How to address my High Nutrients

[Patrick Cox]

My tank is ~2 years old. I had a low fish load for the past year and then I added 6 fish ~ 4 weeks ago and I have been feeding heavily to fatten them up and keep aggression low.

Fish Load is...

Fox face
Power Brown Tang
Yellow Tang
Tomini Tang
Clownfish pair
Diamond Goby

I also have a Long tenacle Anemone

Tank is ~150 gallons total water volume.

My friend gave me a few starter corals and I was about to purchase more corals and then I started noticing that the two montipora's were losing color and polyps.

My Alk was initially low (~ 6) but he said he keeps his around 7 so I don't think that is the issue. But I see now that my nutrients are very high. So I am wondering what I should do at this point to get the water quality in a better place. Good news is that I don't have a lot of corals to worry about at this point. Only fish and the anemone.

Water parameter are as follows...

ALK 7.85
CA 417
MG 1417

NO3 45
PO4 0.25

I just started daily 2.25 gallon water changes so I am changing about 10% per week. I could change more if needed.

I also have a roller mat and a large skimmer. No other nutrient export.

I am dosing kalk and will also add 2 part when I need to.

Tank and sump picture below.

Thanks for any suggestions on getting my nutrients in check and then maintaining going forward.

 

[lapin]

No pellets. More live food.
Monti’s do not like alk swings

 

[George03]

Its going through another nitro cycle. Mostly just wait and watch during the reset. Add some cycling bactrs. IMO - too much too soon. Treat it like your on month one, but with added risk of expensive livestock. Start reading on the uglies stages. UV, and NOpox is defense against the uglies.

 

[jasonvan]

sandless. you be surprised how much detritus hides in the sand.

i have a 350gal setup. did a 100gal water change just mostly siphoning the sand. allt he buckets came out brown and my nutrients still shot up.

i also found that old rock will somtimes leach nutrients if its been in a high nutrient system for a while.

its hard to get my nitrates below 20. but i been carbon dosing plus refugium to get it stable.

 

[Patrick Cox]

No pellets. More live food.
Monti’s do not like alk swings

Thanks. I am only feeding frozen and Nori. I feed frozen twice per day and 1-2 small clips of Nori per day.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Its going through another nitro cycle. Mostly just wait and watch during the reset. Add some cycling bactrs. IMO - too much too soon. Treat it like your on month one, but with added risk of expensive livestock. Start reading on the uglies stages. UV, and NOpox is defense against the uglies.

Thanks. I do run a UV, mostly for the fish as a precaution. Are water changes the only thing that will remove the current nutrients in the water? What about GFO or some other additive?

 

[TeeJay87]

I would do an ICP ASAP. I would have saved myself atleast 15x the cost of an ICP in lost corals if I had done an ICP before adding corals. In my case, a number of parameters were off, but low potassium (338ppm) was a likely culprit and a number of high metals from following the dosing instructions on Chaetogro. I now dose 2 drops of Chaetogro a day to maintain Iron, which is 1/80th of the suggested dose.

As someone finally just starting to get the hang of keeping corals happy, a couple of tips: Flow is extremely important. Look closely at all the polyps. You want them out and moving. Polyps retracted on the side of the coral where more flow comes from? Then that’s too much flow from that side and flow from that pump could be reduced or move the coral. Lighting and nutrients (unless nutrients are zero) are not likely to be your issue.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Your N and P values are within my target range so I personally would not do anything special.

This has more:

Randy’s Thoughts on Nutrient Target Ranges

Thoughts on Nutrient Target Ranges by Randy Holmes-Farley Almost nothing in the world of reef aquarium chemistry causes as much discussion as selecting and maintaining ranges for nitrate and phosphate. Some aquarists want low targets, some want...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[fish_collector]

Time and patience makes a good reef tank. Your nutrients are not too bad. Very small daily water changes won’t help with nutrients. As you get more corals stocked up you may find you will have to add nutrients to keep them measurable. I wouldn’t chase any particular number you’ll drive yourself mad doing it.

 

[biom]

Very nice setup and hardscape. Great potential to become a very nice reef. I would suggest to slowly reduce feeding and start dosing Nopox according to the instructions. Water changes are important but won’t help much to reduce nutrients. Good luck!

