My acans and favia and "easy" SPS frags all died a slow death over the last few months...Duncan and hammer coral and gsp doing ok but slow growth. I am attributing this to an imbalance of "high" nitrates (10-25 using Salifert) vs 0 Phosphate (using ULR Hannah checker).
My nitrates used to be <5ish when the Acans were doing fine (new heads and good extension). I am not sure what caused my system to stabilize at 25 and 0--I am thinking it was when I put a GFO/C reactor online when I started to see hair algae??
Even with no reactor now for 2 months, several water changes, vacuumed sand bed (and partial removal of sand), overflow cleaning, frequent filter sock changing, good skimming, clean sump, scrubbed rocks...I can not get my nitrates down. I have 7 fish in a 100 gallon DT/30 gallon sump with 70lbs rock and a large block of media pure. I feed 1 sheet of seaweed and about 1 cube frozen or 2 pinches of pellet/flake a day.
Lighting are 2 Kessils A360w's above a 4 ft tank running about 10 hrs with max at 45%. Calcium is 450 and alk 8.2 and Mg 1300ish with temp 79-80F and salinity 1.025. I don't dose anything supplements.
I ordered a bottle of NO-POX to bring the nitrates down with the thinking that I should get my tank balanced and stable before I order more coral in a couple of months.
Any thoughts on this approach? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
My nitrates used to be <5ish when the Acans were doing fine (new heads and good extension). I am not sure what caused my system to stabilize at 25 and 0--I am thinking it was when I put a GFO/C reactor online when I started to see hair algae??
Even with no reactor now for 2 months, several water changes, vacuumed sand bed (and partial removal of sand), overflow cleaning, frequent filter sock changing, good skimming, clean sump, scrubbed rocks...I can not get my nitrates down. I have 7 fish in a 100 gallon DT/30 gallon sump with 70lbs rock and a large block of media pure. I feed 1 sheet of seaweed and about 1 cube frozen or 2 pinches of pellet/flake a day.
Lighting are 2 Kessils A360w's above a 4 ft tank running about 10 hrs with max at 45%. Calcium is 450 and alk 8.2 and Mg 1300ish with temp 79-80F and salinity 1.025. I don't dose anything supplements.
I ordered a bottle of NO-POX to bring the nitrates down with the thinking that I should get my tank balanced and stable before I order more coral in a couple of months.
Any thoughts on this approach? Am I barking up the wrong tree?