might start to drop your salinity level, & then that's just one more thing you need to correct. if you had a 30 gallon cube your best to mix it with a gallon, because small dosing amounts will have greater affect if you add a few ml too much, but i find that with large systems like yours it's better to use a more potent mixture & minimize the extra rodi your adding to your system. also when i mix it i fill the bottle about 3/4 full of rodi then add my 1 tablespoon of dry mix, cap it & shake the daylights out of it to mix it well then fill the bottle the rest of the way & shake again. after it sets for a few days & i need to dose again i always shake the bottle pretty good before dosing again just to be sure.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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So what NO3 and PO4 levels are we talking for high nutrients matched to high alk?

I currently have 1ppm NO3 and 0.07 PO4 at about 9.4 dkH alk.

There's no fixed number. The issue is having some reasonable amount or more. 0.02 ppm phosphate and 2 ppm nitrate is adequate. More is also OK. It may or may not be useful for you to boost nitrate a bit. 9 dKH is also not super high.
 

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Wet/dry filters were trashed for being nitrate factories. That was way before anyone considered adding nitrate.
Would adding a small wet/dry be a reasonable way to elevate nitrates?
 

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