 

[Patrick Cox]

I would do an ICP ASAP. I would have saved myself atleast 15x the cost of an ICP in lost corals if I had done an ICP before adding corals. In my case, a number of parameters were off, but low potassium (338ppm) was a likely culprit and a number of high metals from following the dosing instructions on Chaetogro. I now dose 2 drops of Chaetogro a day to maintain Iron, which is 1/80th of the suggested dose.

As someone finally just starting to get the hang of keeping corals happy, a couple of tips: Flow is extremely important. Look closely at all the polyps. You want them out and moving. Polyps retracted on the side of the coral where more flow comes from? Then that’s too much flow from that side and flow from that pump could be reduced or move the coral. Lighting and nutrients (unless nutrients are zero) are not likely to be your issue.

Thanks for this. I actually just sent water to ATI for an ICP test. I am looking forward to the results.

 

[Bruttall]

Thanks. I do run a UV, mostly for the fish as a precaution. Are water changes the only thing that will remove the current nutrients in the water? What about GFO or some other additive?

I run GFO in a xl fluidized reactor made by Lifeguard Aquatic. 350g system, I put 600g of GFO dropped my phos from .5 to .15, I need to add 700g next time I swap it out. Targeting a .05 to .08 po4 standard.

I did use Lanthanum Chloride but it is not as effective as a GFO reactor from my experience.

I also dose about 2700ml KALK daily, 34ml Vodka carbon and All4Reef 75ml a day.

In December I signed up for Tritons 12 month water test subscription, just got results of my second test, for my tank this is $109 a month and they send a test and w/e trace elements your tank needs. I am liking it so far, we'll see how it all looks at the 6 month mark in March!

 

[Patrick Cox]

I run GFO in a xl fluidized reactor made by Lifeguard Aquatic. 350g system, I put 600g of GFO dropped my phos from .5 to .15, I need to add 700g next time I swap it out. Targeting a .05 to .08 po4 standard.

I did use Lanthanum Chloride but it is not as effective as a GFO reactor from my experience.

I also dose about 2700ml KALK daily, 34ml Vodka carbon and All4Reef 75ml a day.

In December I signed up for Tritons 12 month water test subscription, just got results of my second test, for my tank this is $109 a month and they send a test and w/e trace elements your tank needs. I am liking it so far, we'll see how it all looks at the 6 month mark in March!

Thanks. I may try some GFO. I will also look into the Triton subscription. I have both Triton auto testers. I just started dosing Kalk as well. I am dosing 900ml per day right now. 150 gallon system. My evaporation is about 2000-2500ml per day. My plan is to keep increasing the Kalk to cover evaporation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks. I may try some GFO. I will also look into the Triton subscription. I have both Triton auto testers. I just started dosing Kalk as well. I am dosing 900ml per day right now. 150 gallon system. My evaporation is about 2000-2500ml per day. My plan is to keep increasing the Kalk to cover evaporation.

If you do try to reduce phosphate with a binder, go slow. More people cause problems dropping too fast than have issues to start with.

 

[X-37B]

What are your target #'s for no3 and po4?
My 150 today runs:
No3 25
po4 .2
I adjust po4 down to.1 with p-minus using 50% of the recommended amount.
Go slow.
Po4 range is .1-.2.
No3 I like <10.
With the current levels above, the system looks no different than than my old range of,
Po4<.1
No3<5

I am now dosing vodka to bring no3 down to <20>10.

I only do 5%, 7.5g's a month for WC.

 

[Patrick Cox]

What are your target #'s for no3 and po4?
My 150 today runs:
No3 25
po4 .2
I adjust po4 down to.1 with p-minus using 50% of the recommended amount.
Go slow.
Po4 range is .1-.2.
No3 I like <10.
With the current levels above, the system looks no different than than my old range of,
Po4<.1
No3<5

I am now dosing vodka to bring no3 down to <20>10.

I only do 5%, 7.5g's a month for WC.

Nice looking corals!

And thanks for your reply. To be honest, I don't know that I have a target in mind at this point but I just felt like my levels were high. I think if I could cut my current levels in half I would feel better. I do know that many people run successful systems with high nutrients. I don't feel the need to go crazy trying to keep certain low numbers so I will take whatever I do slow.

Thanks!